WHERE THE ALGERIAN REVOLUTION STANDS TODAY
By Michel Raptis
(During a trip in behalf of the National Bureau for European Nongovernmental Assistance to Algeria, Michel Raptis gave a talk in London November 29 on the Algerian Revolution. He repeated the talk in Rome on December 2, The following is a résumé of his remarks, |
To speak of the Algerian Revolution involves a very big subject which one can scarcely cover in a necessarily brief talk,
What we are dealing with in reality is the uninterrupted advance of an entire people from the first of November 1954. when they rose against the long colonial domination of their country until they obtained independence in 1961, after seven and a half years of atrocious war, and then trans- _ formed this war-revolution into socialist revolution.
Algeria is a big country from the point of view of area (four times the size of France) and from the point of view of natural wealth, (I be refer particularly to the very considerable wealth in energy and minerals of the Sahara, this Canada, this Siberia of Africa which is destined to experience a development, a future, fabulously profitable for all of Africa, )
But Algeria is a-small country from the point of view of its present population which is around twelve million.
If the people of this country have drawn international attention and ‘the sympathy of all the workers for a number of years and if what one calls _ the Algerian Revolution is a more and more burning subject in world events, ‘this is not due to the specific virtues of the people, despite the undeni~ able heroism which they demonstrated in their tenacious struggle and which was so decisive in winning their national liberation, The Algerian phenomenon, even in its peculiarities, is a characteristic of a new international dynamic which has appeared in the world since the second world war in particular,
The Algerian phenomenon is a striking example of the new relationship of forces which has been established between the Revolution, imperceptibly transforming the present world, and what could be called in general the Reaction in all its forms; that is, the forces of social conservatism and the international status quo.
“The Algerian phenomenon is a powerful expression of the irresistible will animating the so-called underdeveloped peoples to free themselves from their political and economic colonial conditions, and to catch up with the least possible delay to the average level of international economic, social and cultural development,
The transformation of the war of liberation of the Algerian people into a social revolution of socialist character, which has been occurring in Algeria, must be placed and understood within the framework of these general considerations,
When the Algerian people took up arms to fight for national liberation through a struggle of immense, unheard of sacrifices, the opinion still. prevailed in wide circles of tne European left that this struggle, without the direct and powerful support of the French working class in particular, would prove fruitless,
‘They were still ‘thinking in terms of schemas drawn from the experience between the two wars, corresponding to a dynamic of the World Revolution quite different from that which became established during and after the second world war.
We now inow that the Algerian people, although struggling practically alone for seven and a half years, suffering more than a million dead, against the great world power of France which did not hesitate to bring the bulk of its military forces into action - -- this people conduered their independence just the same,
I do not believe that it is necessary in this brief exposition to go into the details. of the ensemble of complex reasons =-- on the French as well as Algerian side ~- which facilitated this outcome, The role, for example, which the orientation of Gaullist policy played in the question of colonial policy and in the framework of the modernization of French capi~ talism undertaken by de Gaulle to meet the test of European integration in the Common Market, ;
_ It is a fact in any case that ‘the Algerian: people | had to free themselves struggling practically alone.
Their example will not fail, and has not failed already, to greatly influence all the peoples through the world still held under direct colonial domination.
Other lessons of considerable. theoretical import for all those, both Marxist and otherwise, who are interested in understanding the forces and the dynamics of the world revolution which our century is witnessing and which is imperceptibly transforming our traditional capitalist world, are to be drawn from the Algerian experience. . The Algerian Revolution, following the Yugoslav, Chinese, Vietnamese and Cuban revolutions in particular have placed fresh value on, and made more understandable, the revolutionary role which can be played in a whole series of countries ” analogous ‘in structure to Algeria by the peasantry peculiar to these countries, a peasantry devoid of land and -living in the so-called "traditional" sector of the economy outside of the capitalist market proper. .
