COUNTERREVOLUTION TRIES AGAIN IN ALGERIA
Since the end of June, the world press has featured sensa~ tional stories about an upsurge of "rebellion" in Algeria against the Ben Bella government. What is it all about?
A July 7 Paris dispatch to the New York Times provides a clue:
"Prench~Algerian differences over control of Sahara oil have taken a new, hard turn, industry sources disclosed today. :
"Two major French companies and one American, Sinclair, “have. taken a firm stand against an unpublicized new effort by President Ahmed Ben Bella's megime to impose controls on export sales,
"Since June. 23, Sinclair, followed by S.N,Repal and. Compagnie Francaise des Petroles (Algerie), have refused to load their tankers with Sahara oil destined for sale outside the '!franc: zone! =~ France and her former colonies. They appear to be acting for the industry,"
The dispute came to a head, according to this source, when the Algerian Ministry of National Economy asked Sinclair to sign "Form 02," The form includes "a commitment to repatriate the proceeds of sales in the United States, West Germany or elsewhere outside the france zone,".. . Le
The regulation has already been applied to exporters for other goods. But the international oil cartels are exquisitely sensitive in anything dealing with profits and private property <as was dramatically proved in the case of Cuba where their actions precipitated the process that led to wholesale expropriations.
"On principle," reports the New York Times "Sinclair refused to sign, even when Algerians said the offending portions of Form 02 could be deleted. The company contended that under the 1962 French- Algerian oil accords, foreign producers had right to transport and sell Sahara oil as they chose,
A few days later the demand was repeated in the case of tank~ers from S.N,Repal and C.F.P.A. They refused to sign and two French tankers left without loading.
The oil companies have not been featured in the headlines of the capitalist press. Here figures like Khider and Chaabani have occupied the spotlight,
A few quotations from the Paris daily Le Monde should suffice to indicate thé nature of this _ opposition to » ‘the Ben Bella govern~ ment. . a
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On Col, Mohamed Chaabani, who headed a military revolt in the south: "Politically, Chaa&bani is part of the most conservative tendency -= to say the least -- of Algerian nationalism, His Islamism, for example, is intransigeant; his Arabism is total and without shadings, and his conceptions of democracy or of socialism are com pletely personal. He is above all a man of war who knows how and loves to fight,"
"But," continues Le Monde [July 2], "he would scarcely: ‘have launched a new enterprise if he had not been given the 'green light! from the only political figure who has a certain authority for him: Khider,
"Now Mohamed Khider, in a press conference in Paris. justified the armed struggle and appealed to the opposition to unite,"
On Khider's efforts to organize a coalition against Ben Bella, the same issue of Le Monde had this to say:
"It is clear that if ATt Ahmed and the F,F.S. [Front des Forces Socialistes] constitute the !striking force! of the operation, the real strong man now is Khider, The combination Ait Ahmed~Khider- Chaabani had already been almost put together last August when Khider twent up! to Michelet to propose his services and those of the colonel, The conflict with Morocco wrecked the operation,"
Ben Bella's announcement July 9 of the arrest of Col, Chafibani was interpreted by Le Monde as a major setback for the counterrevolution. The Colonel and his lieutenants “escaped all the operations of the French army for years" during the independence war. Ben Bellats foroces captured him in a few days. How was this possible?
On the-one hand he had grown soft and "too accustomed to luxury," On the other, he was disliked by the population who knew him. "He was turned in by the inhabitants of the village..." [Le Monde July 10.] In other words, in Chaabani!s home territory, the ordinary people favor Ben Bella. This constitutes the most powerful kind of evidence of the mass support enjoyed by the regime in the face of the challenge of the counterrevolution,
In a fighting speech before a huge throng in the Esplanade de ltAfrique in celebration of the second anniversary of independence July 5, Ben Bella outlined the main themes of the government's case against the ocounterrevolution, He recalled the situation only two years ago:
Ei ght thousand villages destroyed in the countryside, two and a half million unemployed, an economy and administration com
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pletely disorganized in accordance with the diabolical plan of the OAS [Secret Army Organization] and their accomplices, The faotories had closed their gates and capital was fleeing from Algeria by the tens of billions of dinars."
Ben Bella asked his listeners to. compare the Algeria of today not with the advanced countries but with other underdeveloped countries in the world in order to Judge properly the miracle that had been accomplished.
The imperialist armies that had - ecoupied the country for 132. years had finally departed “without any clamor or drums, Shanty _ towns have been levelled and new homes are now under construction. Thirty thousand orphans have been assured an education. and the old people have been assured a roof over their heads,
The "difficulties. and hobbles contained in the Evian accords have been surmounted. ..
Algeria "oan hold her head high because we have recuperated 2,700,000 hectares of land, A year ago in this same esplanade we announced the nationalization of the land."
Ben Bella listed a series of other outstanding achievements cet while affirming at the same time that he was not a "Communist" but a faithful adherent of the Islam religion, which, he averred is oom patible with socialism, .-
Ben Bella went far in his appeal. to the Muslim faith, The government had authorized 12,000 pilgrims to go to holy places, he said; no other country pays teachers of thé Koran the way Algeria does; the government is ready to spend more to "safeguard | the Mus~ lim culture and the Holy Book of the Koran,"
He attacked the counterrevolution, scoring its principal leaders,. particularly Khider, who, he said, had stolen some six . million franos ($1,200, 000) belonging to the National Liberation Front. . [xnider, in reapdnge to this revelation, acknowledged the theft and attempted to justify it. The Swiss. government then im. pounded the funds which he had placed in banks in that country, |
In closing, Ben Bella levelled a strong attack on the "oil companics and capitalists." He said, "We will never bow to them, To succeed in that, you will have to. bury twelve million Algerians,"
He stated that holdings of bourgeois figures who have financed the counterrevolution will be seized, Lists of names have already been drawn up. _
The Algerian Revolution gave additional evidence of impatience with the repeated efforts to resort to arms against the Ben Bella government. The death penalty was put into effect and five malcfao~ tors were shot,
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