UNION DéMOCRATIQUE DU MANIFESTE ALGéRIEN (UDMA)

A moderate Algerian organization whose goals changed from autonomy within the colonial system to full independence.

The Union Démocratique du Manifeste Algérien (UDMA; Democratic Union of the Algerian Manifesto) was founded by Ferhat ABBAS during the spring of 1946 and ceased to exist in April 1956 when Abbas, in Cairo, announced his alliance with the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN; National Liberation Front). It grew out of the moderate wing of the Algerian political spectrum, which in the 1930s had sought reform within the colonial system. When the colons refused such reform, it moved in the 1940s toward Algerian autonomy.

Winning eleven of the thirteen Algerian seats in the second French Constituent Assembly in 1946, Abbas proposed an autonomous Algeria within the framework of the French Union. When this program failed to carry, the party was diminished considerably in influence. Representing mainly educated, middle-class levels of society, the party had some three thousand members by 1950 and participated actively in the Algerian Assembly established by the Organic Law in 1947.

After joining the FLN, Abbas and other UDMA leaders served in the Conseil National de la Révolution Algérienne (CNRA; National Council of the Algerian Revolution) and subsequently in the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (Gouvernement Provisoire de la République Algérienne; GPRA).

Bibliography

Quandt, William B. Revolution and Political Leadership: Algeria, 1954–1958. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969.

john ruedy