(, ''The Work of the People'') was the first francophone newspaper published by the

Moroccan Nationalist Movement The Moroccan Nationalist Movement () was an Arab nationalist and Pan-Arabist political movement in Morocco that opposed the French protectorate. It was nominally led by the Moroccan sultan Mohammed bin Youssef. Most of its leaders were from th ...

in the area under the control of the

French Protectorate in Morocco The French protectorate in Morocco, also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco that lasted from 1912 to 1956. The protectorate was officially established 30 March 1912, when List of rulers of Morocco, Sultan ...

. As the French authorities would not allow a nationalist publication in Arabic, it was published in French. Its founder and editor was Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan al-Wazzaani. Its first issue was published in Fes on August 4, 1933, four months before the first Throne Day, which the newspaper promoted. It was edited by Khadija Diouri, wife of the nationalist leader .

History

Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan al-Wazzaani proposed the idea of publishing this newspaper to members of ''az-Zawiya'' (, from '' zawiya''), the leadership of the Covert Nationalist Organization (). Most members—particularly those who were associated with al-Qarawiyiin University and whom the aristocrats that funded the Moroccan Nationalist Movement held in high esteem—disagreed with the idea, objecting to the use of the French language. They believed it was necessary to speak to the people in their own language to inform them and mobilize them around the nationalist cause. Only a minority led by al-Wazzaani, who had studied in French, supported the use of the colonists' language to address the colonial apparatus in its own language, and influence French popular opinion, both in Morocco and in France. These were inspired by the experience of ''Maghreb'' (1932-1936), a publication associated with Robert-Jean Longuet and the

SFIO The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output. These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header . The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at ...

that gave the Moroccan Nationalist Movement a voice in Paris. al-Wazzaani also had experience helping Shakib Arslan with the publication of '' La Nation Arabe'', a francophone Pan-Islamist, Pan-Arabist newspaper published in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. The newspaper ''l'Action du Peuple'' was banned by the French colonial authorities only months after its first publication. December 1933, al-Wazzaani replaced it temporarily with an alternative called ''Volonté du Peuple'', which published 14 issues. When the court of appeals allowed the return of ''l'Action du Peuple'', al-Wazzaani brought it back. Among the journalists published in ''l'Action du Peuple'' were Ahmed Sefrioui and Omar Bin Abd al-Jaliil, the latter of whom covered the abuses of colonial agriculture''.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Action du Peuple, L' Defunct newspapers published in Morocco French Morocco Newspapers established in 1933 French-language newspapers published in Morocco