Algerian Independence and the British Left

Based on archives from governments, parties, organisations and individuals, this book investigates the relationship between the British left and Algerian liberation movements during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962). It explores the presence of representatives of the Mouvement national algérien (MNA) and the Front de libération nationale (FLN) in London, where they actively sought support for peace, independence from France and the global end of European domination. By surveying their interactions with individuals and groups in the anticolonial left, including prominent Labour MPs, and Trotskyist groups, Asian and African associations and students' unions, Torrent shows how and why solidarity was interpreted differently across the left, and in relation to Britain's own end-of-empire conflicts.
Tracing connections across Europe and beyond, this book demonstrates how the war influenced conceptions of socialism, communism and internationalism in Britain, what being European meant, and what place the Commonwealth should have in a world where armed struggle and liberation diplomacy disrupted boundaries.

Mélanie Torrent is Professor of British and Commonwealth History at the Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University in London, UK and was a junior member of the Institut universitaire de France. She is the author of Diplomacy and Nation-Building: Franco-British Relations and Cameroon at the End of Empire (2012).

Preface by Martin Evans Acknowledgments List of acronyms List of illustrations A note on aims, sources and terms Introduction Chapter 1. Putting Algeria on the anticolonial map: North Africa and the politics of empire in post-war Britain Chapter 2. Algeria in anticolonial and pro-peace networks in Britain: self-determination, world security and early appraisals of Algerian nationalist movements Chapter 3. Searching for socialism under Guy Mollet: French socialists, Algerian nationalists and a divided British left Chapter 4. A world of military force? France, Algeria and Labour's internationalist policies at the time of Suez Chapter 5. Labour and Algeria's first unofficial diplomats in Britain: testing anticolonial ideas, practices and networks Chapter 6. 'No longer domestic': Labour activism and the British debate for rights, peace and justice in Algeria Chapter 7. Democracy under threat? The British left and the Algerian birth of the Fifth Republic Chapter 8. Meeting the FLN in Africa: new international forces, new Labour perspectives? Chapter 9. Beyond the politics of war? H-bomb protests, refugee relief and the limits of anticolonialism in British society Chapter 10. Algeria in the year of Africa: winds of change for the British left? Chapter 11. Individual freedoms and collective security: reassessing violence and diplomacy at the end of empire Chapter 12. Independence at long last: a victory for socialism? Chapter 13. After Algeria's independence: perspectives and limits of a Labour government in waiting Conclusion Sources Index