It was by basing themselves- on this part of the population, the most. disinherited, the most deprived, those living among the lofty mountains of the country as well as those crowded into the monstrous shanty towns that surround many of the big North African, African and colonial cities in general, that the revolutionary elements -- a very reduced number -~ of the traditional national Algerian movement, sensitive to the pressure of these layers, were able to take the initiative and the leadership of the armed struggle unleashed in November 1954,
_ This revolutionary role of the peasantry, which was manifested in the unleashing of their revolution, continued throughout the whole period of the armed struggle, since it was precisely the peasantry that furnished the > bulk.of the effort and the sacrifices, And even after independence, it was always the peasantry and in a more general way the acuteness of the agrarian question which permitted, if not imposed, the social and socialist opening of the Revolution,
In relation to this role of the peasantry, that played by the restricted proletariat in the cities, who enjoy a standard of living incomparably higher than that of the peasants, was necessarily less determinant for a whole period,
- But in the socialist “phase begun in the Algerian Revolution the role of the proletariat and its ideology will certainly prove to be decisive, ° In a country like Algeria the dominant sector, both from the social as well as economic point of view is still agriculture, This is divided into two . sectors: the modern sector of agriculture which included about 2,800, 000 hectares Lone hectare.» 2.47 acres] belonging to around 22,000. European settlers (of whom some 6,000 held eighty per cent) and some 9,000.big — Algerian owners; and the * "traditional sector, including 600, 000 Algerians each possessing between. one~half and ten hectares of land.
The social Algerian Revolution began by putting under control of the state the agricultural and industrial properties abandoned by the Europeans who, between March and August 1962, fled in mass (about four-fifths out of a total of one million). . . oe
In the abandoned fields and factories, there spontaneously arose first ef all the embryos of the present movement, characteristic of Algerian socialism, Self-management.
-:, Self-management in Algeria was not a | doctrinal choice but a necessity arising from the reality.
_. In the vacuum created in the economy by the massive departure of the Buropeans and also the absence of an efficient state administration and technicians, the only possibility that existed to keep up production was to resort to the democratic organization of the workers in each farm and plant.
In the summer of 1962 it was the workers themselves who took the initiative of constituting Management Committees, charged with carrying on the "vacant" economy of the country. os
This spontaneous, but in the beginning restricted, movement was encouraged, amplified and institutionalized by the Ben’ Bella government. At the outset by.the first decrees on Self-management in October 1962, next by those justly entitled "historic" in March 1963. ,
Imperceptibly wnder the combined pressure of the objective necessities of.the masses and of the Revolutionary Government, the Algerian economy under the influence of its "vacant" sector, slipped ‘into the irreversible road of self-management.
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This means an economy largely nationalized and planned but HOES = _the workers.
“At the present time all the land belonging. to the settlers, plus: — $00,000 hectares belonging to rich Algerians, that is, more than 3,000, 000 hectares, is under the regime of Self-management, as well as some hundreds of industrial enterprises, Measures in preparation project: a
(a) The extension of the agrarian reform to all lands above a certain ceiling -- probably ten hectares of irrigated land, fifty hectares of - unirrigated. .
(b) The reorganization of the nationalized banking system,
(c) The reorganization of the commercial system, installing the “principle of the. monopoly of foreign trade by the state.
Thus more rapidly than anywhere else, in the space of a single year, Algeria,is moving toward the. fundamental economic and social structures characteristic of a workers state -- that is, an economy largely nation=alized, planned, but democratically managed by its workers,
I should like to dwell on some of the details concerning the concrete functioning of Self-management in Algeria:
ALL the permanent workers of a farm or a plant constitute the basic organism of Self-management and it is by far the most important because of the power which it has to definitively decide on.all essential questions concerning the management of the enterprise: the Workers General Assembly. . This is the body that elects through secret ballot the Workers Council which in turn élects, always by secret ballot, its executive body: the Management Committee, presided over by one of” its members, the Chairman.
The Chairman is assisted by a Technical Director who acts under the authority | of the workers! Self-management orgenisms.
The Director is nominated by the state but only aftér agreement with the Communal Self-management Council which includes all the chairmen of the management committees in the area of a Commune, plus a representative of the party, the trade. unions, the Popular Army and the Administration.
These are the workers! organisms that elabora te the economic plan of _ the enterprise, that. adopt work rules and fix the manner of dividing the _ revenue that goes to the workers,
With regard to the latter question, I must say that the condition of wages is in fact abolished by the system of Self-management; because if a share, to be determined, of the revenue of each farm and factory must go to the state, representing the National Collectivity, another share of the revenue is freely divided by the workers according to their output by shift and work team.
The more production and productivity.increases, the more does revenue
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for each worker increase without any ceiling such as wages in the capitals ist system where all the surplus value produced by the workers.is pocketed by the capitalist proprietor alone.
