(Resolution adopted by the International Secretariat of the Fourth International)
THE decisions adopted by the Ben Bella Government during the last few weeks, mark a decisive turn in the Social phase of the Algerian Revolution.
These measures, corresponding to the most profound leeds and aspirations of the masses, particularly hose of the poor peasants, represent a major ster forward of the Revolution, a severe blow to colonialist and neo-colonialist interests, an open attack against the strata of the Algerian national bourgeoisie itself, an enormous stimulus to the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses and growing consciousness of the active partisans of the process of socialist reconstruc
Also, the most advanced wing of the Algerian leadership has succeeded in carrying through the most daring and revolutionary solutions against the resistance of right-wing elements, subjected to pro-bourgeois and neo-colonialist pressures.
(2) The decisions of March are above all important because they lay bare clearly a series. of problems hitherto only partially revealed. They consolidate substantially the socialised sector vital to the development of the Algerian Revolution, securing thereby the preconditions for the subsequent widening of beyond even the remarkable progress achieved (notably through the decisive confiscations experienced by Algerians—as well as Europeans), limiting the possibilities for the growth priviledges and scope for manouver of colonialists.
old and new, together with their "national"
The fact that the Algerian government has already struck at the Algerian landowners and capitalists, and has proved its intention to advance along the path of radical agrarian reform by expropriating estates over a certain limit without consideration for the nationality of the landowners, is a significant confirmation of the scope, not only of the anti-imperialist but also the anti-capitalist orientation of
Algerian leadership.
From an economic point of view the Ben Bella decrees ratify the eclipse of the ascendancy of the large landowners and big bourgeoisie over a sector which already represents an important area of cultivated lands, in fact the most productive part, an area capable of playing a decisive pilot role.
The control of the State and the workers over these estates provides the guarantee that a considerable part of the effective, as well as the potential, economic surplus will be utilised for the development of production and in the interests of collectivisation. signifies that the preconditions have been specifically laid down to achieve a real solution to one of the crucial problems facing an underdeveloped country, a solution absolutely impossible not only-under the regime of imperialism but also under the management of the national bourgeoise as the experience of several other countries have shown. It is necessary at the same time to underline the important fact that the collectives also dispose of control of certain sectors, for the time being limited, of industry and the marketing of agricultural products.
On the other hand the confiscations of cinemas and hotels in the major Algerian towns, the political and social Significance of which is absolutely clear, proves
Itsell to be a very valuable measure, above all in the sense that it stifles in embryo the potential germs of an indegenous bourgeoise which would have been able to crystallise itself at first in areas such as these and then extend its power to other sectors, economically more decisive.
, The decrees on the abandoned properties, the new expropriations, confiscation of. cinemas and hotels as well as the measures seeking to emancipate certain groups and categories among the most disinherited (for example those connected with the shoeshine boys) by their very nature stimulated a vast mobilisation of the masses.. The mobilisation was realised on a scale the Algerian Revolution had never known before, especially because of this, that the Ben Bellist leadership had shown itself willing to stake everything on the initiative and the conscious participation of the masses by adopting the major decree on the self-management of industrial enterprises and the farming of abandoned agricultural
The Algerian Revolution has also linked itself. to the best traditions of worker and peasant democracy and will play a vanguard role in those matters which concern the elaboration of and experimentation with advanced forms of revolutionary and democratic management during the period of transition from capitalism to socialism. Revolutionary Marxists do not ignore the difficulties inherent in such experiences. (low level of development of the forces, insufficient cultural level of the masses), they do not ignore that the Algerian form of self- management depends for its fulfillment on its effective functioning and in the last analysis on its economic success, but the adoption of the decrees and the mobilisation of the masses which has been realised constitute a fundamental point of departure, a certain guarantee of further develop-
The next convocation of the National Congress of Committees of Management will mark a powerful thrust of a new, enlargement and a deepening. of the social phase begun on the 29th March last.
