ALGERIA—tby Richard Fletcher (Editor, Voice of the Unions) HE new Algeria is little more than two years old, but her own, independent form of socialism is now firmly established. After independence, some 900,000 French farmers, managers and technicians left the country abandoning their farms, shops and factories. These empty properties — the so-called ‘biens vacants’ —- were taken over by their workers who continued to run them without managers on a communal basis. By March, 1963, the Government had wisely decided to accept the situation, which it did by publishing a series of laws, ratified’ by the Assembly, codifying the structure of organisations under self-management. The sovereign body of each enterprise is the Workers’ Assembly — made up of all adult permanent employees — which meets every three months, and once a year elects the Workers’ Council, on the basis of one member for every 15 workers. The Workers’ Council meets every month, and annually elects the Committee of Magagement which meets weekly and is responsible for the running of the enterprise. The enterprise also has a director appointed by the state with the approval of the Committee of Management, which can veto or dismiss a director. The director is responsible for the dayto-day running of the enterprise, and reports to the Management Committee weekly. His authority is shared with the president, who must countersign all orders, cheques and official documents. Heads of departments report to the director, but are appointed by the Committee of Management. The director is also responsible to the state for the protection of the capital and fixed assets of the enterprise, and for ensuring that the enterprise operates within the law, and in conformity with the agreed national plan. Self-management now covers some 80 per cent. of agricultural production, which is rising rapidly and in several cases now exceeds the peak of 1960-61. The system is now being applied to services other than primary production — e.g., transport, marketing, hotels and restaurants. The marketing of citrus fruits was first carried out directly by the government, but the arrangement was top-heavy and did not work satisfactorily. The stations for processing and packing the fruit are now run as co-
operatives attached to groups of selfmanagement enterprises, and marketing at home and abroad is carried out by a _ national co-operative organisation. Co-operation in Algeria is almost entirely productive. Distribution appears to be largely in private hands though, to combat speculation and control prices, the government has set up a chain of “pilot socialist shops.” The Mouvement Co-operatif Algerien hopes to establish co-operative stores as soon as it can acquire the necessary expertise — apparently it has attempted to make contact with the British movement, but without success. We in Britain should remember that our own co-operative movement was built in the face of great hostility from the state and the established social and economic order. Co-operation in Algeria is growing from nothing with the active help and encouragement of a friendly state, and we should naturally expect much closer collaboration between the two. Even in Britain the movement is not entirely independent, being subject to the law in many respects and particularly that governing friendly societies. The Algerian Co-operatives will shortly be making approaches to the British Movement for technical assistance and closer collaboration at the trading, cultural and political levels. It would be a tragic mistake if these advances were not received in the spirit of co-operation in which they are made — and worse still, if they were rejected out of a narrowminded attachment to our own particular view of co-operation. What is right for Britain is not necessarily right for Algeria. It is hoped that discussions can shortly be started on the exchange of co-operative delegations, on technical assistance in retailing and particularly in banking; insurance and other services, the importation of agricultural products from Algeria, the export of British co-operative productions — particularly shoes and clothing — and on the setting up of canning, processing and packaging plant in Algeria by the British Cooperative movement. Developments in Algeria are being closely watched by the underdeveloped countries of the world. Let us hope that the British Labour movement will give a lead to the other industrialised countries in its relations with Algeria. *This article appeared originally in the New Year issue of Voice of the Unions.
Australian Labour-
a balance sheet
N a new Fabian pamphlet, James
Jupp,* a Senior Lecturer in
Political Science at the University of
Melbourne, author of Australian
Party Politics and an Executive
member of the Victorian (Aust.)
Fabian Society, examines the pro-
gress of the Australian Labour Party
(A.L.P.) since its inception in 1891.
The A.L.P., although it was the
Government Party before the Labour
Party in this country was even
founded, has been racked with in-
ternal splits every generation which
have deprived it of power for long
periods. The split which resulted
in the formation of the Democratic
Labour Party (D.L.P.) and have kept
the A.L.P. out of office for 16 years
is examined by the author.
The author examines the A.L.P.’s
attitude to various home policy issues
and concludes that nationalisation
has been shelved in view of the
Commonwealth and State activity in
setting up State Farms, Railways, In-
surance Companies, Banks, etc.,
Education policy tends to develop on
religious lines, a ‘White Australia’
policy is still firmly upheld although
there is a growing opposition to it
amongst the party’s intellectual
minority.
On foreign affairs, the A.L.P. has
been moving Rightwards towards a
bi-partisan foreign policy, despite
opposition from the left of the party,
as Mr. Calwell and many Federal
parliamentarians have been increas-
ingly worried about Australian isola-
tion. The A.L.P. support for selec-
tive compulsory military service, fol-
lowing the Indonesian ‘confrontation’
of Malaysia cut across the A.L.P.’s
traditional opposition to conscrip-
tion. Specific policies adopted by
the A.L.P. in 1963 and 1964 make
the actual policy of the A.L.P. at
variance with the policy officially
adopted in. 1962.
There are many similarities be-
tween the A.L.P. and the Labour
Party in this country. One import-
ant issue on which the Australians
lead the way is that of the control
of parliamentarians. The party con-
ference decides policy and can tell
the Labour Government what to do.