MOROCCO:MOROCCAN ANARCHISM: ANARCHISME MAROCAINE:INTRODUCING THE BLOG OF FILLALI BRAHIM:Fillali Brahim is a Moroccan anarchist who has been attempting to establish an anarchist presence in his country for several years. He is the publisher of the journal 'Ici et Maintenant' (Here and Now-Molly) and has also attempted to set up an infoshop in his home city. Because of all this he has been the recipient of consistent government repression. His efforts have been the subject of a solidarity campaign on the part of the Spanish CGT, the largest anarcho-syndicalist union in the world.Despite the fact that we have never met
Fillali he still seems like an old friend to Molly. Hence I am happy to
announce his latest effort, his blog
Fibra-Over Blog, which contains all his writings and those yet to come. Welcome to the
blogosphere Fillali. The blog is bilingual in French and Arabic. There is a translation button on the bottom for English, but it doesn't seem to work too well. A sample of his work follows the French version of this intro.
Anarchisme marocainePrésentant le blog de Brahim FillaliBrahim Fillali est
un anarchiste morocaine qui a
été la tentative
d'établir une présence anarchiste dans son pays pendant
plusieurs années.
Il est
l'éditeur du journal «
Ici et maintenant»
et a
également tenté de mettre en place
un infoshop dans sa ville
natale. En
raison de tout
cela,
il a
été récipiendaire de la
répression gouvernementale constante Ses efforts
ont fait l'objet d'un campagne de solidarité de la part
de la
CGT espagnole,
le plus grand
syndicat anarcho-
syndicaliste dans le monde.
Malgré le fait que nous
n'avons jamais rencontré Fillali il semble un vieil ami de Molly.
C'est pourquoi je suis heureux d'annoncer son
dernier effort, son blog
Fibra-Over Blog,
qui contient tous ses écrits et ceux encore à
venir.
Bienvenue dans la
blogosphère Fillali. Le blog est
bilingue en
français et en
arabe.
.....................................
On Precolonial Morocco. Morocco non-capitalist and not precapitaliste:I wish to stress this point because the prefix does not mean the same thing. If we said not capitalist, it is assumed that there is an alternative mode of production wherein capitalism and other possibilities that are open to the future of society.
History is not linear, no societies are sentenced to spend their historical development via Capitalism. Within the framework of autonomy and independence, each of them can create an autonomous social organization on its own and his own mode of Production, and so on. Capitalism is not the only system with a way of invasion, expansion and colonialism. It is different from other forms of colonialism, however, because of the levels of development that the productive forces have reached in advanced capitalism, reflecting the experience and success of science. But it is the only mode production tends to be globalized. With slavery, feudalism, the mode of Asian production and many others we could not talk about Globalization or globalisation ...
However, the qualifier
precapitalist refers to capitalism as the
determining mode because earlier modes that will necessarily become capitalist. In others terms it is not possible to avoid the historic passage through capitalism. This is wrong wrong and justifies imperialism, globalization and globalization. What is the strategy of capitalism? It is the generalization of capitalism in all aspects of social life throughout the entire globe. Can we reach this stage? Is that generalisation of the capitalist mode of production possible? Will capitalist culture totally and completely destroy other cultures that still exist within society, until we arrive at identical societies ? Can we Speak with a unified global identity, unique and homogeneous? Can you reduce all human and social experiences to a single experience model and predetermined route? Capitalism, is it an inevitable destiny? What capitalism can never realize it that
it has to end because of the creativity and the development of human intelligence. Capitalism, by contrast, creates the mechanisms and means of its own destruction; by its nature being unequal, repressive, authoritarian and racist. While we can not prohibit people to reflect and think differently, Capitalism will never be highest stage , the termination of human civilization.
Is this identity is stagnant and unchangeable? What Identity? Questions and issues to arise, but we must stop to answer some of them.
THE MAKHZEN, and ZAWIA THE TRIBE. What relationship? This trinity was a very complex relationship which call on colonization to settle its affairs.
Morocco in the 19
th century, and even before the colonial penetration, was not governed under a central government
existing in the entire geographical area of the country.
The
makhzenis that part which occupies part of the area, especially the most important part, in the country that France calls USEFUL MOROCCO in
opposition to USELESS MOROCCO . This expression condenses the meaning of the whole Imperialist project. Utility goes back to a value that Morocco has . What it is useful here and not useful there?
It's not like they say; "capitalism is a mission of
civilization". It is a productive mode of operation, enslavement, violence, contempt, racism, inequality and repression ...
