Peter Sedgwick

Colonial Sequelæ

(Winter 1964-65)


Peter Sedgwick, Colonial Sequelæ, International Socialism (1st series), No.19, Winter 1964-65, p.31. (review)
Transcribed by Ted Crawford.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.


L’Algerie est-elle socialiste?, Gerard Chaliand, Paris, Maspero, 8.90 fr.

Legacy of Strife, Charles Foley, Penguin Special, 3s 6d.

Gerard Chaliand was an FLN militant and later editor-in-charge of Revolution Africaine, the Left-wing journal that has sought to influence the Ben Bella regime from within. In this brief essay, he reports on the evolution and present balance of social forces in Algeria, stressing the weakness of any consistently radical pressures, and the absence of any coherent revolutionary leadership with a genuine social base. The final note is one of qualified pessimism, inclining towards it state-capitalist prognosis, and at all events offers a corrective to the tone of euphoria that afflicts much Socialist writing on this subject Although sketchy, the historical outline contains some interesting glimpses from an ex-insider.

Charles Foley’s Penguin on Cyprus is a trenchant journalist’s account of ‘the troubles’ there, from a liberal, pro-Greek standpoint. The inescapable apparatus of colonial repression in a hostile territory, complete with ‘Her Majesty’s Torturers’, is documented afresh; one wonders how Foley could have worked as Foreign Editor to the Daily Express for thirteen years before moving to Cyprus. The final chapters deal with the present communal rivalries; this section is short on reportage and pretty heavy on diplomacy, arguing for a ‘Western’ solution involving Enosis for the Greeks and assisted emigration for the Turks One of the best political Penguins of recent years.

Peter Sedgwick

 


Last updated on 20.8.2007