Balance Sheet
"SELF=MANAGEMENT" PROVES A SUCCESS IN AIGERTIA
By Henri Dumoulin
AIGIERS, Feb, 9 == The socialist agrarian reform underway in the Algerian countryside has already gone through a number of stages...
First of all, in the weeks following independence, there appeared a spontaneous movement of the peasant masses who sought to continue _ working the big rich holdings abandoned by the routed colons [French | colonialists]. ne
The Peoplets National Army (formerly the National Liberation Army), this armed force of peasants, putting aside their rifles for the plough, supported the movement by participating in the 1962 Oper~ ation Harvest and Labor Lopérations Récoltes et Labours].
In a few months, the combined action of the spontaneous movement of the peasant masses, of Ben Bella and BNASS (Bureau National dtAnimation du Secteur Socialiste, the role of which was primarily to influence the leadership and to articulate theory for the rank-and-file movement and to inspire it) recovered hundreds of thousands of hectares of land for the Algerian people that had been abandoned by the European colons and listed as "Bien Vacants" [vacated property]. --
In March 1963 the three ‘historic: decrees, t a real charter of Socialist Self-management, capped this first stage of the Agrarian Reform. And the peasants and workers character of the government, or more precisely of the leading team assembled around Ben Bella became clearly apparent,
The next stage was marked, in October 1963, by the nationaliza~ tion of all the holdings of the European colons, bringing the total of land under the socialist sector close to three million hectares.
The agricultural workers, the fellahs, these illiterate, forever persecuted men, took possession of Algeria's present main wealth, her - main source of capital and surplus products,
The October Congress of the Workers of the Land [Travailleurs de la Terre] in the self-managed agricultural sector testified to the | awakening of consciousness of a class called on to play the determining role in the first phase of the construction of Algerian socialism,
T ; 2 2 2 Cy These as well as historic texts of the Algerian Revolution have been published in a pamphlet, Documents sur l'Autogestion (Ministry of Information with the participation of BNASS). See also Discours du Président Ben Bella (from September 28 to December 12, 1962), These can be obtained by writing to LiAlgérie dans le Monde, 26 rue Ben Mthidi Larbi, Algiers, Algeria,
ell- |
Thirdly, we come to the important aspect of the March deorees involving the material interest of the permanent workers in their enterprise through sharing the profits of the self-managed farm in the forin of bonuses.
Everyone ‘wondered whether the government would be able to carry out this considerable promise. On February 7 Ben Bella took up this question in a radio message which testified to the socialist understanding of the head of the Algerian government. He said that the promise would be met and spoke of the significance this held for the future of self-management in Algeria. [See text of speech on page
Finally, there is the further development of the agrarian re-~ form, The government has announced the draft of a law to limit the extent of all property. This will be placed before the National Assembly by next April.
To carry out this fundamental stage of the agrarian revolution will arouse not a little hostility on the part of average and large Algerian proprietors,
That is why it is requisite for the government to reinforce its support and popularity among the permanent workers:of the socialist. sector, With regard to this, bonuses for the fellahs in the selfmanaged ‘sector will have positive consequences.” ae
But it must never be forgotten that the agricultural socialist sector, while it accounts for close to seventy-five per cent of the gross product of agriculture, and more than sixty per cent of all exports, did not employ during the first year of nationalization more than a hundred thousand workers and their families out of a peasant population of seven million persons, of whom two million are employable men,¢
Thus it is the duty of revolutionary Marxists to not underestimate the difficulties and the contradictions existing on the road of ’ the Algerian Revolution,
Alongside the socialist sector, exists a traditional agricultural sector, extremely poverty-stricken, to which the Revolution up to now has been unable to bring anything substantial.
But, as Lenin said shortly after the victory of the Soviets in the USSR: "We must prove to the peasant that the Bolsheviks are
2We cite these figures from the Paris daily Le Monde. If they are only approximate, they nevertheless appear dependable, The nationalizations of October 1963 increased the employment figure somewhat. Even if the accuracy of the figures should be challenged, it is cer-~ tain that the number of permanent workers in the socialist sector only includes a minority of the mass of fellahs.
-wLe—
actually coming to the aid of the small peasant, ruined, deprived of everything, dying of hunger, in his cruel present situation, Either we will prove this’ to him or he will tell us to go to the devil.”
It would appear important therefore that the next law involving the Agrarian Reform should not just limit peasant ownership but should in one way or another come to the aid of the small fellahs, who with their two or three hectares [one hectare = 2,47 acres | cannot make: ends meet,
Still more serious is chronic unemployment, a heritage of colonialism that affects one out of two in the cities and a little less in the countryside, This plague is a difficulty that is becoming more and'more urgent for the government. Only revolutionary methods can bring an end to it,
. In face of these problems, all revolutionists and Marxists must fully support the new battles which the Algerian Revolution confronts in its struggle for the construction of socialism.
Gash