By Pierre Frank
Tn the month or a0 since the coup d'oatat that deposed Ben Bella, the new regime has, in one form or another, been granted recognition by the various powers - the big ones like the United States, the USSR and China, and the madium and emall ones. The act of violence has thus been ratified om an international scale.
Within the country, the demonstrations which broke out. immediatcly after Houmedienne seized power have come to an ond. The "National Council of the Revolution", the mombership of which was not ann-= ounced until after two weeks, turned out to consist almost wholly of military figures for whom Boumedienne had just sect an example thoy are bound to ponder over, A wock later the composition of the government was announced, This, along with declarations made by spokesmen of the new regime, has given riso to some speculation.
It has been noted quite generally that the new rogime has not turned the tillor sharply to the right, that it has axpressed ite intention to pursuo Algeria's Secialist "option", that it has como out for maintaining self-management etc. The pro-Ialamic doolarations are said to be no aurprise. Finally the composition of the new government, in which Rebah Bitat made his reappearance, has been declared of intorest. Particularly, the elimination of «2 Mohameddi Said has been stressed, and above all, one of thea more dramatic modifications, the replacement of Boudiasa, who had a reputation of being reactionary and dishonest, by Zerdani os Minister of Labour, Zertdani has the reputation of being a man of the left who was one of Mohamed Harbi's collaboratora when the latter wos editor of 'Revolution Africaince',
Did the coup d'etat then signify only a shift in personnel and not in political orlontation?
Upon the announcement of the coup d'etat, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International held that the oporation of June 19 did mot signify the immediate liquidation of the conquosts of the revolution and tho establishment ipso facto of a teo-colonielisat regime (Seca World Outlook, June 25). It could even be expected, the Fourth International held, that while seeking to consolidate & regime to the right of Bon Bella's, Boumedionne might undertake certain radical measures, for example in the direction of agrarian reform.
Up to now this is the tendency that appoars to be in tha forefront. At the same time, the United Scorctariat of the Fourth International stressed that an operation lika the ono carried out by Boumedionne has a logic that doos not neccssarily coincide with his possible intentions. This question haa beon quite correctly explained by Fidel Castro. Castro said that he would judge
= Houmedianne: by his acts, but, he added, a pronunciamento cannot aavance a revolution.
This ia the root of the question, Tt could be objected that Ben Bella himself came to power in July 1962 under "non-domocratic" conditions. But the assertion is falae. First of all the GPRA (Govvernement Provisoire de la Republique Algerienne) was an assemblage whose relations with the Algerian masses was questdonable, and it was on the spirit , the enthusiasm of the masses that the Tlemeen team was brought to power. Following that, in the course of the successive elimination from the government of Khider, Ferhat Abbas ete., the support of the masses was concretely shown through street demonstrations. This time there was the 4 typical pronunciamento, and the new power showed that it did not dare appeal to the masses, that it was very careful not to call on them to demonstrate in the streets,
Boumedionne's bonapartist game, which is not much different from Hen Della's, is not decisive, In politics it is not only the what that counts. The who and the how can have very considerable consequences, For quite a time Ben Bella addressed the masses above all, and the Algerian revolution made progress. Then he turned particularly to combinations at the top, and thus he opened the way to a coup d'etat, Despite recognition from the big powers, Boumedienne's regime is unstable - it rests on an armed force that cannot help but feel the tensions existing within the country. lie does not have the capital of sympathy, of personal authority enjoyed by Ben Bella, In proceeding to a coup d' etat, he created a new situation in which the first conclusion is that the Algerian revolution is weaker than before. The masses have been disoriented, and the partisans of the coup d'etat encouraged.
4&4 disquieting new slement is the position taken by figures like Zerdani who are considered to be in the left. If it were the act of an individual it would have little importance, But, unfortunately, leftist figures in Algeria have had a tendency for more than a year to line up with combinations at the top in hope of advancing their ideas, rather than trying to organise themselves and to organise the vanguard of tested, militant and clear-sighted middle ca dres to be found in the ranke of the Algerian revolution, The only ‘positive! result which the June 19 coup d'etat could have would be to stimulate the organisation of such a vanguard in the . light of the lessons of three years of independence, But if an important part of the left continues to use its talents in combinations at the top, this will prove disastrous for the future of the revolution, No revolution has ever advanced by such means. 4 revolution can advance only by the broad participation of the masses in political lifa,. Corridor deals are incomprehensible to the masses, wearying and demobilising them.
