Bella spoke to the Algerian people over radio and television, explaining the meaning of these significant measures. The. full text of his speech is as follows:
Working men and women of Algeria,-as + speak to you the ortioten Journal of the Democratic and Popular Alrerian Republic is pu g the text of some of the most, if not the most important decisions which the governnent has taken since ite constitution. _ ' It concerns. a. decree bearing on the organisation and nenagenent of industrial, mining and artisan anterpRises ag wast: as. vacated agricultural undertakings.
Already last week, more precisely Teiaey March 23, the Official _ Journal published a significant text defining the meaning of "vacated" enee and for all. Those who imagined that the government of revolutionary Algeria would wait, arms folded, in: face of maneuvers which | eimed at nothing more nor less than oe the weenared pay per ties"; weil, they were mistaken.
I have said at before and: I repest: it now. It was not: we who adreove away the former exploiters of this vast sector of the Algerian economy which them became “vacated properties." It was net we who sought to asphyxiate the Algerian economy. . it was the former -exploiters who left, seeking to make their excdus a way of sabotaging and blocking the possibilities: of reconstructing independent Algerie. We had to stem in the briefest possible time the disastrous conse-
quences of this sabotage,
To those who left, the Provisional Government appealed that | they return. How many of them returned?
Before anyone starts to invoke great principles, let him teil us Slearly.how many of them responded to the appeal of the Provi-~ sional’ Government to return and to participate in the reconstruction of the country. . 1 ux, &
Could the government that issued from the Algerian Revolution stand arma folded before such a challenge? If it had done so, it would not have been worthy of the Algerian Revolution, it would not have been worthy of speaking in the name of the Algerian people. . lloreover, the working masses of the country, they. understood their duty. Almost everywhere, they organised themselves. spontaneously and-moved in to replace the absconding exploiters... In this respect, the decrees of October 22 and November 23, 1962, setting up Management Committees, did no more than ratify a state of affairs which the working masses, in their patriotic and revolutionary spirit, had created throughout the extent of the country. oo,
Did the decrees of October 22 and November 23, 1962, close the door to those who had left, neglecting their duties teward the land whish had nourished them? In no fashion. Revolutionary Algeria has ite traditions of generosity. The decrees of October 2c and November 23, 1962, left them the possibility of returning and. even of being reinstated in their enterprises and undertakings which they had abandoned, but.on condition that they gave sufficient guarantees for honest and productive management of the enterprise and on condition of accepting sincere collaboration with the Management Committees.
How many of them returned and agreed to collaborate with the Management Committees? —
: What national government, worthy of the name, would have permitted the situation to deteriorate? It was high time that Algeria went to work. It was high time that the government which issued from the Algerian Revolution organised the management of the undertakings and undertakings abandoned, betrayed by their former exploiters. The Algerian workers had proved their aapacity to.fill the: gap. It wae necessary to give them the opportunity to continue in their efforts. :
It then proved to be impossible to organise anything in a sector in which "wacated" could be continually placed in question, in which “vacated" sould be made the object of pressure, of bargaining, of the business ef influence. It was necessary to definitively settle the question of the “vacated properties." It was necessary that the geoter of “vacated properties" be defined, determined, once and for all: . .
It was in this spirit that we passed our decree of March 18 1963, dealing with the regulation of the “vacated properties." this
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decree which the National Constituent Assembly approved in its session of Nareh 26, 1963, barred any appeal from a ruling taken. prior to Mareh 22, 1963, that a property had been "vacated." All enterprises of an industrial, commercial, artisan, financial and mining character, all agricultural and forestry undertakings, all the offices, real estate or portions of real estate whish, on the date of March 22, 1963, had been ruled to be "vacated," were, once and for all, éefinitively, “vacated properties" and from this fact their management passed, once and for all, definitively, to the Algerian workers.
From now on we will not speak any more of “vacated properties” but of enterprises and undertakings of self-management.
Once defined as "vacated," once determined aa the key sector of the Algerian economy, we must turn, seriously, to the problem of the management of this sector which we wish to use as a “pilot" for our socialisn. 78
Iwo solutions are offered. Should we place management in the State? Should we place it with the workers?
In fact rio hesitation is possible. The principle of selif-~ ‘management of the enterprises by the workers has already been. inseribed in the reality of the Algerian Revolution by the spontaneous, conscious action of the laboring masses. The powerful movement of the lenagement Comnittees, which multiplied throughout the sountry, awaited simply legalization in all its revolutionary extension.
