National Liberation Front (Algeria)
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The National Liberation Front (Arabic: جبهة التحرير الوطني; transliterated: Jabhat al-Taḩrīr al-Waţanī, French: Front de Libération nationale, hence FLN) is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was set up on November 1, 1954 as a merger of other smaller groups, to obtain independence for Algeria from France.
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[edit] Anticolonial struggle
The FLN is a continuation of the main revolutionary body that directed the war for independence against France. It was created by the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action (CRUA), which emanated from clandestine opposition and emergent paramilitary networks continuing the nationalist tradition of the Algerian People's Party (PPA). The CRUA urged all the warring factions of the nationalist movement to unite and fight against France. By 1956 - two years into the war - nearly all the nationalist organizations in Algeria had joined the FLN, which had established itself as the main nationalist group through both co-opting and coercing smaller organizations. The most important group that remained outside the FLN was Messali Hadj's Mouvement national algérien (MNA). At this time the FLN reorganized into something like a provisional government. It consisted of a five-man executive and legislative body.
The FLN's armed wing during the war was called the Armée de Libération nationale (ALN). It was divided into guerrilla units fighting France and the MNA in Algeria (and wrestling with Messali's followers over control of the expatriate community, in the so-called "café wars" in France), and another, stronger component more resembling a traditional army. These units were based in neighbouring Arab countries (notably in Oujda in Morocco), and although they infiltrated forces and ran weapons and supplies across the border, they generally saw less action than the rural guerrilla forces. These units were later to emerge under the leadership of army commander Col. Houari Boumédiène as a powerful opposition to the political cadres of the FLN's exile government, the GPRA, and they would eventually come to dominate Algerian politics.
[edit] Post-independence turmoil
The war for independence continued until March of 1962 when finally, the French government signed the Évian Accords, a cease-fire agreement with the FLN. In July the same year, the Algerian people approved of the cease-fire agreement with France in a referendum, supporting economic and social cooperation between the two countries as well. Full independence followed, and the FLN seized control over the country. Political opposition in the form of the MNA and Communist organizations was outlawed, and Algeria constituted as a one-party state. The FLN became its only legal and ruling party.
Immediately after independence, the party experienced severe internal power struggle. Political leaders coalesced into two grand camps: a Political Bureau formed by the radical Ahmed Ben Bella, who was assisted by the border army, faced off against the political leadership in the former exile government; Boumédiène's army quickly put down resistance and installed Ben Bella as President. The single most powerful political constituency remained the former ALN, which had entered largely unscathed from exile and was now organized as the country's armed forces; added to this were regionally powerful guerrilla irregulars and others who jockeyed for influence in the party. In building his one-party regime, Ben Bella purged remaining dissidents (such as Ferhat Abbas), but also quickly ran into opposition from Boumédiène as he tried to assert himself independently from the army.
[edit] The Boumédiène era
In 1965, tension between Boumédiène and Ben Bella culminated in a coup d'état, after Ben Bella had tried to sack one of the Colonel's closest collaborators, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika (who was in 1999 elected President of Algeria). A statist-socialist and anticolonial nationalist, Boumédiène ruled through decree and "revolutionary legitimacy", marginalizing the FLN in favor of his personal decision-making and the military establishment, even while retaining the one-party system.
[edit] The FLN under Chadli
Boumédiène held tight control over party leadership until his death in 1978, at which time the party reorganized again under the leadership of the military's next candidate, Col. Chadli Bendjedid. The military remained well represented on the FLN Central Committee, and is widely held to have been the real power-broker in the country. During the 1980s the FLN toned down the socialist content of its programme, enacting some free-market reforms and purging Boumédiène stalwarts.
However, it was not until 1988 that massive demonstrations and riots jolted the country towards major political reform. Rival political organizations were permitted, after the Algerian Constitution was amended to allow a multiparty system and democracy. The FLN was cut off from its privileged position in the state apparatus and military.
The electoral gains of the Islamist FIS however led to a military coup d'état against the weakened FLN government in 1992. Algeria was under direct military rule for some time, and after formal democracy was restored, the FLN remained outside the ruling apparatus; the military clans in power now drew political legitimacy from other parties. The party remained in opposition to the government during the first part of the Algerian Civil War, notably in 1995 signing the Sant'Egidio Platform, which was highly critical of the military establishment; however, after internal power struggles and a leadership change, it returned to supporting the Presidency.
[edit] Present situation
The party received 34.3% of the parliamentary vote in the latest elections of 2002 and has 199 members in parliament. The FLN's former secretary-general Ali Benflis, emerged as a rival to the President of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, but lost his struggle for control over the party. Benflis won 6.4% of the vote at the presidential elections of April 8, 2004. Abdelaziz Belkhadem took control of the party after the elections, and was later promoted to Prime Minister of Algeria; the FLN serves as one of the three parties in the ruling Presidential Alliance (with the National Rally for Democracy/RND, and the Movement of Society for Peace/MSP-Hamas).
[edit] See also
- Jeanson network
- Algerian War of Independence (1954-62)
- French rule in Algeria (1830-1962)
