FLN — prisoners Evian agreement] delights the generals

A becomes abundantly clear that the FLN leaders are the date of the referendum in Algeria draws near it prisoners of the agreement concluded with the de Gaulle government at Evian. The question posed in the referendum expresses this. Algerians are asked to say whether they wish Algeria 'to become an independent state co-operating with Spanish CP paves way for defeat front-page article in the June 15, clearly indicates the criminal role of the Spanish Communist Party in the present crisis facing dictator Franco.

'The Spanish Communist Party has called on all opposition forces in Spain to form a broad democratic front to end the fascist dictatorship of General Franco, the article say the Party said that it agreed with the five points laid down by the Spanish Opposition parties meeting in Munich last week, but opposed Spain joining the Common Market.

'Foremost among the points was that Spain should have the possibility of establishing really representative and democratic institutions which would guarantee a Government based on the consent of the governed.

'Whatever our differences over the Common Market question may be with those who met in Munich,' the statement goes on, 'our views coincide with theirs.

RIGHT AND LEFT

'These five conditions could form the fundamental basis for a political agreement among the forces of the Opposition from Right to Left.

'The Franco Government has reacted with typical brutality by deporting or exiling those who took part in the Munich meeting, using the same repressive methods against the bourgeois opposition as it does against the working class.' The article leaves the reader to draw his own conclusions from the statement. There can be only one-that the Spanish Communist Party will fight alongside monarchists and other parties of the Right for the return of a bourgeois democratic republic.

The CP will strive might and main to retain the dominance of capital over the Spanish Labour movement.

The wheel is beginning to turn full circle. Cruel and bitter defeats for the Spanish workers can only be halted by their own action-by independent working class action that will kill not just the rotten growth of fascism but its capitalist roots as well and establish workers' power in Spain. - France under the conditions defined' by the Evian agreement.

Some speak as though the terms of this agreement can somehow be evaded by the FLN; that it was, in any case, merely a tactical move intended to prepare for 'full' independence and disentanglement from imperialism.

But this is not the case. The FLN leaders not only cannot evade the terms of the agreement, which effectively prevents the carrying forward of an agrarian revolution and the expropriation of French capital, they do not want to.

The agreement, from the French side, represented a desire to retain the main stake of French capital in Algeria while providing conditions for the retention of the new, independent state within the French sphere of influence.

DEAR TO DE GAULLE At the same time, the release of French military forces enables more attention to be given to European affairs and brings nearer the goal of the independent nuclear striking force that is so dear to de Gaulle.

French •capitalists, for the most part, regard the preparation for the more intensive competition within the Common Market to be more important than carrying on a profitless war in Algeria.

The stubborn resistance of the OAS, representing those sections of the European population and of French capital who stood to lose from independence, Algerian CP toadies to FLN THE ALGERIAN CP has never been famed for its militancy in the Algerian national struggle. For years it opposed the independence struggle with its spurious theory (derived from Thorez) that 'Algeria was a nation in the process of formation, that it had a personality but was not a 'nation'.

Then came the 1954 uprising and overnight their illusions were dispersed by French bullets. Making a belated entry into the ANL army they liquidated their organization. The few CP-led Maquis were smashed by the French army or isolated by the FLN.

By the time the war ended the CP was reduced to an impotent caricature.

Then it welcomed with reservation the Evian agreement and lost no time in jumping on the 'independence' bandwagon once the cease-fire came into operation.

In exchange for its uncritical support, the FLN has lifted its 'anti-communist measures' and faces 'independent' Algeria, after the referendum, with a calamitous situation. The new FLN government will find itself taking over an economy on the brink of ruin.

It will be in urgent need not only of capital and technicians but of emergency supplies to cope with massive unemployment, food shortage and the results of social breakdown. In the terms of the Evian agreement it is primarily to France that it will have to look for assistance.

The government will be in the most unfavourable situation for interpreting these terms along the lines suggested by left-wing apologists for the nationalists.

No wonder that de Gaulle expresses satisfaction with the Evian agreement. He claims the agreement to be the result of events which showed how essential French aid was for the future of Algeria.

ONE VOICE On this question de Gaulle and Ben Khedda speak with a single voice.

Some say that the Algerian leaders can turn to other countries for aid, even to the Soviet bloc as Cuba has done, and provide a basis for carrying out agrarian changes and even a social revolution.

It is true that Ben Khedda may be able to obtain aid from American or European capitalism; he will be able to make great play with the threat of communism to do this.

