ALGERIANS RAISE SLOGAN OF WORKERS CONTROL
El Moudjahid, the central organ of the Front de Libération Nationale CrnNT opened a discussion in its May 23 issue on the need for organs of workers control in Algeria, particularly in the sector of private industry where the institution of "self-management" has not yet been instituted,
The weekly newspaper observes that for several weeks, and particularly after the recent congress of the FLN, the workers in many industries have been pressing forward, at times going as far as strike action, The direction of this movement , El Moudjahid notes, is not for ordinary demands but toward the * establishment of self-management,
The role. of the unions in Algeria is directly involved in this, according to El: Moudjahid:
"The only perspective open to Algerian trade-unionism, as expressly stated in its statutes, is management of economy, such management corresponding to the interests, correctly understood, of the industrial. workers.as well as the entire national collectivity.
"Such management, already undertaken in the self-managed sec~ tor, must be developed in other forms in the sector of industry that is not self-managed =-- trade and transport, This was expressed by Brother Ben Bella in his speech of April 16, 1964, when he declared with regard to state management: ‘We know that this road holds dan~ gers, The duty of the party is to be aware of these dangers and to counter them by finding formulas that will enable the workers to prepare themselves to take charge of the responsibilities of management,!
"Our paper likewise declared last week: 'Thus the principle, inscribed in the Charter of Algiers, aiming at placing the wealth of the country under the control of the toiling masses, will become coneretized, And experience has proved that this control is not real, effective, except insofar as the toiling masses participate in the whole mechanism, at all stages of the management and exploitation of our resources,!
"Workers control of management thus corresponds well with the aspirations of the working masses, with the will of the government and the party and with the objective requirements of the situation; that is, with the need to block, especially in the: oil industry, the efforts'of French neocolonialism and the Algerian bourgeoisie in alliance with it to sabotage our ecomomy and to stop or at least slow down the course of our revolution, ,
"To fight neocolonialism and the counterrevolutionary faction of the Algerian bourgeoisie on their own ground -- this is the slogan of the workers, this is the meaning of workers control.
"Onee placed under the control of the workers, the justified fear of seeing the state enterprises and mixed companies become instruments of neocolonialism, fears that were expressed in the party program and which could grow, will disappear. These enter~ prises will instead become weapons in: the hands of the masses,
"Workers control is not self-management but it must. be founded on the democratic principle in force in self-management. It must associate the workers in management and teach them how to assume responsibility by overcoming the passive role of the traditional wage worker, This means that workers control must be conceived just like self-management as an extraordinary instrument for the advancement of the workers," .
El Moudjahid continues its illuminating presentation of the
=~ Ge
need for workers control and its advantages by advancing a number of specific proposals on how to put it into effects
LIFE