(4) On the ideological plane, also, the advanced wing of the Algerian leadership, Ben Bella, Bonmedienne and their supporters appear as the most representative elements, has shown-new progress. It has expressed more and more clearly its socialist orientation and its understanding of the process of revolutionary development, the motive forces of this development, the means of struggle which it imposes and their dialectical interactions. It has stated precisely its position by an explicit and direct appeal to other anti-capitalist and revolutionary experiences particularly by its reference to the Cuban Revolution and its international significance. It has shown that it is animated by a profound international spirit by refusing squarely to impose on a whole people or race the responsibility for the crimes of colonialism, in making constant appeals for the help of Europeans including the French for the building of the new Algeria and in demanding of its
74 masses, although savagely treated by a blind repression, to avoid all measures of retaliation or vengeance. It has confirmed its understanding of the role and duties of the Algerian Revolution in connection with the African Revolution by striving to aid those who are struggling against the last strongholds of traditional colonialism and the most brutal racism (Angola, South Africa).
5) Following last measures which have been adopted and are in the process if being applied, Algeria has entered an eminently transitional stage from the point of view of its economic and social structure, from which will emerge the setting up of a Workers' State.
In fact two sectors subsist: in the agricultural sector, the Revolution has established its positions of strength by already opening up a process of revolutionary structural changes. Whilst in the industrial, banking and commercial sector the ascendancy of colonial and bourgeois forces remains predominant. It follows from this, further, that the integration of Algeria in the 'Franc Zone' and its financial monetary and commercial dependence in relation to France constitutes a very great handicap.
In most of the problems which will be posed by the enlargement of agrarian reform the decisive battles there ought to express themselves for the control of the key industrial sectors and for commercial and financial emancipation. But it is very important that the Revolution prepares from now an essential lever in order that it should gain positions of strength in an economic sector, which in the following years will play, in every way, a primary role. On the other hand it is no less important that, by all its recent attitudes, the Ben Bella wing how clearly confirmed its decision to act as the expression of the large masses of the population, the poor peasant and worker masses, and to strengthen itself by a large mobilisation of the masses.
This means that, in the transitional period in which it finds itself, in the period of harsh struggles which present themselves, faced with the blows that the reactionaries of all types will inevitably strive to inflict, the Revolution prepares itself with forces, instruments, political formulas and leaders who are prepared to confront the tasks facing them with realistic optimism.
(6) The Fourth International which linked itself from the start with the struggle of the Algerian revolutionaries, which has given immediately its critical support to the Ben Bella government, warmly salutes the measures adopted in March 1963 which imply in reality a fresh confirmation of revolutionary marxist conceptions and show incontestably the influence of revolutionary marxism on the development of the pilot revolution in Africa. It is convinced that the
Algerian revolution will win crucial new battles which are preparing themselves and will go forward along the road of building a Workers' State and Socialism.
The Fourth International is conscious of the enormous international repercussions the development of the Algerian Revolution will have throughout Africa, the Middle East and even Europe. The Fourth International is, from another angle, conscious following on the specific development of the Cuban Revolution, a development in many ways analogous to the Algerian Revolution, international communist movement with a rich new experience in a number of areas of the theory and practise of the Socialist Revolution, in our time.
It estimates that amongst the tasks falling due shortly the following are the most important.
(a) to assure the effective and democratic application of the decrees on confiscations and self-management, to enlarge the area of enterprises and agricultural lands confiscated and submitted to the self-management of workers, to hold regional congresses and the National Congress of committees of management, which can become the essential elements of a revolutionary democratic structure for the new Algerian Society.
to enlarge the zone of control on the part of the State and the workers in the industrial, financial and commercial spheres in order to prepare as rapidly as possible the nationalisation of key sectors and to introduce workers control in the industrial, banking and commercial enterprises.
(c) to ensure the control of the State over the trade in essential agricultural products and to introduce state monopoly of external trade.
(d) to organise effectively within a democratic structure, through the revolutionary process which las commenced and on the basis of the concrete tasks which that raises, the F.L.N. until it crystallises itself politically and organisationally as the vanguard expression and the instrument of the struggle of the the peasants and revolutionary intellectparticularly in the country in the organisation of "Syndicates" which have an important role to play in the effective application of the decrees on self management and in the real functioning. of these organisations, more than their natural role of defence of the immediate material interests of the workers and poor peasants.
) to elaborate the general lines ol a plan ( onomic development and industrialisatio
The Fourth International supports all the revolutionary forces in Algeria in their March towards socialism. It calls upon all its sectors to enlist all possible forms of aid and mobilisations in favour of the new Algeria. It appeals to the international working class movement to enlarge this action of solidarity to all the forces of the world proletariat and of the world revolution.