ALGERIA ALGERIA: TOWARDS A TURNING POINT?

THE Algerian war, nearly five years old, rages as ferociously as ever. It continues to dominate the French political scene and may yet bring about the downfall of the Fifth republic as it did its predecessor.

De Gaulle had no magic solution when he took power and has since been pursuing a cautious policy: on che one side backing up the army’s task of ‘pacification’, on the other leaving open the possibility of some kind of negotiated peace.

The herding of villagers into concentration camps, the torturing of suspects, the public execution of prisoners—these are the fruits of military rule in Algeria. Rumours have been heard of the use of napalm by the French air force. Mercenaries have been put into nationalist uniform to provoke incidents with Tunisia and Morocco.

The efforts deployed in recent weeks to subdue the nationalist strongholds in Kabylie show that a ‘solution’ by force is as far away as ever. Technically the war can continue for years. In the meantime the French public will grow increasingly weary of a conflict without end—and of the regime which perpetuates it.

Outside the army there are probably few government supporters who expect a purely military decision. The emphasis is on a political settlement; it is even said that the Kabylie operations were designed to show the futility of the view that the army could go it alone.

A social and economic question What sort of political settlement? The problem is to find Algerian figures willing to accept a compromise and able to put it over to their people. A compromise which, while conceding the form of some measure of ‘independence’ within the French community will, at the same time, enable the social and economic set-up to continue unchanged. The million or so Europeans (out of a population of some eleven million) will This continues despite the measures of Gomulka’s government against the left-wing paper, Po Prostu, and «against any political power for the workers’ councils.

Although many of the old Stalinist leaders were removed from trade union positions after the ‘October events’, it seems clear from discussions that some of the vacancies have been filled by bureaucrats who differ only in degree from their forerunners. In fact, listening to a story of victimization in one union was like re-hearing the reactions of the AUBTW leadership during the South Bank dispute, the nain charge against the victim being that he was constantly criticizing the President of the Union! He even had the temerity to criticize some of the ‘perks’ still available in Gomulka’s Poland.

Apathy spreads This reimposition of bureaucracy in the trade unions has led to much apathy among the rank and file who feel that they have the scales weighted against them in matters of policy. The spread of apathy since the stirring months of 1956 applies equally to the youth movement, where the two ‘official’ youth organizations; the ZMS (Socialist Youth Association) and the ZMW (Peasant Youth Association) have a membership which is only a fraction of their former figure.

The enthusiasm of the post-October days has been dissipated. The President of ZMS, a supporter of Po Prostu, has long been removed from office and the activities of both organizations are mainly social with politics a very poor second. It seems clear that the present Polish Communist Party has failed to enthuse the mass of the youth with socialist consciousness and that this is a task which is to some degree the responsibility of genuine Marxists outside Poland. Certainly there are greater opportunities for influence than exist in the rest of Eastern Europe and the USSR.

A final and bitter memory of the Congress is reading the Guardian’s report of the secret trial and death sentences passed on the young workers in Budapest. Only a few hours before I watched the Hungarian delegates solemnly voting a piotest against the prison sentence on Manolis Glezos in Greece.