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Published on
Jan 5, 2025 at 9:39 a.m.
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First victim ofSecret Army Organization (OAS) in France, Alfred Locussol, a communist activist committed to the independence of Algeria, was killed in Alençon (Orne) January 3, 1962. Employed in the civil service, he then held the position of Director of Registration. His assassination, at his home on Avenue Wilson, was ordered from Algeria.
“Say no to fascism, no to colonialism”
“The assassins convicted of this murder were quickly amnestied and this crime was, for years, almost forgotten. Fortunately, the vigilant memory of a few made it possible to emerge from this oblivion. For more than 10 years, we have been meeting here, at the beginning of January, to say no to fascism, no to colonialism, no to barbarism and to do justice to the memory of a man committed to this cause,” declared Simone Bushel in the name of the Human Rights League at the time of the tribute to Alfred Locussol, Saturday January 4, 2025, in front of the stele erected in his memory on the Resistantes square in the extension of Avenue Wilson where he was killed 63 years earlier.
“Paying tribute to Alfred Locussol at the start of 2025 is to honor his memory but also to continue a fight which was his and which proves vital today, with the rise of the forces which had armed and paid his assassins in 1962 We even heard Bruno Retailleau, now minister, talk about “the heyday of colonization”! Let us not forget that the OAS was a flagship, like racism and hatred, which continue,” warned Pierre Frénée, communist activist.
“It was a conscience”
“Locussol was one of those who fought before others for justice, freedom, peace, friendship between peoples. Everything we discovered about his past, from his engagements in 1936 with Albert Camus in Algiers, until that fatal January 2, 1962, three days before the Evian Accords which ended the Algerian War, n “only underlined its human value: it was a conscience”, continued the former municipal elected official at the age of 91 while associating Jean-François Gavoury with the tribute.
“His father was assassinated by the OAS in Algiers a few months before Locussol and had provided us with valuable assistance until 2023.” But also “the memory of the six members of the social centers murdered at Château Royal, three days before the Evian agreements, that of Alban Liechti, soldier of the refusal in 1956 against the Algerian war, died last March and including Alain Ruscio wrote “that he entered History through the front door”. The same can be said of Locussol but he paid for it with his life.”
“Forgetting is a political tool”
Jean-Philippe Aoudia, the president of the Association of Friends of Max Merchant and Mouloud Feraoun, attended this tribute and regretted that to date, there had “only been one official intervention out of 26 in favor of the victims of the OAS” by the President of the Republic: “the tribute paid on March 19, 2022 to the six leaders of educational social centers massacred on March 15, 1962 in Algiers. The Nation's recognition of the victims of the OAS stopped there. To date, all the other victims of the OAS, numbering 2,545, (minus the six) are “forgotten”. This “forgetting” constitutes an attack on the dignity of the victims, some having been the last defense of the Republic against terrorists.”
-However, according to Jean-Philippe Aoudia, “forgetting is a political tool, it is the opposite of commemoration. It aims to keep in darkness that which could harm your personal designs.” And to conclude his remarks by quoting a writing by Emmanuel Macron according to which “the victims attach an immense price to the fact that forgetting does not erase the memory of the tragedies they experienced […] We must oppose […] to the deadly force of forgetting […]»
“Honor the foundations of democracy”
Also present at this tribute, Joaquim Pueyo, the socialist mayor of Alençon insisted on “the fundamental role” of the duty of memory “for our collective and civic conscience”. “It is our role to carry out these actions of remembrance in order to honor the foundations of our democracy. This is why we erected this stele in 2012.”
The mayor called for people to come together “around the values of the Republic, democracy, fraternity, freedom, solidarity and peace. We must fight together so that, everywhere in the world, dialogue is the path taken, even if it is more difficult than that of violence.”
“Create opinion relays”
Chantal Jourdan, socialist deputy for Orne, expressed her gratitude to the volunteers of these associations “who work to not forget these crimes and make us aware of the threats weighing throughout the world”.
The parliamentarian pointed to “the resurgence of populist parties, far-right parties, and authoritarianism” before urging “not to give up!” » but also “to denounce what the ideology of the extreme right is”.
The MP confided “working in a group, currently in the National Assembly, on the rise of the far-right vote in rural areas” and concluded to “strengthen our efforts by now creating relays of opinions at all levels. This is what the communists did in particular by being as close as possible to the popular forces. We need to come back to it. We know our compass: the values of the Republic, we must embody them, it is urgent! »
“Illuminate the present”
François Tollot concluded this tribute by emphasizing that “the strength of History is to illuminate the present” not without mentioning that “the political arc which supported the colonization of Algeria is the same as that which supports the colonization of Palestine” before inviting the assembly to a conference on this subject in Alençon on January 21.
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