WORKERS CONTROL ADVOCATED IN ALGERIA
[The following article has been translated from the February issue of the Bulletin de l'Autogestion (Bulletin of Self-management), published by the Frantz-Fanon Co-operative in Algiers. The article appeared under the title, "Le Contrdle Ouvrier Est Une Etape Necessaire A la Révolution Socialiste" (Workers ’ Control Is a Necessary Stage in the Socialist Revolution). ]| . OO,
The idea of workers control in the capitalist sector of our economy is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds in the working class. The militants of the UGTA LUnion Génerale des Travailleurs Algériens] and the party [the Front de Libération Nationale] understand that self-management cannot really triumph unless the capitalist. sector of the economy is controlled in such a way that the employers, .in:complicity with counterrevolutionaries hidden in the state appuratus, cannot block its march forward. Several months ago, our vanguard tradeunion sectors, particularly in the oil industry, asked for a broadening of the powers of the enterprise committees which-up to now have served as a transitional institution leaving the economic power of the bourgeoisie untouched. Since close to eighty per cent of the national industry is in the hands of foreign and national .capitakists, revolutionary measures must be undertaken if.we expect to save industrial _— self-management from the terrible competition deriving from the capitalist industrial sector. ©
That is why in No, 2 [ January | of this Bulletin of Self-Management we drew attention to the idea of workers control. We are able to report with satisfaction that since then, this idea has been picked up by many militants, including an important part of the working class still exploited by the industrial bourgeoisie. For several months some of the trade-union sectors have stressed the necessity of organizing workers control in the private enterprises. The national press has published accounts of this which we cite below. The importance of this idea is evident to everyone, particularly in recent weeks when workers control has been requested in numerous enterprises and explained in trade-union congresses,
One of the first to suggest workers control was the union at Renault-Algérie. At a General Assembly on May 20, 1964, the Renault section passed a motion in which it "asked the government to promulgate a law instituting workers control in the non self-managed enterprises." (In Le Peuple and Alger Républicain, May 28, 1964.)
At the congress of the Regional Union of Algiers, a delegate spoke on workers control (see Le Peuple, September 7, 1964):. "Another participant," writes Le Peuple, “proposed instituting workers councils to control the employers' management (handling of funds, profits) in the capitalist plants." In a study on the industrial zone of Rouiba-
Réghai, Le Peuple concluded with an article September 25, 1964, entitled: “Enterprise and Workers! Control Committee in Employers! Management’ in which it was shown that the broadening of the powers of the enterprise committees must aim at giving them power of decision.in the economic area, -thus putting into practice workers control over production. - a ee a
The Federation of Oil Workers at the time of their national congress (beginning of October) launched the idea of joint management. The press commented on this slogan as being "a form of workers control,"
Many studies and documents on the oil industry in the press have shown that the objective there, too, is to broaden the power of the enterprise committees.
Recently workers control was discussed at the congress of the UGTA. At the congress of the Lumber and Building Workers, a delegate declared, Le Peuple reports: "The private and self-managed enterprises must participate in elaborating national planning so that. the plan will be of effective economic force. In the plants and industrial complexes, the UGTA must be able to propose delegates able to intervene in administrating the plan. In order to make it imperative to apply the plan in the private sector, we propose that the UGTA organize effective workers control in the private enterprises, by, granting broad powers to the enterprise committees, which, under union auspices, must become management bodies." (Also see Alger Républicain of the same date.)
A few days later, the congress of the EGA [Electricité et Gaz d'Algérie] workers continued the discussion on workers control, not only in the capitalist sector but also in the state sector of the economy. Thus an Algiers delegate said (see the reports in Le Peuple and Alger Républicain for December 12, 1964): "In our particular case of struggling against the bureaucracy, management by the ranks is required, and we must create the organisms to give us the right to contrel and to manage EGA as a whole. It's up to the congress to concretize these measures by forging the instruments to apply them," .
With regard to workers control in the private sector, the same report stressed: "For the unions in the front line of the struggle in capitalist production, workers control of production, of merchandising and of planning is the most important task, if we want to meet the constant sabotage of our economy by the employers who have not understood and will doubtlessly never understand that our socialist option.is irreversible," oo .
The question was considered so important that the EGA workers in the port of Algiers proposed a motion concerning the line that the Federation of the EGA should support at the second national congress of the UGTA -- workers control organized by the UGTA. Here is the motion: :
"In view of the coming congress of the UGTA, the second national
congress of the EGA, meeting December 10, 11, 12 and 13 in Algiers, passes. the following resolutions:
"_ Whereas it is necessary to carry out the Charter of Algiers in practice;
"--and the national mass, organizations control the state apparatus but imperfectly;
t--and the UGTA includes in its ranks the workers of field and industry:
(1) Proposes that the UGTA sit with full rights in all. the state organisms and that the National Assembly be composed essentially of workers and poor peasants.
"(2) On the capitalist enterprises,
"Without opposing working with bosses who are twilling to play the game,'! we hold that workers control of production, merchandising and Stanndine is the only worthwhi le guarantee to prevent injury to. our -
socialist option. .
