The chapter examines the processes by which the earliest nationalist guerrilla forces of the ALN (Armée de libération nationale) began to make contact with peasant society in the Chelif and to organize support among the local population. The process was made particularly difficult because of a virtual civil war between the Messalist forces of the MNA, and the newly created FLN, each competing to create a peasant base. The initial small, and poorly equipped forces of the FLN often faced hostility from the inhabitants, but through collective, night-time propaganda meetings they began to create a new autonomous assembly, the nizam. Instead of assassinating or driving away the caids, as has often been claimed, the FLN recruited where possible the existing fraction headmen and field guards. During the propaganda drive led by political commissars the FLN was careful to shape its rhetoric and message to the culture and beliefs of a conservative peasantry.
Night-Time Light Dynamics during the Iraqi Civil War
