HIS was the main question I tried to ascertain in Algeria; I am now convinced that it does. Take these examples: I have seen three large farms, one of 6,250 acres (near Oran), one of 4,500 acres and one of 1,750 acres, both near Alger. On the biggest farm, the former owner, a French company, had only utilised a portion of the land for agriculture, and a portion for pastures, whilst a big part was not used at all. Now 100% of the ground is used. On the formerly unused land, they are growing vegetables and potatoes and were just preparing to grow sugar beet. Irrigation water pipes have been laid everywhere since the revolution. The production of wine, without increasing the size of the vineyards, has gone up from 65,000 to 85,000 hectolitres. The number of tractors was increased from 8 to 33 and all repairs are now made on the spot, the workers having been taught how to do it. The increase in the number of tractors was paid for out of profit. The last payment of profit shares to permanent workers has been £17/5/0 each on the basis of equal shares. The council of 35, the Executive of 5, of whom we saw the president and vice-president, do not seem to find any difficulty in organising the activities of 500 permanent workers and up to 1,300 seasonal workers, and controlling a diversified production including wine, cereals, oranges, mandarines, vegetables, potatoes, sugar beet, 58 milk cows, 1,100 lambs and 3,000 olive trees. At the same time, in less than two years, they have built new houses to house all their workers and families, to destroy all the “gourbis” in which the people used to live and to convert a disused former hangar into an attractive meeting hall and a cultural centre, used for film and television shows and to enlarge the small school, originally built for children of the French supervisory staff, to accommodate all the children of the locality. Or take the example of ““CIMOR”, an “Auto-Gestion” (self-management
unit) in Oran, consisting of 17 workshops and central offices with a large manufacturing programme, including steel castings, bronze and aluminium castings, steel furniture, boilers, marine propellers, etc. These workshops have been closed for over a year after the French owner and his specialists had left, who had been involved in terrorist activities. It was re-opened by the initiative of former employees who re-organised these workshops in a_ streamlined way and introduced using trolleys for a system similar to that of conveyor belts. As I am no expert on casting, I rather looked at the beautiful steel furniture they had made. One of their workshops has now started on an order for 20,000 school desks with benches for two, with wooden table tops and seats, which we found absolutely beautiful. In this case the director was only appointed (owing to a shortage of specialists in the country) several months after the workshops had been opened and re-organised, and found all functioning wonderfully and is therefore full of admiration for the work done by the elected board. As another example, I may mention from my long list a “‘carrosserie” in Alger. A firm which used to do repairs only and occasional construction jobs on order, has now a large production programme of national importance; ambulances complete with stretchers and other equipment, vans, minibuses and telephone repair vans, general overhauls. All these vehicles are being made on basis of imported chassis or by conversion of existing vehicles of a different character. The 72 workers have decided to re-invest their profit of £18,750 in order to expand and to train unemployed men to join them. As a last example I should like to mention a bus company, “Auto- Gestion Colonel Lotfi” which has a function comparable to our Green Line, that means it covers transport outside the town of Alger, with a radius of 187} miles and their vehicles run at present 355,550 miles
‘Government . and a
Feb. 25, 1965 — THE WEEK
Councillor J. A. Spencer
a month. Under private ownership
70% of the vehicles were normally
in use; now they are not only using
their vehicles 100%, but they have
bought six new buses from the
profits of the last three months. The
workers’ share of the profit was
divided according to qualifications.
As distinct from London Transport,
they do not find difficulties in agree-
ing time tables with the length of
the working day.
Rhodesia-Portugal
— ‘Closer Links’
from a Portuguese Student
LOSER co-operation in almost .
all fields is expected to be the
result of talks between the Rhodesian
Portuguese
delegation.
The main object of the 39-man
Portuguese delegation is to negoitate
a new trade agreement with
Rhodesia, to take the place of the
old agreement with the deceased
Central African Federation.
It is believed not unlikely that the
two Governments will in addition
discuss common “security” problems.
Suggestions of a military pact
between Portugal and Rhodesia
have been raised again here, but it
is pointed out that such an arrange-
ment is out of the question while
Rhodesia is still constitutionally
dependent on Britain.
The links between Rhodesia and
Mozambique are strong. They share
thousands. of miles of common
border; Rhodesia depends for its ex-
ports and imports on Beira, and with
the big sugar development in
Rhodesia there is a need for the ex-
pansion of rail, -road and port
facilities.
Trade between Rhodesia and the
Portuguese territories is not large.
Last year upwards of £1.1m. worth
of goods was exported to, and just
over £1.5m. worth imported from
Portugal, Mozambique and Angola.
THE WEEK — Feb, 25, 1965 Letter