The decrees which tho Official Journal of the Democratie and: Popular Algerian Republic is oEtYlahine tolay iecaitaes ont inevi~ tutionealises the enterprises of self-managoment being run by the democratic collectivity of the workers. . i
“With the General Assemblies and the Workers Counoils, with the Nenagement Committees, the Algerian workers are taking. their destiny in their own hands. It is the workers, in their General Assemblies, who will decide on the plan of development for their enterprises within the framework of the National Plan. It is they,.the workers, who will establish, exanine and adopt the bookkeeping accounts. It is they who will determine bonuses for output. It is they who will harvest the fruit of their labor. They will participate in the | management of the national funds for investment and the balancing of employment.
Working men and women of Algeria, I would like to stress the national funds for balancing employment.
As you know, there are unemployed, many unemployed in Algeria. There are jobs, many jobs with poor or little pay in Algeria. There is heevy labor which exhausts a person and other work that is not so bad. There are rich regions, but also poor ones in Algerie. .
It 4s through the national funds for the balancing of employment that the solidarity of the working men and women of Algeria expresses
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itself. It is through these funds that the workers of the Hitidja and those of the Aures express their fraternity. From the east to the west, from the north to the south, the Algerian workers, through the national funds for balancing of employment, express once again the unity of the Algerian nation.
Working men and women of Algeria, I would also like to speak about the Director who constitutes one of the instruments of your self-management.
This Director will be selected on a moral and professional level. He will be nominated by the State, but this nomination will be submitted to your approval. ,
Because it is necessary that within your enterprises of selfmanagement someone should represent the national collectivity te which you belong and safeguard its interests. It is necessary that within your enterprises of self-management there should be someone who can serve as a transmission belt between our enterprises and the State, someone responsible for the National Plan of development.
This Director, whose nomination is subject to your approval, this Director is a worker like you and will share your troubles and ‘Joys and participate, with you, in the socialist construction of our country:
Make his task easy. Help him. Protect him like one of your own - , ¥
Worl-ing men and women of Algeria. It is up to you and only you to prove to the world that the Algerian Revolution wants to be and can be in the vanguard of the socialist experiments of our times. Close your ranks, demonstrate to the world that you are masters of your destiny, united, vigilant and conscious of your duties and your rights; organise yourselves so that everywhere, over the whole. Algerian territory, the General Assemblies of the Workers can join together and that everywhere, throughout the Algerian territory, the Hanagement Committees, democratically elected, can harness thenselves to the exalting task of the socialist construction of our country. :
Organization of an All-Iurepean Conference to Help Bring Aid to Algeria was proposed at a meeting of Labour party members and Young Socielists held Harch 14 at the House of Commons. The meeting was chaired by John Baird, Hember of Parliament from Wolverhampton East end former editer of Free Algeria.
The propesed conference would explore ways and means of bring-~ ing teshnicians and scientists to Algeria to help speed recsonstruction of the country. The date of the conference has not been finally fixed but will probably be sometime in May. |
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The speaker, Michel Raptis, stressed the importance of the Algerian Revolution to the Arab and African peoples.
There are tremendous difficulties to be overcome in Algeria. . he gaid. Hore than a million lives were lost in the seven~and-a-~ half-year war and the country wae left devastated. On the granting of independence, 500,000 Europeans left the country. Today Algeria is desperately dn need of skilled workers.
In spite of all this, the Algerian people are optimistic sbout rebuilding their country aleng socialist lines. Already nearly 600 enterprises and 4,000 square miles of land are under the control ef workers manogenent committees.
France, for economic and political reasons, is trying to foster neccolonialism in Algeria. Because of the hostile attitude of the leadership of the Social Democratic and Communist parties during the struggle for independence and their passivity since then, the Kinepion people were disappointed in the Iuropean working class.
This is one reason, Michel Raptis declared, why the conference should receive extra vigorous support from the labor movement through= out Lurope:
. It is essential, he said, that a left united front be set up to help secure material aid for Algeria. Socialism is not confined to national frontiers; it is international. More than pious resolutions are needed to express solidarity with the Alrerian a ae tiie solsdaxity must speak the language of material aid. ~-
John Baird moved that a preparatory committee be formed to organize meetings and raise funds to send delegates to the confer- ‘ence. Twenty HP's have agreed to sponsor the committee.
UNEHPLOYED