Word: politburo
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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After weeks of bluster and sporadic bloodshed, Algeria's Politburo Chief Ahmed ben Bella last week finally ordered his troops to seize the new nation's rebellious capital...
...district that includes Algiers and the surrounding region. As their trucks squealed to a halt, Ben Bella's troops embraced their foes at the barricades and sat down to drink coffee together. "Dear brother," one of Ben Bella's officers would say, "we have orders from the Politburo to advance on Algiers." A wilaya commander would reply: "Dear brother, we are sorry but we have orders not to let you pass." Then the brothers abandoned fraternity for fratricide...
...Real Independence." In Algiers itself, meanwhile, militiamen loyal to the Politburo surged out of hiding and seized control of the casbah in rooftop fighting. From Oran, where lie had fled four days earlier to avoid arrest by Wilaya 4 troops, Ahmed ben Bella slipped into Algiers, dressed in woman's clothing. There, in return for a ceasefire, Rebel Leader Colonel Hassan agreed to evacuate the city and to confine his routed, discredited forces to one of the suburbs...
Changing into a dark blue suit, Ben Bella that night delivered a "victory" speech from a balcony overlooking Algiers' spacious Forum. But so disgusted are Algerians with their squabbling leaders that scarcely 500 turned out to hear Ben Bella proclaim: "The crisis is over. The Politburo's authority is restored!" Unconvincingly, he added: "Algeria's real independence dates from today...
...power to oust Ben Bella. Also ranged against Ben Bella is the bulk of organized labor in Algeria, led by realistic unionists such as Ali Yahia, an ex-schoolteacher who believes that living standards can be maintained only through cooperation with France. Even more bitterly opposed to the Politburo are the 250,000 Algerian workers in France, whose organization still refuses to send funds to Ben Bella's de facto government...