I said that the
Makhzen (central government) could not be generalized throughout the society. Politically the tribes did not recognize the Sultan (King), they were not under his government. They were rebels against the State of
Makhzen, They founded their own organisations. Example: the tribe of
AIT,
ATTA extending through Southern Morocco (
Lamhamid to
Benimellal) through to the Atlas mountains. Those in the south call themselves
N'tafouit Atta (from the sun that is to - say the S
ahara), and those of Atlas region
N'oumalou Atta (from the shadows
ie from the west). This tribe is organized by a federalist logic , but the federation of
Ait Atta is based on ethnicity:those entrusted with responsibility in the organs of the federation belong to one of the parts of the tribe. They are divided into five fractions or extended families
... She ( the tribe) has never heard of either State or parliament or political party or trade union or anything It, it is a tribe that occupies a large geographical space . Regions close to each other organized by a federation (But the tribe has the same design of organization: federalism). Take the example of
Bougafer federation, comprising the
Ait Atta Saghro, near
Tinghir, then
M'semrir,
Boumalne Dades, and
Zagora Lamhamid.
In every village there are quarters (
Ighreman), each neighbourhood (
Ighram) according to custom is called each year to mandate individuals according to their belonging to a fraction of the tribe. That's the criterion that expresses ethnicity of the organization. The mandate groups together to form a committee Of the district which joins with other committees and other districts to form the general village committee. This will ,in turn, appoint a working committee and mandates to be met.
Amghar n'ighf n'ousgass (The secretary-general - if we can call it that) is elected at the end of each year by representation from the village The federation along with other mandated groups within the village committee, represents the village to other tribes (inter wars are getting Trigger). Members of the federation are all mandated to one year, Each member that does not respect the mandate is immediately relieved of his responsibility, rejected by the organs of the federation. In addition to the
disavowal of the State they recognize the sultan as a religious but not a political authority. Thus impelled the
Makhzen to create institutions that will give middle and long term normalization between the
Makhzen and the tribes. This is the
Zawia Institution. It is called
LAAZIB, land / property
Zawia , it is designated by the sultan.
Cherif the head of
Zawia, represents the Sultan as religious power.
Zawia's role is to disseminate Islamic Ideology, permanently put Islam in daily life, gradually breaking customs and devising by religion another form of social organization. It is religion, which serves as a means of destruction of a culture by another, and being the means of cultural and political domination, and so on.
Despite all this is not the
Makhzen which has come to dominate the tribes as a central power .
At that time we are talking about two countries in one, that called the
Makhzen " Blade (
???-Molly)al makhzen= countries
makhzen ", the space occupied by the tribes is called "blade
siba".
Siba according to the
Makhzen is in a state of disorder and revolt. But tribes in the state of
siba are not in a world full of disorder. The existence of the federations is a concrete example, Real and historic meaning Morocco is a society of difference and diversity. It is the
Makhzen which tends by its Arab-Islamic ideology to destroy and eliminate the cultures that are different from it.
The siba is a concept that justifies domination. With the distribution of the world between the imperialist forces, it was intended that Morocco be occupied by France and Spain. It was colonialism that established boundaries between societies. It was colonialism that
had developed the logic of development of other countries. It established another view of historical process that was estranged from society. Colonialism partly destroyed cultures, disrupting them, to build a model of society that suits it to maintain
an order established at the international level. Everything was placed in the context of power relations.
The ethnology, anthropology, sociology ... Have played a very important role in Domination. It was a scientific mission in
Tangiers, chaired by
Bellaire Michaud and others, which dealt with the discovery of Moroccan society in order not fall into the same mistakes committed in Algeria. With this investigation and ... made on the
Makhzen tribes, etc.,driven by a strategy of domination with a minimum of rifles and a maximum of scientific research. That's how scientific research serves as f
acilitatator of colonial penetration. Know the country and after that occupation authority and domination. That is why I say that the issues of colonial sociology are not scientific; they are ideological, asking for a response or Solution or a predetermined strategy . In this sense the questions don't
present a discovery, but justify a response, a reality. Returning to the nature of Moroccan society in the 19
th century and the beginning of 20
th, within the tribe the means of production are collective,but there is also alongside this private property. All the families of the tribes hold fields, herds ... but there are no employees. No employees in the tribe. People grow, harvest, work together to turn their fields via their roles. If there are six people, there is an agreement by custom to work any field
cooperatively that we belong to the six people. Without the money, without anyone being paid, no salary, because they are farmers / producers who free unite freely. No exploitation of others. We work our fields. In the tribal collective the criteria are strong. There is the custom, the spirit of the customary acts and practice on a daily basis. The history of
Imazighnes is broken and deflected by the Arab-Muslims and the West afterwards.
