Physical Address
Indirizzo: Via Mario Greco 60, Buttigliera Alta, 10090, Torino, Italy
The outbreak of the armed struggle against the French occupier through the November 1 revolution was never a spontaneous, hasty act, nor a reaction limited in time and space. It was above all a culmination of long struggles for independence, of a process of resistance on the military, cultural and social levels of an entire people, in all regions.
For historians, the meeting of the historic group of Six, on October 23, 1954 in Algiers, constituted a decisive turning point having initiated this armed revolution for the liberation from abject French colonialism, which resulted, seven and a half years later, in the recovery of independence and national sovereignty.
This historic group of Six, having brought together the heroes and leaders Mohamed Boudiaf, Larbi Ben M’hidi, Mustapha Ben Boulaïd, Krim Belkacem, Didouche Mourad and Rabah Bitat, believed in their cause and armed themselves with determination and loyalty. Visionaries, they were driven by the deep conviction that the hour of salvation had come and that the era of silence was over.
It was they who finally allowed the birth of the National Liberation Front, rejecting the unhealthy games of other political parties, their ideological procrastination and their hesitations. They are the ones who made it possible to announce the proclamation of the outbreak of the national struggle.
This proclamation will become, until today, an eternal message, a beacon and a reference in the pursuit of building the homeland. This historic proclamation, followed by popular mobilization, became a school of humanity and a unique model of perseverance for dignity, having inspired liberation movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Quickly, the message of the Group of Six resounded in the corridors of the United Nations, among the Non-Aligned and in the consciences of freedom-loving peoples around the world.
It is for all these reasons that Algeria remains faithful to the commemoration of this date. Because it is an exceptional moment of communion and homage to the millions of martyrs who have sacrificed themselves, since June 1830, for our freedom, our values and our faith.
A message to extremist currents in France
For all generations, celebrating this date is more than a symbol, it is a lesson in national pride, meditation, memory and above all belonging to a nation which rose up against the colonial yoke. Today, for Algerian youth, this date is a catalyst for renewal, communion and a cement around its national identity and its thousand-year-old history.
This year’s commemoration in Algeria comes at a time when in France, the former colonial power, extremist and xenophobic currents are developing a violent, relentless discourse, praising colonization, and denying crimes, tragedies, destruction, disappearances, forced exiles as well as spoliations and expropriations. We persist in rejecting the barbarity of a century and a half, the abominable policies and the systematic impoverishment of an entire people, sacrificed for the interests of the colonial Empire, its bourgeoisie, its settlers brought in en masse and other emigrants who have become “pieds noirs”.
The Algerian people suffered a real ethnic cleansing, victim of a genocidal policy, suffering incredible atrocities to empty their territory and abandon their ancestral lands, in order to facilitate the installation of these “Europeans” in search of new resources and new wealth.
This is why the celebration of this date takes on a special character: to show the sacrifices of our martyrs, but also to recall the crimes against humanity committed by the French armies. It also shows an umbilical attachment to this collective memory of Algerians, which is impossible to renounce.