wretched-of-the-earth-frantz-fanon

L.......-~..." ..._22 THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTHON VIOLENCE23freedom from hunger, and the countless declarations of the principle"one man, one vote." The nationalist political parties neverinsist on the need for confrontation precisely because their aimis not the radical overthrow of the system. Pacifist and lawabiding,partisans, in fact, of order, the new order, these politicalgroups bluntly ask of the colonialist bourgeoisie what to themis essential: "Give us more power." On the specific issue of violence,the elite are ambiguous. They are violent in their wordsand reformist in their attitudes. While the bourgeois nationalistpolitical leaders say one thing, they make it quite clear it is notwhat they are really thinking.This characteristic of the nationalist political parties must beattributed to the nature oftheir leaders and their supporters. Thesupporters ofthe nationalist parties are urban voters. These workers,elementary school teachers, small tradesmen, and shopkeeperswho have begun to profit from the colonial situation - in apitiful sort of way of course-have their own interests in mind.What these supporters are demanding is a better life and improvedwages. The dialogue between these political parties andcolonialism has continued uninterrupted. Discussions focus onimprovements, electoral representation, freedom of the press,and freedom of association. Reforms are discussed. It shouldcome as no surprise therefore that a good many colonial subjectsare active members in branches of metropolitan political parties.These colonial subjects are militant activists under the abstractslogan: "Power to the proletariat," forgetting that in theirpart ofthe world slogans ofnational liberation should come first.The colonized intellectual has invested his aggression in hisbarely veiled wish to be assimilated to the colonizer's world. Hehas placed his aggression at the service of his own interests, hisinterests as an individual. The result is the ready emergence of akind of class of individually liberated slaves, of freed slaves. Theintellectual calls for ways of freeing more and more slaves andways of organizing a genuine class of the emancipated. Themasses, however, have no intention oflooking on as the chancesof individual success improve. What they demand is not the statusof the colonist, but his place. In their immense majority thecolonized want the colonist's farm. There is no question for themof competing with the colonist. They want to take his place.The peasantry is systematically left out of most of the nationalistparties' propaganda. But it is obvious that in colonial countriesonly the peasantry is revolutionary. It has nothing to lose and everythingto gain. The underprivileged and starving peasant is theexploited who very soon discovers that only violence pays. For himthere is no compromise, no possibility of concession. Colonizationor decolonization: it is simply a power struggle. The exploitedrealize that their liberation implies using every means available,and force is the first. When Monsieur Guy Mollet capitulated tothe French settlers in Algeria in 1956, the Front de la LiberationNationale (FLN) in a famous tract stated that colonialism onlyloosens its hold when the knife is at its throat. No Algerian reallythought these terms too violent. The tract merely expressed whatevery Algerian felt deep down: colonialism is not a machine capableof thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is naked violenceand only gives in when confronted with greater violence.At the critical, deciding moment the colonialist bourgeoisie,which had remained silent up till then, enters the fray. Theyintroduce a new notion, in actual fact a creation of the colonialsituation: nonviolence. In its raw state this nonviolence conveysto the colonized intellectual and business elite that their interestsare identical to those of the colonialist bourgeoisie and it istherefore indispensable, a matter of urgency, to reach an agreementfor the common good. Nonviolence is an attempt to settlethe ,colonial problem around the negotiating table before theirreparable is done, before any bloodshed or regrettable act iscommitted. But if the masses, without waiting for the chairs tobe placed around the negotiating table, take matters into their