On November 6, 1975 in what is known as the Green March, 350,00 Moroccans peacefully protested in southern Morocco to demand that the Spanish government handover the Spanish Sahara to Morocco – reinforcing the notion that peaceful resistance is more effective than other alternatives.
Thirty-five years later this week and some sectors of the Spanish press and mainly left-leaning activists still have a strange passion for intervening in the region. As I have mentioned in previous posts – regardless of where one may stand on the independence of Western Sahara – it is strange that the Spanish left would take such an active position in favor of the Algerian and Libyan financed Frente Polisario considering that Spanish intrigue continues to have strong imperialistic overtones for the Moroccan people.
For an example of how the Moroccans see the liberation from Spanish colonialism – done through peaceful protest – as a proud and heroic moment of the triumph of the People against the Imperialists, check out the above video of the song “Laayoune Iniya” from the early 70s by Jil Jilala, a group that pioneered a new generation of grass roots folk musicians widely popular at the time amongst European and American granola hipsters. The song, meaning “Laayoune, my eyes” (a play on words as the city name “Laayoune” is derived from the same root as the word “eyes” and “springs”) became the anthem for the Green March and the liberation of the last remaining vestiges of European colonialism in Morocco.
And yet here they are, the Spanish granola hipsters of today, thirty-five years later, coming off as the Spanish imperialists redux.
Grave Error 