The F.L.N. ruled rural villagers through terror rather than promises

Evidence

As far as the uncommitted mass of rural Muslims was concerned, Soustelle notes the extreme susceptibility to pressure and blackmail of the average poverty-stricken fellah to an F.L.N. band, when, “with the knife literally under his throat they make him hand over 50,000 francs, they hurt him much more than the better off farmer who has had a tractor burnt worth two million francs”. It was remarkable, added Soustelle, that the F.L.N. “never sought to attach the rural populations to their cause by promising them a better life, a happier and freer future; no, it was through terror that they submitted them to their tyranny”. Visiting Kabylia in 1956, Jean Servier was shocked at the “terrible silence” he found in the villages, each one of which would be held in fee by a local F.L.N. representative responsible simply for collecting “taxes” and food supplies—a kind of “alternative government” to the French system of caids. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 415

Categorization

• XREF: The F.L.N. tax-and-terror ‘alternative government’ parallels other insurgent shadow-states (e.g. Viet Cong tax in village, later Abu Sayyaf/ISIS taxation models).

Related

• The F.L.N. terrorized collaborators and issued edicts to cripple settler economic interests. (similarity 0.79)