7 49 ‘Terewith extracts from two recent interviews given Firstly from Le Monde 17/9/63: Question: Mr. President, you have recently launched an appeal to opponents ‘to rally to your regime. If this appeal is not accepted do you believe, nevertheless, that an opposition has its place in Algeria? inswors No, there is no place in Algeria for an opposition, One nosed not share m.y point of view and all Algerians have the right to criticise me, But thore is a fixed framework for that: there is the party, We can have tondencies inside the party. In the case where such a tendency becomes the majority it will orientate the F.L.N. But the plurality of parties is not possible, Certain people say that one cannot express onoself freely inside the party. Let us be serious, Militants who have fought through 7 years of war cannot cast themselves suddenly in the role of the sheep of Parunge following the grand chief, a sort of grand sorcerer, That is absurd..." iisked about his plans for the future, Ben Bella replieds
aa The first measures 1 am going to undertake will concern a funda mental question, the agrarian reform, A text will be put befors the assembly. — It will, this time, concern all lands, without exception, Properties will be limited to so many hectares, the figure has not yet been fixed, Naturally the reform will be staggered over several years, On the other hand we are going to put forward a text concerning the civil service, which will permit in the Autumn the mobilisation of Algarian youth for reforestation and argainst soil erosion. Lastly, our activo measures against political speculators will be accentuated on the political plane, The first Congress of Management Committees - a sort of ‘peasant congress' = will be held in October, It will pormit us to assemble some cadres who will constitute dynamic slements for the party, As for the foundation of the party itself it will only be made in the course of 1964 ca. wee From La Gauche 13th Septembsr, in reply to a question on immediate aims, Ben Bella said:
There will be next the Congress of Self-Management and the Agra= rian Reform, the two based on the lines of tho March decrees, The Congress will perfect the functioning of the Socialist Soctor and the Agrarian Reform will extend this sector, Let me say immediately that, contrary to certain prophecies, self-management has been a very great success. Never before have the en terprises, at prosent self-managed, gone forward so well. There has ‘i ovon been overproduction, if I can esny it! “hat the next Congress will be called upon to rule on, are questions of a practical nature, I+ will be necessary to reexamine the role of 5,A.P., the directors, the question of crodit, of commercialisation, etc. As for the Agrarian Reform, it will considerably enlarge the socialist sector to the detriment of the private sector, Wo ere firmly determined to attack equally all the big agricultural proporties Questions het do you reply, comrade president, to those who speak of lack ‘Of Gomocracy or even of a repressive regime in Algoria? Anawer The “demecracy" which is lacking effectively is formal democracy fo the contrary, what is not lacking at all is roal democracy, You see, we cannot permit cursclves the lumiry of losing time and energy, Ye have gone far and we wish to go quickly. We are obliged, consequently, to work in a certain framework, A framework inside of which we will maintain side by side the greatest liberty of expression and the most enriching confrontation of ideas, that is the only way of uniting all valuable forces and for rapid construction, Repression? Eut is it not rather tho first time in the history of a victorious revolution that it has not had to have recourse to one execution during its first year of existence? Not one}! And then, how many persons, here, havo been been deprived of their liberty for political reasons? Fourl They are, morsover, royally treated.... —