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FRENCH IMPERIALISM                                  
CHARLOT

It was in 1968 that the Algerian government decided on an embargo on ERAP exports. In February 1971 it nationalized fifty-one percent of the shares in the French societies ERAP and CFP (French Petrol Company). Commenting on these measures, President Boumedienne declared that ". . . in our opinion, cooperation should be based on mutual advantage and equal rights and not on exploitation. The French government's answer was the following: since you have taken the oil, we cannot cooperate with you any more. This means that this cooperation was founded upon oil, where there were vast profits . . ." (speech on May 1, 1971). By means of these measures Algeria ensured its control over the production, exploitation, prospecting, investments, transport and commercialization of oil and gas. This battle which was decisive for Algeria's independence and industrialization, was very hard. The French companies put an embargo on Algerian oil. They called on foreign companies to boycott it too. Algeria had to reduce its production and abolish imports. One of the striking aspects of French government policy in 1971 was to support the cartel of the great international companies, supported by the big imperialist states, to fight against the organization of petrol exporting countries. That shows the true limits of France's independent oil policy within the framework of today's imperialist system.

Africa
Beaten in Indochina, involved in the Algerian war, French imperialism was not in a position to oppose the growing desire for independence in black Africa and Madagascar. The French government gave a certain amount of autonomy in 1956. When De Gaulle came to power in 1958, a referendum suggested founding a "Community," which was immediately weakened by Guinea's policy of independence. These were the conditions in operation in 1960 when the independence of various states was announced. This was accompanied by treaties or agreements of so-called "cooperation" between France and each of the new States. It was thanks to these agreements that French troops intervened in Gabon to maintain Leon M'Ba in power contrary to the wish of the people, and that they are still intervening today in Chad. These agreements are a function of the conditions in which the negotiations were carried out. For Senegal, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Gabon and Chad, signing of the agreements was a precondition to the transfer of office which independence implied. They include political clauses concerning de-

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