Bonuses for Workers
“TEXT OF BEN BELLA'S SPEECH ON THE SUCCESS OF SELF- MANAGEMENT
The following is a translation of the text of Ben Bellats February 7 speech on the success of self-management in Algeria:
B?. RY ae,
te SS St
Workers,
The auditing of accounts decided at the time of the Congress of Peasants has been completed,
The time has come to make a first balance sheet of self-~management in the agricultural sector, This balance sheet confirms the correctness of the position taken by the party and the government, against wind and sea, in deciding to place confidence in the workers by entrusting them with management of the means of production,
Your efforts have rendered eloquent results. The size of the profits constitutes the most stinging reply to the slanderers of socialism in our country and those who have always lived from the . labor of others. a De _ _
Up to now our main objective has been to reactivate production, to give to the socialist sector the means to play a pilot role in the construction of the new society.
‘Thanks to your sacrifices, to your sense of responsibility, self-
management has succeeded, Your success is proof that you have made your own the generous principles of collective management of the national patrimony.
United in your national organizations and in the party, you con~ stitute the spearhead of your socialist revolution,
Tt is through you that the socialist transformation of our country will be carried out and it is through the self-managed sec=tor that our economy will develop.
Up to now we-have had to face urgent problems, Their solution has not always been reached under normal conditions but it was necessary first and above all to assure production and subsistence for the workers while waiting to balance accounts.
That is why in the first period we made. uniform periodic advances to all categories of workers,
The progress registered since then permits us to enter a second stage provided for in the decrees of March; namely, the application of Article 4 of Decree 63-98 of March 28, 1963, which provided for a scale of remuneration according to job "ratings and norms of pro~ ductivity.
Thus we will be able to meet ‘one of the fundamental demands of socialism which envisages that everyone should be paid according to his _iabor. -
A classification of workers according to job ratings and skills— with a corresponding scale of remuneration will be submitted very soon for the approval of the workers,
The difference in basic remuneration according to job ratings: and productivity is just because it corresponds to each one's efforts, experience and technical qualifications, ©
It assures emulation among the workers, constitutes a factor of encouragement to creative spirit and initiative and permits growth of production.
The audits have revealed substantial over-all profits, We say "over-all" because if the big majority of enterprises show a positive balance, a number of tiny enterprises for various reasons have notended up with a profit.
The enemies of socialism will not fail to ascribe the deficits of certain enterprises to embezzlement by the workers, I must state the truth: embezzlement has occurred but only in a few cases, This is due to the survival of the individualist spirit common to all exploitive societies, Capitalist society is founded on the principle: rob others or be robbed yourself -- work for someone else or make him work for you. Men-reared in this society, workers and peasants like
w]e
the others, remain for a while impregnated with these habits,
That's why peopi.e can be found among them, too -- fortunately only a tiny minority -~ who think of getting things without caring ‘about others. .
It is necessary to fight tirelessly against careerism, those seeking to acquire or to maintain special privileges, those who want to assure their own comfort without regard for the islands of misery that remain in the country. ,
Nevertheless, there is one error we must not commit, Negative attitudes must not cause us to lose sight of what is essential: management during the past year had to be undertaken under difficult conditions and a great many workers had to face painful conditions in their daily lives. .
The deficit therefore does. not imply that workers in enterprises that were not profitable did not display the necessary effort. Not to give them bonuses would mean not taking into consideration the conditions under which they had to take over these enterprises,
- We have no right to penalize them,
Taking into account these considerations, we have decided that. for the year 1963, a bonus of 230 new francs [$46 U.S.] will be | granted workers of enterprises that showed a prpfit and a bonus of 7 1lo new francs [$22 U.S.] will be granted to workers in enterprises _where the provisional balance sheet, we are convinced, was negative,
These bonuses will be given to the workers of agricultural enterprises under self-management before the Aid-Es-Seghir [February 14, the end of Ramadan, the Muslim religious holiday]. However, and the workers concerned will understand me, no bonuses will be paid to work- .ers in enterprises placed under self-management last October, because they have not yet completed the financial accounting period, Their accounts will be audited in 1964,
I wish to add that the profits distributed this year have high symbolic meaning. They testify not only to the efforts made by the workers of the self-managed sector, but likewise to a principle. We are convinced that the workers in self-management are fully. conscious that they are not merely wage-workers, but producers engaged collectively in the operation and development of the socialized national patrimony.
All the more so in view of the fact that this special bonus was set in a more or less arbitrary way because it was necessary to make deductions for the various national funds such as the National Fund for Investment, of amortization and the national fund for the cqualization of employment, moe
You are not unaware of the difficult conditions which our country
\ scien art romp ei is still experiencing.
“You are not unaware that there. are workers like you who are : still unemployed because of lack of jobs,
The sums deducted from the profits of self-management for the reconstruction of the country and for the creation of new jobs in barren regions are the expression of the solidarity of the workers and of national unity from the Aurés to Oranie and from the Kabylie to the Oasis.
“This solidarity is a measure of the harmonious development of the: mation as a whole and constitutes proof of the superiority of the ‘socialist system over all other regimes.
The distribution of the profits is an event of capital impor tance,
What better homage could be rendered to those who produce than to place in their hands the fruit of their labor after they have been deprived of it by their exploiters of yesterday? =
The event is of capital importance today because it constitutes the first fruit of our action in a sector vital to the economy of our country. In the same way it constitutes the best promise for future socialist harvests. a. .
Algerian workers, ‘forward to new victories for self-management. Long live socialism, -
AN