DAMAGING .ADMISSIONS
The elections in Algeria September 20 could prove of but limited interest due to the fact that there was only a single slate of candidates, the one approved. by the Central Committee of the FLN [Front de Libération Nationale], All to be noted in the outcome was the percentage of abstentions. There was nothing exceptional about this in general except in the Kabylie region, where similar absten-~ tions occurred in last year's elections, and Algiers and Constantine, In other words, a rise in discontent was registered in areas where it was convenient to do so,
In the moantime, the government is continuing its efforts «taking realities into account -- to increase the independence of the country with regard to the oil companies.
However important the efforts of the government in this direction may_be, they still will not resolve the current difficulties it faces, [See World: Outlook September 18.] The most serious problem. at present is a certain deterioration in relations between the government and the masses, In the preceding period, the regime met the aifficulties by addressing the masses and by responding to their aspirations and needs. For several months it has been observable that the regime no longer turns toward the masses with the same con fidence but displayg greater preference for arrangements at the top, The FLN. Congress issued the generally very promising: Charter of Algiers [see World Outlook May 1], but the leadership was eleoted not on the basis of policies but in accordance with agreements behind the scenes,
The consequences were visible in a characteristic example: in April, in accordance with this kind of deal, an opponent’ like Chaabani was named to the Political Bureau, Less than six months later he was shot after a trial behind closed doors,
The masses can be educated only through openly conducted political struggles, including, if necessary, the court room. But measures agreed on in bureaus without public explanation can only foster indifference among the masses, — .
In the September 17 issue of the Paris daily Le Monde, the "opposition" published its views via an interview with Mohamed Boudiaf, Some interesting revelations were made on which a curious silence had been maintained up to now, , oo
Boudiaf has sought to represent himself as an oppositionist of the left, linked’ with former elements of the Fédération de France, and without any connections with reactionary movements, What does the interview reveal?. oo, 0
There are, of course, a number of affirmations about socials © ism, in favor of a vanguard party, a denunciation of the state
A
apparatus, etc, But.on these points, in the final analysis, he says virtually the same things as Ben Bella. The new points of real inter+ est are certain admissions he makes:
"This inexorable and rapid evolution involves sifting out the country's healthy forces, If,-up to recently, the opposition has remained divided, heterogeneous. and indecisive, the development of things has: provoked a labor of clarification and unification, Thus the PRS [Parti de la Révolution Socialiste organized by Boudiaf in 1962], the FFS. [Front des Forces Socialistes organized by Hocine Att Ahmed in 1963], and former elements of the ALN [Armeé de Libération. Nationale] have regrouped around three lines of force: agreement on the economico-political analysis of the situation, agreement on the means of action and the necessity of uniting, agreement on the per- _ spectives for the future,
"The CNDR [Comité National de Défense de la Révolution], which we have founded, goes beyond the limits of a regional opposition, ~: » Our firm positions, which have led us to resume the armed struggle, — renders ridiculous the reactionary character which they have sought. © to foist on us. We are reintroducing discussion among the most disinherited Algerian masses who were the decisive element in the recon~ quest of national sovereignty,
-"'The members of the CNDR are Mohamed Ben Ahmed. (Commandant Si Moussa), Mohamed Boudiaf, Hocine Att Ahmed and' Moussa Hassani, Colonel Mohamed Chaabani, recently executed in Oran, was a member of the CNDR. ..."
"How important is the armed opposition in Algeria at present?
. . “The FFS began action last February in the Kabylie. After | constituting the CNDR on. July 6, 1964, action included, besides the Kabylie, the Nord Constantinois (Djidjelli, the Peninsula of Collo, -: El Milia, the mountains of 1'Edough), the Aurés and the Southern Front (from the Souf waddy to the Amour mountain).
"Our tmaquis! [guerrillas] are most numerous in the most disinherited regions where the population is the poorest,"
Let us leave aside the boasting. Boudiaf has done nothing: _ less than admit his.ties with Chaabani, and with Ait Ahmed, whose .-. neocolonialist program was publicized in an interview. in the Gaullist newspaper Candide Tsce World Outlook October 11, 1963]. Boudiaf pro~ claims himself a partisan of armed struggle against the Ben Bella government ~- not because the masses are rising against it (he him self admits this) ~- but as a means, as he sees it, to arouse the MASSES,
Such-a policy only plays the game of the reactionary elements in the present :situation, A he Ud.
~2 Bw