To find in an adequate supply of Soviet aid the basis for an economically independent existence is out of the question. It would mean a break with France and with the capitalist world market which Ben Khedda neither wants nor could afford...

The FLN is a coalition of different social forces and poli• back page col. one allowed the CP to take part in the political life of the coun try.

In recognition of this privilege, the political bureau of the ACP has issued a recent statement which once again proves its complete subordination to the bourgeois FLN and the GPRA. It calls upon its members to prepare 'through the broadest possible democratic spirit and national discipline (!) the historic passage of Algeria to independence.

The statement refers vaguely to the Party's programme for 'real independence and democracy, for land and bread, for work and education and for opening up the way to socialism. What this programme means concretely no one knows. 'Independence' in Algeria is independence for the Algerian bourgeoisie to exploit the workers and peasants in collaboration with French big business. To promote this kind of independence is for the CP to promote its own isolation and strangulation. next month's World Peace and Disarmament Congress in Moscow, which was proscribed by the NEC at its last meeting.

It informed the Earl, along with Lord Chorley and Canon John Collins, who also allegedly sponsored the Congress, that sponsorship might lead to expulsion, as the Moscow conference was under the auspices in this country of the British Peace Council which was proscribed some years ago.

The NEC, however, decided not to expel them immediately but to interview them and give them the opportunity of recanting.

Now Russell has informed the NEC that he has no intention of being interviewed by them and refused to attend a meeting at Transport House last Tuesday THE index of total industrial production, taking the 1958 base as 100, shows the following results:

1959 — 105 1959 105 1960 112 1961 114 Engineering and electrical goods now show an increase of points over 1958 figures, chemical production 13 points and vehicle production 9 points.

Companies' turnovers expressed in money terms, particularly when price increases are taken into account, have shown substantial increases.

Recent company reports, however, graphically demonstrate how profits have declined in relation to turnover and capital employed. I commented on this trend in the June 2 Newsletter.

Few companies publish turnover Profitless prosperity?

ffffffffff figures since they are not required to do so by the Companies Act, and there is not an extensive amount of material to exemplify the trend of diminishing profits in relation to total sales.

Any example should reflect the pressures of world capital on British companies since the presence of competition is an important factor on profit margins.

The British Petroleum Company's recent Annual Report clearly shows how increase in production does not, by itself, lead to increase in profits. 'Surplus capacity now existing in all the main exporting countries... leads to increasing pressure on prices,' says the Chairman. 'We are therefore constantly examining each phase of our operations to ensure that, by the adoption of newer techniques, the cost of our NEWSLETTER REPORTER He said: 'I am not going to come. I have written to the Labour Party to say so.

They can do as they choose about me. I don't want to argue the matter.' Recent statements by Gaitskell and company indicate that they will not think twice about expelling Russell.

If he is thrown out, the elderly earl-a symbol to many left-wingers, young and old-may trigger off a major explosion in the party.

In any event, Right and Left can clearly continue to coexist for only a short period now. The arrogance and intolerance of the right-wing witchhunters is forging an irreparable split. by ts colin chance operations is reduced to a minimum.' In 1961, BP group sales totalled 78 million tons, a rise of some 30 per cent over 1958. Gross income was £1,036 million compared with f835 million in 1958. But net income, that is profits, were only £60 million in 1961 against £63 million in 1958.

In 1958 profits were 8 per cent of turnover, in 1961, 6 per cent. But in a capitalist society will newer techniques, referred to by the BP chairman, arrest the decline in profits?

To answer that one, let us now take a look at the recent balance sheet published by Guest, Keen & Nettlefold, a steel company also engaged in engineering and allied manufactures.

In 1958 the group profit before charges for depreciation of capital equipment totalled £24 million. In the subsequent three years some £55 million has been invested in new plant, not chargeable against profits so that 'newer techniques could contribute to greater profits. In fact the 1961 trading profit was £21 million, £3 million less than in 1958.

GKN's chairman drew attention "to the drastic fall in the two key ratios of surplus to turnover which declined to 9 per cent ... and profit to total net assets employed which fell to 11.3 per cent, the lowest figure recorded in the past 10 years.

Another steel company, Colvilles, actually show a trading loss in their recently published interim figures.

And what is the capitalist solution to these inroads on profits? Smaller competitors will be taken over so that a monopolistic position can be attained, and sharper attacks on wages will be on the agenda.

But the classic contradictions of capitalism, now strongly emerging 17 years after the war, present great opportunities for the world working class as well as dangers.

from p.3 THI NEWSLETTER June 23. 1962