The fresn nationalizations in Algeria [see last issue of Yorld Outlook/ touched some sensitive nerves. The loudest screams cane from Pierre Petitjean, head of the company that ran the luxury Hotel Aletti. -At.a press conference wich he called, _ he told sympathetic reporters: "The spoliation of which we were the victims constitutes a violation of the Evian agreement and the guarantees that were ‘civen the rights of French interests. It's robbery pure and. simple. Mm Ce -
In France the take-over of three French~owned ‘newspapers ~ became the theme of the week: for the professional moralists of the press. An uglier note was the threat issued by Valery Giscard a'Bstaine,. Minister of Finance. The French government is committed to give Algeria one billion francs (about $204 mil- Lion) aid year until June 30, 1965. But said d'Estaing, noth- = prevents France from deducting amounts sufficient to "compensate" French citizens for losses in Algeria due to nationaliza— tions or "spoliations."
Displeasure over the course of the Ben Bella government extended, not unexpectedly, to ruling circles in the United States. The influential New York Times declared editorially (in the Sent. 25 international edition) that Ben Bella "promises to leave room for a private economic sector and even invites French “and other business aid. But he makes no secret that this is only for a time. Such an approach will not encourage the foreign investments the country so desperately needs." |
Phe Algerian people, however, give no evidence of being easily seduced bv the proffered carrots of "foreign investments." The colony "enjoyed" the "benefits" of foreign invest~ ments for some 130 years. This was e powerful factor in convert-ing them to socialism. The popular pressure, therefore, is very strong for continuation of nationalizations.
The mood in Alceria was well reflected in the press interview which Ben Bella granted September 23 to some 250 journalists who arrived aboard the Soviet ship Litva to hold an inter~
national conference in Algiers. Some of the highlights of the interview as published by the Algiers daily Le Feuple:
In his welcoming speech, Ben Bella declared that Algeria was. "engaged irreversibly on the road to socialism."
"The workers," he said, "run their own plants. The peasants, yesterday still crushed by the colons, are at this moment gathering the best harvests Algeria has ever known. Today, throughout the country, the land belongs to those who till it. Committees of self~management, democratically elected, that bring the workers together in conducting the enterprise, have been created,
"A particular effort has been made in favor of the youth. The young people, long disinherited, are discovering the joy of living, dignity and the certainty of growing wo strong School has opened its doors to a new generation, the builders of socialist Algeria. In this connection I want to state once again our staunch determination to carry through to the end the establishment of a socialist Algeria, an Algeria cleansed of all that remains of colonial rule, an Algeria completely devoted to the cause of international peace but also resolved to combine the imperative of peace with unfailing solidarity with the freedom movements of the colonial peoples. Peace, in short, means driving back atomic war. But it also means peace for homes menaced by the colonialist madness in Angola, in socalled 'Fortuguese' Guinea, in Rhodesia, in Mozambique, in South Africa, too."
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A reporter asked Ben Bella, "How can you reconcile Islam and socialism?"
"This question," Ben Bella responded, "is an important one. It can, in effect, seem incomprehensible to you to speak of socialism while relatins it to the religious factor. as one holding responsibility, as secretary of the Party, we have weighed this problem. There was the miracle of the national liberation struggle, of the revolution. This miracle was due to the peasant, the laborer, since the economy of Algeria did not permit the formation of a revolutionary working class. It was the peasants who were the vanguard-of the armed struggle. The peasant didn't fight for a presidential regime, nor for this or that constitution, nor even for this or that regime. The essential motive, whet the peasants felt, was that the colonialists were aiming at what was valuable, most sacred to them -- Arab Islamic reality.
4 . . “Leave us with our Allah, anc we are: ready to move fester in our socialist revolution. Islam ¢id not prevent us from setting up self-management. Islam likewise cid not prevent us from nationalizing properties, the existence of which was against our morals. On the contrary it helped us to go forward in our socialist revolution." -
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"Asked about: the crisis in the Caribbean and the threats to Cuba, Ben Bella responded:
"First of all, I must say that we vere the first to applaud ‘the action initiated by Moscow, just as we will applaud any solution in favor of. peace. - oS : wo
"Ye sent teleg srams of support that very same evening.
"But I must say that the specter of the atomic bomb has not prevented statesmen from making war, just as the specter of gunpowder did not prevent wars in the past. We don't have that much coufidence in the nature of men. Peace is indivisible. You don't sign an agreement in Moscow anc maintain tension in the Caribbean, make threats. They sign in Moscow, but men die in Angola, in Mozambique, in Portuguese Guinea, etc."
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On the proposal by Rast Germany to create a denuclearized zone in Central Hurope:
"We are for every denuclearized zone. The whole planet should be denuclearized.
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On Israel: "ve think that it is an injustice to present us Arabs with the bill for racism, for Nazism. It is to be ‘noted that Israel is taking un all the positions abandoned by colonialism. The problem is clear but so are the rights of the Arabs. Our position will never change,"
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- Ben Bella said that legislation is being drawn to linit private property in land still further. "Thus the area of land placed under authoritv of management committees will be “prought to 3,000,000 hectares fone hectare = about two and a half acres 7, some 2,700,000 hectares belonging to colons and 300,000 to ~algerians."
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"The socialist sector," Ben Bella remarked, "will be so strong by 1964. that it will quickly absorb what remains of the private." os
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On relations with France: "We are on the side of France when she wishes to be a respectable and respected country, but we have the right to eliminate privileges. I hope that the French government understands that. We are for loyal, sincere co-operation and as equals to equals." .
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On possible resumption by France of nuclear tests: "I would. be against it, but I would not make war on France. Another explosion would serve to accelerate socialism. We would put ovr hands on the rest of the privileges."
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On the Evian agreement: "The Evian agreement constitutes a bottleneck, but it did not prevent us from placing Bourgeaud's domain under self~management. “"“" "ATgeria and France have an interest in easing things, in establishing valuable relations of co-operation. It is of os mutual interest to study the agreement and readjust it in the licht of Algeria's socialist option.
"They say that the self-management measures were injurious to the Evian agreement; but it's just the contrary. The self- ‘“managenent measures liquidated certain negative sides."
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On neutralism. "The creation of a bloc would not be desirable. The neutralism of Alreria is to be neutral even with the neutrals."
On the role of the press: "The first role of the press is to provide information. Just because we have suppressed certain newspapers, ve have not prevented the press from giving information. We are for objective information.
"The role of the press i to forging a reality, to singiiz helping the cevelopment of what important on the political pla
nendous. It must contribute
ut whet can be useful, to
s important, and what is
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“We have no ‘confidence that bogies can stop war. We are “for. peace, for those who are being bullied, for those against whon ‘violence is exercised,"
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