The co-ordination of the economic activities of each enterprise under self-management with the general objectives of the National Economic. Plan, is made through democratic elaboration of the plan, the: gearing of each enterprise into that of the Commune, the region, the entire country and “vice versa and by the flexible but efficient action of the financial. means at the disposal of the state -- taxes, investments, prices, .
The aim of self-management is to combine methods of nationalization, planning, and means of marketing, in order to avoid the bureaucratization of the economy in transition from capitalism to socialism, while completely assuring in this process the development and continuous reinforcement of the socialist tendencies of the economy.
The experience of Self-management in Algeria reminds some poople of ‘the experience with Self-management in Yugoslavia.
The analogies between the two systems in this field are real and incontestable.
“Nevertheless it is necessary to note that Self-management in Algeria:
(1) was a movement that began spontaneously among the workers; (2) was - almost immediately encouraged, amplified and made into an institution by the Revolutionary Government from its inception; (3) accords rights and .powers to. the workers considerably greater than in Yugoslavia, especially in relation to the functions of the Workers General Assembly and the Chair~ men of the Management Committee under whose authority (as well as the workers organisms of Self-management as a whole) the Director serves,
In addition, in the Algerian system of Self-management it is necessary to underline the importance held by the institution of the Communal Selfmanagement Council, destined to become, among other things, a very important element in the democratic planning of the economy.
‘This said, it is just to add that the Yugoslav system of Self-management benefits from much longer practical experience which has enabled it to resolve a whole series of questions still posed in Algeria,
Algeria is now building this kind of economy under a Revolutionary , Government which could be characterized as a Peasant and Workers Government applying a transitional program in which the economic doctrine comes closer and closer to the Marxist model.
All these radical transformations are being carried out in a climate. of extreme mildness despite stubborn resistance, under various forms , by the reactionary forces, both internal and foreign, 7
The Algerian Revolution has developed up to now under the sign of the generosity and serenity characteristic of its people and of the man who is presiding over their revolutionary destiny: “Brother Ben Bella," as the
peasants and workers of Algeria call him with sincere respect and friend=_ ship. The acquisitions of the Algerian Revolution already belong to the history of the international workers! movement and socialism. — Great difficulties and crises still await the Algerian Revolution. Recent events have demonstrated that the reactionary forces will do every~ thing in their power to prevent Algeria from becoming stabilized as a Democratic Socialist State granting to its workers the greatest rights and powers existing at the present time anywhere in the world, -Its example may ‘well become explosive for the whole Maghreb, all of - Africa, the Mediterranean and even Europe, All the more reason, I believe, for. the workers of Europe in particular to come in time to the mornl and material aid of the victorious, Socialist Algerian Revolution,
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NEXT WEEK
In Guba an important. theoretical discussion is now being conducted on some difficult economic: problems and the applicability in workers states of the law of value in trying to solve them. E, Germain has written an analysis of the issues involved and suggests where to seek the answers. Look for the - + beginning of this contribution in next week!s World Outlook, nnuanenveneensontisoatancsnbisoenate rovenutddsoosagveseeeess
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i The U.S. edition of the final volume of Isaac Deutscherts : biography of Leon Trotsky is still difficult to obtain, The “: publishers report that this is due to “technical difficulties,"
However, the English edition is readily available in London -- and at a considerable saving ovér the price of the — : American edition, — «-To get a copy send : 22/53. (U.K. ) or $6, 50, check: or- | a . international money order, to WIR Publications, 374 Grays Inn i Road, London, W.C.1l. aspnenpeneacgussabdoassgdesceannsseesersoseantenneanicorrecetitessnarosente
Book Review .
DEUTSCHER'S BIOGRAPHY OF TROTSKY
By Joseph Hansen [Continued from last issue. | THE PROPHET OUTCAST by Isaac Deutscher. New York: The Oxford University
Press, 1963. 543 pp. $9.50. '
There is justification in singling out this aspect, in empnasizing Trotsky as prophet. It helps create interest in what he had to offer the world, Nevertheless, a certain amount of reduction occurs, At worst, the image, with its undue connotation of extra-sensory intuitive powers, tends to obscure the image of Trotsky .as scientist. It contributes to an , imbalance in the portrait. Before coming To that, however, it is perhaps advisable to say something about Deutscher's differences | with