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Colonialism is a System* 11
precisely one of outlets … Where there is political predominance, there is also
predominance in products, economic predominance.
So you see, it was not Lenin who first defined colonial imperialism; it was Jules Ferry,
that ‘great figure’ of the Third Republic.
And you also see that this minister is in agreement with the fellagha 2 of 1956: he
proclaimed ‘politics first!’ which they were to take up against the colonists three-quarters
of a century later.
First of all overcome resistance, smash the framework, subdue, terrorize. Only then will
the economic system be put in place.
And what does this consist of? The creation of industries in the conquered country? Not
at all; the capital with which France ‘is awash’ will not be invested in under-developed
countries; the returns would be uncertain, the profits would be too long in coming;
everything would have to be built, equipped. And, even if that could be done, what would
be the point in creating competition for production in France? Ferry is very clear: capital
will not leave France, it will simply be invested in new industries which will sell their
manufactured products to the colonized country. The immediate result
2 Freedom fighter, member of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN).
was the establishment of the Customs Union (1884). This Union still exists: it ensures that
France’s industry, handicapped in the international market by prices that are too high, has
a monopoly over the Algerian market.
But to whom then did this new industry expect to sell its products? The Algerians?
Impossible: where would they have got the money from to pay? The concomitant of this
colonial imperialism is that spending power has to be created in the colonies. And, of
course, it is the colonists who will benefit from all the advantages and who will be turned
into potential buyers. The colonist is above all an artificial consumer, created overseas
from nothing by a capitalism which is seeking new markets.
As early as 1900, Peyerimhoff stressed this new feature of ‘official’ colonization:
‘Directly or not, the property of the colonist has come to him gratis from the State or he
has seen concessions granted around him on a daily basis. Before his eyes the government
has made sacrifices for individual interests considerably greater than those it would
consent to in older fully developed countries.’
Here the second side of the colonial diptych appears clearly: in order to be a buyer, the
colonist must be a seller. To whom will he sell? To the people of mainland France. And
what can he sell without an industry? Food products and raw materials. This time, under
the aegis of Minister Ferry and the theoretician Leroy-Beaulieu, colonial status is
established.
And what are the ‘sacrifices’ that the State makes to the colonist, to this man, the
darling of gods and exporters? The answer is simple: it sacrifices the property of the
Muslims to him.
Because it so happens that, in fact, the natural produce of the colonized country grows
on the land and that this land belongs to the ‘indigenous’ population. In certain thinly
populated regions, with large uncultivated areas, the theft of land is less apparent: what