CONSEIL NATIONAL DE LA RéVOLUTION ALGéRIENNE (CNRA)

the parliament of the algerian revolution, september 1956 to july 1962.

The Conseil National de la Révolution Algérienne (CNRA; National Council of the Algerian Revolution) was created by the Soummam Valley Congress of the Front de Libération Nationale (National Liberation Front) to accommodate the broadening of the revolutionary movement that occurred during 1955 and 1956. The first CNRA, which for logistical reasons never formally met, included seventeen members of the founding Comité Révolutionnaire d'Unité et d'Action, members of the former Union Démocratique du Manifeste Algérien, the Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques, and the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulama.

The first formal meeting of the CNRA took place in Cairo in July 1957 and formalized the growing authority of the external militants over the internal. The second and third meetings, held at Tripoli from December 1959 to January 1960 and during August 1961, reshuffled the membership of the Provisional Government, dealing with internal power struggles between civilian and military leaderships. The final session, held in Tripoli in May and June 1962, adopted the Tripoli Program, a statement of leftist ideological orientation. But, as Algeria faced independence, the CNRA was unable to agree on fundamental political arrangements.

see also association of algerian muslim ulama (auma); comitÉ rÉvolutionnaire d'unitÉ et d'action (crua); front de libÉration nationale; mouvement pour le triomphe des libertÉs dÉmocratiques; tripoli programme (1962); union dÉmocratique du manifeste algÉrien (udma).

Bibliography

Ruedy, John. Modern Algeria: The Origins and Development of a Nation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

John Ruedy