"The Federation of the EGA goes on record to struggle henceforth.to put the UGTA congress in March 1965 on the axis of thesé two fundamental ‘problems."
In recent days, a series of strikes was unleashed in the capitalist industrial sector (at Durafour, SATI-Michelin, Saints-Fréres, even in the nationalized Minoteries because of a bureaucratized management uncontrolled by the ranks of the workers), With regard to this the daily Alger Ce Soir of December 15, 1964, ran a headline on the WORKERS CONTROL requested by the 600 workers of SATI-Michelin who "are raising the problem of broadening the rights of the enterprise committee to include control of the management of the business,"
It has been established that WORKERS CONTROL has sunk deeply into the consciousness of the working class. That the workers under self-management or in the state sector likewise propose that this idea should be discussed only illustrates the profound unity of our masses on the same objectives: to lay the foundations of a socialist economy. Workers control has been directly linked to the problem of planning. In truth it is impossible to plan an industrial economy, eighty per cent of which is held by the employers, whose antinational attitude . now needs no demonstration. On the other hand, the sector of these employers who accept our fundamental option and conform with the requirements of a national plan, can find a place during the transition period. But without real workers control, the industrial and agrarian bourgeoisie will continue their tendency to anarchistically exploit our natural resources: and our workers,
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To safeguard self-management from the disloyal competition of . capitalism; to organize national planning quickly; to make socialism irreversible in our country; let's organize WORKERS CONTROL in the capitalist plants.
CAN THE DOLLAR STAND ANY MORE INVESTMENT ABROAD?
One of the compensations of being a socialist is that no matter how difficult the problems of the movement may be, at least you'don't have to try to solve the problems of capitalism. Take, for instance, the latest one handed to President Johnson .concerning the diminishing stock of gold at Fort Knox.
On February 18 he called 370 industrialists and bankers into the White House. He wanted them to help him attack the drain on American dollars and gold by resisting the temptation to make loans .and investments abroad. One of the main leaks from the United States is private capital. Johnson noted that it increased by $2,000,000, 000 last ‘year.
"T want you to go back to your offices, ™ he told his guests, "and call in your controllers and your vice presidents, I want you to ask them to consult every time they face a decision that involves sending money abroad. And I count on you to cut those outflows to the bone. ~ uo
"T know this will involve some pain,” he said firmly. ‘And it will mean passing up a few opportunities for profits. But, in the end, your country, your industry and your stockholders will all be better off for it.
Johnson put it all on a voluntary basis; but he made it clear to the group of industrial and financial wolves that if they dontt reform he will propose legislation to curb them from sending capital outside the United States. Whether the pack displayed fear at this threat was not reported by the press,
‘Last year the U.S. balance-of-payments deficit was $3,000, 000, - 000; so even if Johnson won all the bankers and industrialists to! *join hands with me in a voluntary partnership" to block the outflow of private capital, his problem would still not be _ solved.
There is another outflow in which he happens to exercise considerable direct control, or very influential control through Congress, | This is the outflow of U.S. military expenditures abroad. For the fiscal year 1964-65 total foreign "aid" approved by Congress amounted to $3,200,000,000 -- a little more than the balance-of=-payments deficit. What proportion of this covers legitimate assistance projects like
grain for India's famine-stricken millions is not easily ascertainable; but it is minor. Most of the outflow covers military hardware and personal spending money for a big stable of noisome puppets, beginning with Chiang Kai-shek.
In addition, the U.S. has its own military bases and installations, extending in a global network up to the frontiers of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China. Billions of dollars pour into this, Then there is the CIA, which can topple governments with the undisclosed funds at its disposal.
“So: why doesn't Johnson’ attack the drain of dollars and gold in this area? The reason is very simple.. The billions of dollars pouring into these military expenditures, these war preparations, these interventions in the internal affairs of other countries, all go for one purpose -- to make it safe for American bankers and industrialists to invest private capital abroad!
If you don't understand that, you don't understand the first principles of the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society, not to speak of the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, NATO, MLF and the Alliance for Progress. It was to make the world safe for American investments that Roosevelt plunged the U.S..into World War II with the end resuit:‘of saving the Mikado and the Krupp: family _fortune. For the same reason, Truman went into Korea; ,Hisenhower and Kennedy into South Vietnam. It is. why Johnson is considering plunging into North Vietnam and China, why he joined with Belgian imperialism in setting up Tshombe in the’ Congo, and why he hailed the overthrow of the Goulart government in Brazil last April.
In the light of Johnson's effort to make the bankers and industrialists see the crucial need to come to the aid of their country, their industries and their stockholders by cutting down drastically on foreign investments, we can finally divine tne real reason for the enormously expensive blockade around Cuba.
It's not part of an effort ‘to crush the Cestro regime and thus open up Cuba once more to a flow of dollars. That would be unpatriotic as well as injurious to. business and the stockholders. The true purposé is to keep the Wall Street bankers from undermining the American dollar through their well-known propensity to feed private capital into Cuba.
To quote Johnsonts grim words to his profit-loving, investmentminded audience:: “As President, I pledge whatever actions prove necessary to keep our economy strong and our dollar sound." —
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CUBA