Journals

Journal RDM

The publication of a magazine marked a significant step for the RDM in its efforts to raise awareness among Moroccan workers in Belgium. Launched as an experimental "zero" issue in 1977, the magazine published its first issue in February 1978. These quarterly publications continued until May 1981. According to MH, the magazine was printed in Charleroi, using a press acquired by the RDM. A look at issue no. 4 from December 1978 is particularly revealing, illustrating a period when the magazine had reached cruising speed. The journal, which was bilingual in French and Arabic, used a "Marxist" vocabulary which, although slightly out of date, reflected the times and was not exclusive to the RDM. The "literacy" section was written in Moroccan dialect Arabic, with large, vocalised characters. For example, the readers' section relayed the complaints of a Moroccan woman about the rising prices of basic necessities such as sugar. The women's section described the hard day's work of a Moroccan woman in the countryside. The cultural section announced the play "Once upon a time" on the history of Morocco. The RDM reported on the creation of a École de l'Avenir in Schaerbeek and celebrated its four years of existence with a call for a popular festival. The magazine also promoted a UNEM festival. Drawings, caricatures and poems, such as a poem in memory of F. Mellah and Ahmed Fouad Nejm's last poem "Le fugitif", enriched the magazine. One of the outstanding features of the RDM's magazine was its international dimension: it supported the self-determination of the Palestinian people and the creation of a secular state in Palestine, and expressed its support for the Egyptian people against the "reactionaries", with a caricature of Sadat as an illustration.