Extrait du livre de David Porter, Eyes to the South: French Anarchists and Algeria, Oakland, AK Press, 2011, p. 476-484.
ANARCHISM IN ALGERIA
I FOUND NO SPECIFIC EVIDENCE OF NON-EUROPEAN PARTICIPATION in anarchist membership groups (the MLNA or Spanish emigre organizations) in Algeria at the time of the outbreak of the national liberation revolution. As well, given the FLN’s internal purges and hostility toward the rival MNA and Algerian Communists during the war, it is difficult to imagine any Algerian with proclaimed anarchist views surviving determined FLN hegemonic control. Survival would depend on suppressing one’s political identity, as in the example of Frenchman Serge Michel, and demonstrating overall loyalty and dedication to the dictates of the national leadership – as well as avoiding the heavy hand of French repression. The only mention I’ve seen of a non-European Algerian anarchist militant in Algeria for this period is the vague reference by MLNA leader Léandre Valéro to comrade Derbal Salah of the Constantine area in Valero’s brief retrospective account about forty-five years later. (1)
