MEANING OF DE GAULLES DEAL WITH ALGERIA

BY TOM KẸMP Ten years ago, on March 18, 1962, the national liberation war in Algeria was brought to an end when a French government delegation and the Algerian provisional government signed the Evian agreement.

The war, which had begun with the uprising of November, 1954, had imposed tremendous sacrifices on the Algerian people; scarcely a family did not have a member killed, wounded or tortured by the forces of French imperialism. The masses fought with a courage derived from the fact that theirs was an elemental struggle for land and bread against a cruel exploiter prepared to resort to mass killing and torture. that the Communist Party and the CGT union would fight might and main to prevent any link-up between the French working class and the Algerian revolution, de Gaulle was able to open negotiations.

The Communist Party's record during the Algerian war is a complete confirmation of its counter-revolutionary character. On one famous occasion when conscripts took matters into their own hands and tried to prevent trains carrying_soldiers for embarkation, the Party opposed the movement with its usual cry of 'provocation'.

CP policy, besides opening the way for de Gaulle coming to power, stren gthened the control FLN's leadership over the forces of the Algerian revolution. Despite the adoption of the 'socialist' Tripoli programme, this leadership had no intention of overthrowing capitalist property relations in Algeria.

One thing is clear about the Evian agreements. The FLN leadership, whatever it may have said subsequently, was happy to reach a compromise with French imperialism. When de Gaulle made it clear what he wanted, it was more than ready to meet him halfway.

At the time of the Evian agreement 'The Newsletter', forerunner of Workers Press, said:

'This settlement is the most cynical deal which a nationalist leadership has ever made with a colonial power.' The Evian agreement followed two years of contacts and negotiations between the French government and the FLN. In February 1962, in a telephone conversation with Louis Joxe, leader of the French delegation, de Gaulle defined his aims as follows:

'The essential thing is to reach an agreement, including a ceasefire and then self-determination, once such an agreement no longer means sudden upheavals in the present conditions relative to the material and political