Algiers of 1963 following the March decrees instituting workers self-management.
Nevertheless the official banners along the parade route bore the usual slogans, There was no direct reference, for instance, to the most positive resolutions of the recent congress of the UGTA Union Générale des Travailleurs Algériens] calling for implementing the next stage of the agrarian reform, wider participation of the working masses in the management of the economy and the struggle against the "bureaucratic layer now crystallizing out." [See World Outlook April 23.] —
The crowds in Algiers displayed but mild interest; the num ber of parades and demonstrations associated with the receptions accorded visiting heads of states has made them blasé.
The participants in the parade, however, testified to the popular enthusiasm over the international workers holiday. The floats and decorations were colorful and imaginative.
"There is no Islam without social justice"; "Long live the agrarian revolution"; "Real workers co-ordination" proclaimed the lacards of the Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs de la Terre [National Federation of Agricultural Workers] which headed the parade. The crowds of field workers in the streets of the capital and other big cities proved that the FNTT is getting under way.
Likewise new was the greater prominence of anticapitalist sentiments among the ranks. A placard of the COGEHORE [Commission de Gestion des Hétels et Restaurants -- Hotel and Restaurants Management Committee] read: "For the victory of the laboring masses over capitalism, imperialism, colonialism. Turn all means of production over to the workers," ~
Some of the participants began chanting, "Shoot the bourgeoisielt" [Les bourgeois, au poteaut!] They were promptly stopped by those in charge.
Workers had also made up their own placards: “Letts apply the resolutions of the Second Congress of the UGTA"; "For a labor law based on self-management"; "Let's organize community self-management councils everywhere."
‘Women participating in the parade showed that they had lost
none of the dynamism that brought them into the streets last March 8 six to tenfold the expected number of 1 »D00. Even those who got into trouble at home with their men folk were out again, more energetic and aggressive than ever. Young women workers for whom the country's independence has opened the way to new means of expression will not give up their conquest so easily.
The complete absence of any cult of personalities was notable. There were no portraits of state, party or trade-union leaders. There were no banners saying, "Long live so and so!" The demonstrators, as usual, shouted their customary slogan: "Long live Ben Bella!"
There were fewer intermational slogans than usual, but the variety of topics was as striking as in previous parades. Thus some of the participants chanted, "Peace in Vietnam! Johnson -=- Murderert" Others were more precise: “Get the American aggressors out of Vietnam!
Among the marchers, too, banners were carried by groups of Cubans, Africans, the Arab countries and the various workers states.
CORRECTION
In the. article by Henri Dumoulin, "The Algerian Revolution Again in Movement," in the April 23 World Outlook, the translation reads: "In fact, the pressure of the workers, their dissatisfaction with the incipient bureaucratic tendencies in’? the unions and else= where was.so strong that the congress ended by completely sweeping out the entire previous UGTA leadership. Not a single member of the executive committee was re-elected. A number of rankeand~file militants were brought into the leadership..."
This is incorrect. The national secretariat was completely swept. out, but (with the exception of Ghaffai, the former secretary of the organization ) still retain their membership on the present executive committee. In addition, rather than "rank and file mili-. tants," the new secretariat is made up of regional or even local cadres of middle level. Most of the 560 delegates at the congress were middle-level, trade-union cadres,