After the coup of Boumediène which ousted Ben Bella from power in 1965, he continued to operate clandestinely for the next 24 years. He was a member of the ORP (Organisation of Popular Resistance) during some of that time in the beginning, and a founding of member in 1966 of the PAGS party (Parti de l'Avant Garde Socialiste) which was a new facade for the Communist Party. The Organisation of Popular Resistance had been created by Mohamed Harbi and Hocine Zahouane, two left wing leaders of the FLN to oppose Boumedienne's coup.