PREAMBLE

   For more than a century, the Algerian people fought a permanent armed, moral, and political struggle against the invader and all its forms of oppression after the aggression of 1830 against the Algerian State and the occupation of the country by the French colonialist forces.

   On November 1^st, 1954, the National Liberation Front called for the mobilization of all the energies of the nation, the process of struggle for independence having reached its final realization stage.

   The war of extermination waged by the French imperialism became more intensive, and more than a million martyrs sacrificed their lives for the love of the homeland and liberty.

   In March 1962, the people came out victorious from a struggle that lasted seven and a half years led by the National Liberation Front.

   Having recovered its sovereignty after 132 years of colonial domination under a feudal system, Algeria endowed itself with new national political institutions.

   Faithful to the programme adopted by the National Council of the Algerian Revolution in Tripoli, the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria has oriented its activities in the process of building of the country in conformity with the principles of socialism and the effective exercise of power by the people, of whom the fellahs, the working masses, and the revolutionary intellectuals constitute the avant garde.

    The goal of national independence set by the National Liberation Front on November 1^st, 1954, being fulfilled, the Algerian people shall continue their march in the path of a democratic and people’s revolution.

   The Revolution shall be concretized by:

• the implementation of the agrarian Reform and the establishment of a national economy managed by the workers;

• a social policy benefiting the masses to raise the standards of life of workers, speed up the emancipation of women to let them share in the management of public affairs and the country’s development, eliminate illiteracy, develop the national culture, and improve living conditions and the sanitary situation; and

• an international policy based on national independence, international co-operation, anti-imperialism struggle, and the effective support for movements struggling for the independence or the liberation of their country.

    Islam and the Arabic language have been efficient forces of resistance against the attempts made by the colonial system to depersonalize the Algerians.

   Algeria solemnly affirms that the Arabic language shall be the national and official language and that it draws its essential spiritual strength from Islam; nonetheless, the Republic shall guarantee to everyone the respect of their opinions, creeds, and freedom of worship.

   The National People’s Army, yesterday the National Liberation Army, was the spearhead of the liberation struggle; it shall remain at the service of the people. It shall take part, within the framework of the Party, in the political activities and the building of the new economic and social structures of the country.

   The fundamental objectives of the Republic are faithful to the philosophical, moral, and political traditions of our nation, and in keeping with the international political orientation that the Algerian people have chosen.

   The fundamental rights acknowledged to every citizen of the Republic shall enable him to fully and efficiently take part in the task of construction of the country. They shall allow him to develop and to fulfil himself within the community in conformity with the interests of the country and the choices of the people.

     The necessity of an avant garde party and its dominant role in the devising and supervision of the policy of the nation are the fundamental principles that have guided the choices of the solutions provided for the various constitutional problems that the Algerian state is facing.

     The harmonious and efficient functioning of the political institutions provided for in the Constitution shall be ensured by the National Liberation Front, which shall:

•  mobilise, supervise, and educate the masses for the realization of socialism;

• perceive and reflect the expectations of the masses through a permanent contact with them;

• work out, define, and control the implementation of the policy of the nation;

• be composed of, and led by the most conscious and most active revolutionary members; and

• base its organisation and structures on the principle of democratic centralism.

    Only the Party, as a powerful prime mover drawing its strength from the people, is capable of shattering the economic structures of the past and replacing them with an economic power democratically exercised by the fellahs and the working masses.

     The people shall attend to the stability of the political institutions of the country. Such stability is a vital necessity for the tasks of socialist achievement facing the Republic.

     Conventional presidential and parliamentary systems cannot ensure such stability, while a system based on the pre-eminence of a sovereign people and a single party can guarantee it in an efficient manner.

     The National Liberation Front, which is the nation’s revolutionary force, shall ensure such stability and shall be the guarantor of the conformity of the policy of the country with the aspirations of the people.