The policy of the new regime is not the sole determinant, Social forces have been released, Some of them operate only in the dark. But the revolutionary forces advance only through organising a political vanguard.
m Fine Pages from the history of the Fourth International...
Rint IiN WwipEeL In By George Ereitman
When my mind turns to Germans and World War IL, I think not only of Adolf Hitlor, but also of Martin Widelin, German revolutionist and internationaliat,
Widelin was atill alive when I reached France as an army draftea in 1944, I never met him because he was murdered by Gastapa Beonte the month after I arrived, en July 22.
Although I learned about him only after his death, everything I heard convineed me he was one of the more remarkable figures of the revolutionary movement of our time.
Martin Widelin wea born in Berlin, around 1915 = about a year before the First World War. He joined the revolutionary movement at the age of 15, and served as a youth organiser in Berlin until he was 20, Then the Hasis came to power and wiped out e11 working class and radical movements. For the next five years young Widelin remained in Germany, trying behind the cover of sports orgenisetions to build an underground movement against Hitlerisn.,
In November 1938, with the Gestapo on his tail, he had to flee his native country. He got away to Belgium, where he joined the Belgian section of the Fourth International, which had recently been founded under the leadership of Leen Trotsky.
The War began and Relgium was soon occupied by German armies. Widelin joined in the task of reconstructing, first the Helgian, then other European sections of the Fourth International. Elected to the ‘elgian party's central committee in Jume 1941, he was put in charge of the party's propsganda among German occupation troops.
One of his first successful actions was the publication of a manifesto denouncing the Nazi invasion of the Soviet: Union =- and its distribution among German soldiers in France and Belgium, Thereafter, in co-operation with other members of the Fourth Intermational, Widelin, under the pseudonym "Faull", began to build rev- Olutionary cella inside the German armed forces and te knit them together into a network that oxtended back into Austria and Germany itself,
The Gestapo considered thia activity so alarming that it sent a special commission to Paris to wipe it out, In a single German unit more than 30 soldiers were executed as "Trotskylsts" after a stool pigeon had wormed his way into their midst.
ain:
Hatred of Nazism was widespread in Europe,, and struggle against it grew in Various ways a6 the war proceeded, Sut the activities of Widelin's ¢roup were unique = they were conducted in tha spirit of intornsationalisan, not of narrow anti-Germanisan, Widelin and | hiscomrades did not unite with and subordinate themsclyes to agents of Allied imperialism, as most resistance groups did, They did not content themselves with knifing German soldiers in the ribs. at night. Their aim was higher and harder - to undermine the German forces from within, and in the process to orfanise Gorman soldiers to that they would unite with the masses of the occupied countries on 4 revolutionary basis againat their common opp ressors,. They Be= lieved that fraternisation was the only method through which the strugela against Hitler could have a successful revolutionary out-= OMG s It is not surprising that the Gorman authoritics put a higher price on Widelin's head than on many jillied goanerals. In February, 1944, Widelin helped organise the Buropean conference of the Fourth International, bringing its forcos together for the first time since they had been dispersed or destroyed at the atart of the war. He was oclected to the European oxocutive cormittes of the International, Under its direction be began his outstanding accomplishment = the publication of an illegal Gorman paper dedicated to spreading the spirit of internationalism, fraternisation and anti=-canpitealism among the German soldiers, The paper was named 'Arbeiter und Soldat! (Worker and Soldier), Printed underground in France, copies reached even distant Garman farrisons in Italy. Despite numerous raids, the Gcatapo waa never able toa discover the press on which 'Arbeiter und Seldat't was printed, But on July 13, 1944, "Paul" and a comrade, Margucrite Baget, were captured by agents of the French Gestapo - SPAC (the anti- Communist Police Bureau). Thoy were torturaod horribly for cight days and then, on July 21, turned over to the German Gastapo, Margucrite Daget was sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbrick. Widelin was murdered by the Gortan Gestapo on the next day.
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