NEGROES CAN'T STOMACH. TSHOMBE
Shortly before the Belgian paratroopers were flown into the Congo by the U.S. Air Force, six top American Negro leaders: sent a letter to President Johnson asking for a complete revision of American policies in Africa including the withdrawal: of support from Tshombe,
- The letter stated: "The present hostilities constitute an immediate threat not. only to the Congo but to world peace, We: urge: that the United States Government support all reasonable initiatives by the Organization of African:Unity, in co-operation with the United Nations, to stop the fighting. Hoes
The ideas: in the letter ‘flowed from resolutions adopted by: the American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa which met September 24-27, Theodore. E. Brown, director of the group, stated that the members. "deplored the massacrés of. the white hostages but that blood shed might have been avoided if other policies had‘been followed and ifa solution had been sought within an African framework."
While. these comments - deplore: with: equal vigor the rebel massacres. of the white hostages" and the policies of the United States: government, Malcolm X, recently returned from Africa, con centrates his fire on the "oriminal action of the United States
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government in conjunction with Belgium in the Congo." Asked about the reports of massacres of white hostages, Malcolm X replied, "When Lyndon B, Johnsen began to finance Tshombe's white mercenaries, it was only natural to expect such things to happen. The weight of the guilt is on the white mercenaries, It's too bad they had to die, but when-you..shed tears for those hostages, shed tears for the Congolese who died,too. . . Congolese have been massacred by white people for years and years..." -
ALGERIA'S”“ FIRST AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE
By. Henri Dumoulin
‘AIGIERS -- At the congress of the FLN [Front de Libération Nationale] .last April, a. struggle occurred behind closed doors over the. next _phase of the agrarian | reform and its timing. [See World Outlook-May 22, 1964.] ty
While the European colons -~- both the big and little ones == saw all.their land, about 3,000,000 hectares [one hectare = 2.47 acres] ,- nationalized and placed under self-management. in 1963, no measures were taken at the, bime | with regard to Algerian owners.
‘There were certain indications during the summer of 1964 that land ownership would be limited to 50 or 100 hectares, depending on the quality: of the soil, and that the organization of the small fellahs into co-operatives would begin before the 1964-65 season.
But. doubtlessly the. weight of the poor peasantry was not able to be applied with sufficient force at the congress last April, beeause this body, so far as agrarian reform was concerned, was content to demand, , . a campaign toexplain its content.
In reality,:as events have shown, this constituted a half- .wictory for the opponents of agrarian reform. But .the struggle did not end; it will not end so long as.close to 2,000,000 peasant families continue to live.in extreme poverty.
Through the complex ramifications of the struggles of clans -= and nepotism -- what is developing in reality is a subterranean, ‘but profound, class struggle.
In -a. statement on October 2, President Ben Bella announced that "the third phase of the agrarian revolution will be undertaken in a year, after the harvests of 1965, in accordance with a process and stages to be fixed by an agrarian. reform law."
In the same period, he announced that this law would be passed before the end of 1964. ae =
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The head of the government also announced in the October 2 statement the confiscation of the holdings of traitors and agents of colonialism. Some 100,000 hectares were thus added to the selfmanaged agricultural socialist sector.
Within the framework of the explanatory campaign carried out by the party and the national organizations in relation to the poor peasantry, an effort was made to organize the small fellahs in Peasant Unions.
An unexpected success was thus registered in a particular case, as Amar Ouzegane, the new editor of Révolution Africaine, disclosed in an editorial in the November 21 issue:
“At Taourirt, near Maillot [in Grande-Kabylie], a hundred poor and middle peasants, living in a barren region, were invited by the FLN party official to set up a Peasant Union. This mass organization which is designed to bring together the fellah owners in order to mobilize them for the creation of co-operatives, is to serve as the basis of support for the third phase of the Agrarian Reform,
"Tt was thought that the fellahs of Taourirt would have to be satisfied with an elementary co-operative in which they would use equipment and credit in common, but would divide the benefits on a pro rata basis according to the area of individual ownership and amount of labor.
“These fellahs at once chose a more advanced form:
"(1) They converted the land of the whole village as well as the instruments of labor into a collective property of 200 hectares,
"(2) They decided to work together on the whole unit of production, bringing together the former private properties.
"(3) They chose equal division of the revenues, no matter what each individual had contributed personally, whether 20 hectares, 10 hectares, 5 hectares, 1 hectare, or a strip the size of a hand»= kerchief, and no matter what the nature of the crop might be,"
Of course, up to now, this represents an exceptional case, due first of all to the initiative of the peasants themselves. But the favorable reception given to this step by the party press augurs well for the future. Moreover, it is encouraging to see this concrete manifestation of the socialist spirit in the Grande-Kabylie, @ region where the counterrevolution has made special efforts to find a mass base among the peasants. It is to be hoped that this example will be widely followed,
In its December 5 issue, Révolution Africaine carried an article, "Agrarian Reform and Agrarian Revolution,” providing data
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that in and of themselves constitute the best argument for limiting land ownership. And the December 12 issue, again citing the Taourirt example, presents it as "a decisive precedent, a proof of the success of the agrarian reform." It will deal a fatal blow to Algerian: feudalism and enable other small fellahs to: fully enjoy | the fruits of their labor.
It is not excluded that this new advance in propaganda constitutes preparation for a new wave of revolutionary measures that would make possible a deepening of. the’ Algerian Revolution and the resumption of its march. forward, =."
'In-any case;:a-Congress of the Tillers of the Soil, organized by the UGTA tunion Générale des Travailleurs Algériens], was projec ted for the end of December, It will seek to organize the mass of small fellahs and landless peasants, It will make it possible to ?:.:: gather more precise information onthe level of consciousness of the peasant’ masses... ‘It: will’ likewise. doubtless be.a powerful means of pressure thattan be utilized by’ ‘the. revoluttonary power against feudalism and theé* big: Algerian owners’.
The importance ot thiéigathering’ should not’ ‘be: underestimated, The nationalization of the lands of the. Europeans, it may. be recalled, coincided with the Congress of the Workers of Agricultural Self- Management in October’ 1963... It was also a powerful demonstration of the popular mobilization. Let us hope that this next congress will register successes as. important as those and wield maximum: pressure for the conoretization of the agrarian: reform.” a
Whatever the results of the congress: itself: way be, the effort at organizing the peasantry which was carried out through the meetings and precongresses required in preparing for it, will bear fruit. “Tt will helfb forge an instrument through'which the: revolutionary Algerian: peasantry. will make its voice heard more powerfully one ‘the country's” political scene: in the future.