摘要：That the Left, inside as well as outside Algeria, has been marginal to events there since the Algerian state went into flux in the riots of October 1988 may be thought to absolve it of responsibility for what has happened. The catastrophe which has overtaken the country, the undoing of the principal achievements of Algerian independence between 1962 and 1978, the brutalization of the state society relationship, the colossal toll in human lives, the subversion of the national identity, the erosion of the fabric of national society, the liquidation of much of the country's enormous investment in human capital, the destruction of much of Algeria's already sparse forest cover in the course of the army's counter-insurgency operations, the surrender of the substance of sovereignty in the spheres of defence and foreign affairs as well as economic policy--all this and more can certainly be laid at the door of the policies which have been followed by the Algerian authorities, and these policies have been those of the Right at home and abroad. But the Left can derive no comfort from this fact unless it develops the capacity to challenge these policies with a progressive alternative. And it cannot begin to do this until it recognizes its complicity in the disastrous policies which have been followed. The complacent attitude of the Western Left, and its abdication--by delegation to the French--of its responsibilities in this matter, have contributed to the fact that the Algerian drama remains unresolved and is still killing people.