To draw a comparison between Berber federalism and anarchist federalism , I can say that the first one comes out of a tribal society and is based on the ethnic factor and
localism , and a subsistence economy alongside
nomadism. This federalism works in a society without schools. No school before, the
fkih(
???-I am unable to translate-Molly"filth" ? ) after that fills the teaching profession ... The federalist society has attached to it a culture of oral, unwritten memory.A culture of ear and eye, customs rather than the law. This allows us to say that the F.AT. is simply, implemented in a society of primary relations in the the family. A patriarchal society, in which the Mythology and religion dominate the cultural field. This is what characterizes agricultural and semi-nomadic societies. This is
Federalism local or regional and not international. It is not an achievement of a societal project, it can not be In its development it cannot exceed the ceiling of the tribe, its limits. It's a Tribal federalism in an agricultural and semi-n
omadic society . It is simple social organization, but equally there is the mutual aid and non-exploitation, Customs, not mandates laws and elections ... the tribe has not "enjoyed" police nor prison, neither police nor all those other forms of repression. Its federalism ensured that the society was neither militaristic nor autocratic. I raised this issue of the federation to say that federalism as a conception of social organization is not strange to Moroccan society-despite Its nature -.
If we take two concepts - anarchist federalism and liberal democracy - and try to explain them to a
Amazigh, it is easy to understand the AF but difficult with liberal democracy because in his history he practiced some sort of federalism, and he is his culture close to the federalist logic. Even the elections are designed in a tribal logic; if we vote for X, it's not because he is part of a political party which adopts an ideology and political program, but because he is of the family, the village or the tribe. What remains - ideology, policy - is not interesting.
We are unable to understand politics in Morocco without calling on social science . The political party has played the same role that authority has played: Destruction of the tribal logic. The political party is an alien mechanism to
Makhzedn structure of the tribe . The political party has done what the bottle of Coca-Cola has done to a tribe in Africa, which has never seen such a bottle. It has torn apart the tribe. When we talk informally about social structure, that's it. How tribal mentality includes designs and practical politics?
From self-management, direct action to the elections, the group, unity, the federation, the political party,the trade union,the association and the state. Let me say that the problem of anarchism in Morocco does not depend on its Western origins as a foreign import, that of the "other". The other is no longer a psychological problem - unless you want to disguise the logic of things - because it is ubiquitous, it is part of our identity. Then why refuse technology and the values that accompany it? There has been talk of the federalism of the tribe in the 19
th century and the beginning of 20
th. Now things have changed, but the past still weighs heavily on us. This is because it is still recent, and the system has not made a break and transition in history. It is not a system in itself, there is in connection with the capitalist system that has created a relationship of dependency is structural, drawn between societies. So the tribe in this general social crisis due to dependence, feels always a nostalgia for the past. Muslims belong to the past, but this is blocked. Even the left refers to a past. Everyone in this society is not in the present. Normally it is the present that exists because the past is compared to a present and the future is referring to a present. It is always this determined one thing that has passed, or what is to come. This is not the past that determines the present and the future. It was
Détérminé not
détérminant(Molly has left the language here as it was rather than try and translate it as "determined' and "determining" because she suspects that she is incapable of rendering these terms in proper English. I may get the "gist' of this or I may not. I try not to translate philosophy. Thus I ask the reader to take this latter paragraph as perhaps inaccurate.). The past can not answer questions which were unknown and not asked. It is the future who will answer your questions, not the present nor the past, and this future is not without history it is the result of the accumulation of human civilization.
The future includes past and present, this is an overtaking, and a break at the same time the destruction and reconstruction concurrently. The past is blocking and tampering with the present. But the present is will contribute each time to the future and replace it If not, the past will dominate all time.
What I mean is that the solution is neither in the tribe or religion or in a past experience, but in a society different from all other than man has known and which surpasses them.
Brahim Fillali.
(The text was written in March 2004 and published in Morocco on October 11, 2005)
...........................................
Molly swears to think five times before ever attempting to translate something from French that contains "philosophy" again. Big headache. The French original is available at Fillali's blog et j'encourage mes lecteurs de visiter ce blogue. I hope that others can give better translations of the more obscure parts than I can. What I would like to add here is that our comrade makes a very salient point, that anarchism is NOT merely a concept of western philosophy but is ALSO a embedded reality in many pre-colonial msocieties across the world. Anarchy is "possible" because it has existed, and what exists is, by definition, possible. Our comrade also does not engage in guilt mongering and looking backwards, as too many North American anarchists do. Rather he looks
forward , building on the traditions of his society but recognizing their limitations and
not worshipping them.. His attitude is valuable if only for that. Keep on struggling Fillali.
