 The Istiqlal Party's presented the Proclamation of the Independence of Morocco January 11, 1944.In this document, the nationalist party allied itself with the symbolic figure of Sultan Muhammad V. The proclamation was met with hostility from the French colonial authorities; Ahmed Balafrej, Lyazidi, and 18 others were arrested, and a wave of protests took place in cities throughout the country.In the days leading up to the sultan's speech, French colonial forces in Casablanca, specifically Senegalese Tirailleurs serving the French colonial empire, carried out a massacre of working class Moroccans.