Speaker Salah Goudjil: “May 8, 1945 Marked a Historic Shift Toward Armed Resistance Against Colonial France”

✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada

The Speaker of the Council of the Nation affirms that the massacres of Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata exposed the futility of peaceful protest and ignited the birth of Algeria’s armed liberation movement.

Algiers, Algeria | May 10th, 2025 — On the 80th anniversary of the May 8, 1945 massacres, Salah Goudjil, Speaker of Algeria’s Council of the Nation, delivered a poignant historical address, declaring that the atrocities committed by French colonial forces on that fateful day represented a defining rupture in Algeria’s anti-colonial struggle. It was, he asserted, “a decisive turning point that led to the choice of armed confrontation as the only path to freedom.”

Speaking during a special broadcast on Algerian National Radio, Goudjil emphasized that the brutal repression of peaceful Algerian demonstrators in Sétif, Guelma, and Kherrata exposed once and for all the colonial regime’s rejection of dialogue and its willingness to crush aspirations for independence with bloodshed.

“These massacres,” he stated, “generated a deep conviction that colonialism would not depart through negotiation or peaceful protest—it would only be expelled the way it arrived: by force.” For Goudjil, May 8, 1945 was not merely a tragic event; it was the moment Algerians collectively understood that liberation would require the organization and discipline of armed resistance.

He recalled the emergence of the Organisation Spéciale (OS) in 1947 as a direct response to the failure of political efforts. “From 1947, we began structuring the armed movement. The OS was born out of that necessity—preparing for the inevitable Day of Reckoning,” he affirmed.

The Speaker also paid tribute to revolutionary icon Mustapha Ben Boulaïd, who courageously defied decisions to suspend the OS after its dismantlement by colonial authorities in 1950. “Ben Boulaïd stood firm,” Goudjil declared. “He had men and weapons, especially in the Aurès mountains. He refused to abandon the armed path despite enormous pressure.”

Looking to the present, Goudjil voiced strong support for President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, lauding his leadership as an authentic extension of the values of 1st November 1954, the date marking the launch of Algeria’s War of Liberation. “President Tebboune ran as a free man—without partisan constraints. He said, ‘I open my arms to all; Algeria belongs to all its citizens,’” Goudjil noted, emphasizing the profound symbolism of holding the 2020 constitutional referendum on November 1st, a date forever etched in revolutionary memory.

In a deeply reflective conclusion, Goudjil called on the national education system and media to revive and transmit Algeria’s true historical narrative to the younger generations. He decried the obscurity into which many national heroes have fallen, mentioning in particular Si Mohamed Bouazza, a pioneer of armed resistance who was martyred in 1958.

“He was among the first to take up arms, and yet today, he is forgotten—even in his own region,” Goudjil lamented.

In his remarks, Speaker Salah Goudjil not only honored the memory of the victims of the May 8 massacres but also reaffirmed the necessity of preserving the spirit of national resistance—a spirit that shaped Algeria’s identity, informed its post-independence trajectory, and must continue to guide its future.

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