GIRIA - A NOW START Discussion article by il, (Kent)
The end of the war in Algeria leaves the country in a broken state. The recent scenes shown on "To-night", of factories closed, docks forsaken and workers idle in the towns and of barren and overgrown fields and workers idle in the country, give a good idea of what has happened to Aljoria. The mass of misery - the food shortages, housing shortage, destruction — is immense.
Yet there is no reason for despair. iA courageous socialist programme could save Algeria, and quickly, for the climate of the country is favourable to rapid growth. A determined effort to clear the orchards and vineyards, to reconstruct the waterworks and reseed the cornfields, to preserve the flocks and herds, would restore the food situation in a faw seasons, The roads and railways must be reconstructed. The raw materials of Algeria must be produced once more and the empty factories remanned. The houses and shops left by the emigrant French must be quickly taken over. The factories must become public property, togother with transport, banks, insurance and mines.
How is this to be done? The answer is by work, work and more work, Work organised as socialist labour. If the ilgerians are to prevent a new form of imperialist. domination, by means of loans of capital for "rehabilitation"; if they are to save the Government of Ben Bella from going to Nothschild and the Comite des Forges, cap in hands; if they are to cut at the root a new class of ilgorian capitalists, of NilPmen" and speculators, intent upon making wealth out of present scarcity and misery, intent upon posing as the "providers of capital" for the future of Algerias if, in short, the Algerians are joing to win what they have shed their blood for over the last seven years, they must remake their country by their own labour, by their own organisation.
Like Russia after the Civil War, they have inherited a devastéa country. Their task is great and the sufferings will be cruel. But Algeria mst take the socialist road, and Algerians must understand that it is necessary to suffer now, even more than they have suffered, in order to keep free from the clutches of capital. There are plenty of jilgerian Kerenskies and Nasys in Paris and Algiers. There are plenty of "restorers" for Algeriae
The need is for the Algerian workers and peasants to organise themselves, If there are shortages, -rationing, let them organise their own semi~starvation, so that they can appreciate its need and date its ending. If there is to be unending labour, let them organise it themselves — so that the word "unending" becomes only a journalistic exagyeration and they see clearly how they can plan socialism in Algeria.
Let the Algerian people learn from all the history of our revolution — from what has happened in Russia, China, Jugocslavia, Greece, Cuba and Indo China. Let them understand that capital is not necessary, if they are determined to make anew start. Capital can be replaced by socialist labour — and labour is one thing they have in plenty. It requires its social organisation — and this is precisely the task. And what a wonderful task} If the Alserians can solve their present problems in a socialist fashion, what a triuvph! What an example to the peoples of the world}
Only vast quantities of unpaid labour, of overtime without wages, of free socialist labour, can solve the problems of Algeria, Only vast quantities of labour of all kinds, determined to reorganise Algeria and make the farms flourish once again and the machines hum, can save the people. Only if the workers and peasants of Algeria believe that they are free to do this in their own way, for their own ultimate bonefits; only if they believe that they are not woriking to install a new national class of exploiters on their backs; only if immediate benefits come to them, along with their long-term tasks, so that they can carry home to their women and children in their hands at the end of the week a piece of reality, to show that thotr task is practical as woll as unpaid, will the Algerian workers and peasants swing gladly into this colossal labour.
It is a gigantic and a wonderful task. It is the task that follows the military victory, and if the Algerians tackle this job in the same way as they tackled the war, there can be no doubt of their ultimate success, COLMITTIG FORMED TO HELP ALGZRLANS 70 REBUILD
According to a letter in this week's Tribune from John Baird, 1!.P., a comnitteo is to be formed in this country to help the ilgerians reconstruct their country. The main task the committee is to tackle is getting teachers, doctors, nurses and technician to go to Algeria for short periods or loner.