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The Wikipedia entry about Abane Ramdane says:
The National Liberation Front (FLN) had killed him because he was supposedly creating a cult of the individual rather than the collective leadership.1 Wikipedia (Emphasis added)
But the article is entirely based on a single reference which makes me question its authenticity. I would like additional information to support or rebut the assertion made in this quote (that the FLN killed Ramdane because Ramdane was creating a cult of personality).
Eyes to the South offers slightly more information. An internal power struggle between the military and political faction was resolved when the military faction killed Ramdane. (See page 30)
Another paper suggests,
The leaders of the interior, under extremist Ramdane Abane, held a conference in the Soummam Valley in Algeria and did not include Ben Bella and those of the exterior. This conference created a legislative board, the Conseil National de la Révolution Algérienne (CRNA), which was responsible for making all military and political decisions, and an executive board, the Comité de Coordination et d’exécution (CCE), which was in charge of all the FLN’s other organizations. Every leader on these boards came from the interior of the country.
Both of these are consistent with the stated source and each of these sources provides additional citations for further research.
'Cult of personality' is revolutionspeak for 'you're more popular than me, and I'm in danger of losing control of the revolution. Since control of the revolution is always more important than the goal of the revolution, 'cult of personality' is a crime punishable by death. No citation for that; it is my observation on the nature of revolution. The observation is a corollary to the iron law of bureaucracy, Survival of the organization is more important than the mission of the organization.
It's believed that Abane was a French spy in the Algerian revolution after the congres of soumam he held a lot of ALN leaders were captured or killed by the French.
