Political
FLN Congress in Algerian War
The Congress of Soummam was the founding act of the modern Algerian state and a crucial element of success of the Algerian War of Independence. It took place on 20 August 1956, when the FLN's leadership in Algeria met secretly in the Soummam Valley (Ighbane and Ifri at Ouzellaguen) to compose a common platform and create a new organizational structure.
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Text from the Wikipedia article “Congress of Soummam”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Congress of Soummam was the founding act of the modern Algerian state and a crucial element of success of the Algerian War of Independence. It took place on 20 August 1956, when the FLN's leadership in Algeria met secretly in the Soummam Valley (Ighbane and Ifri at Ouzellaguen) to compose a common platform and create a new organizational structure.
The Soummam platform reaffirmed the international strategy first outlined by Hocine Aït Ahmed. Rather than a military victory, it looked for "the total weakening of the French army to make victory by arms impossible". In the process, the FLN would establish their bona fides as Algeria's legitimate government and adhere to international law. To that end, the Congress of Soummam formed a five-man Comité de Coordination et d'Exécution (CCE) consisting of Abane Ramdane, Ben M'hidi, Krim Belkacem, Benyoucef Benkhedda and Saad Dahlab —the last two were formerly Central Committee members of the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties. A larger Conseil National de la Révolution Algérienne (CNRA) would serve as the supreme authority. In the meantime, the FLN intended to engineer such social and economic disruption in Metropolitan France and Algeria as to make it impossible for France to continue the war. Equally important, it would work for "the political isolation of France—in Algeria and in the world".
The three guiding principles of the FLN were codified: the primacy of the political over the military, the primacy of the interior over the exterior, and the concept of collective leadership at all echelons. Measures to increase support among the Algerian population and to eliminate opposing groups were adopted, and terms were laid down for any future peace negotiations with the French, including the very important provision that there should be no ceasefire before the French recognised Algerian independence. The negotiating points adopted at Soummam were subsequently adhered to without modification until independence was achieved in 1962.
The National Council of the Algerian Revolution was designed after the conference and was composed of 34 members: 17 titular, and 17 alternates.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Congress of Soummam”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.