Algerian Independence and the British Left by Mélanie Torrent, in Conversation with Ben White

Thursday, April 30, 5:15pm (Humanities Research Hub, 1 University Gardens, Room 102)
Professor Mélanie Torrent (Université de Picardie Jules Verne), Algerian Independence and the British Left: Solidarities and Resistance in a Decolonizing World, in Conversation with Dr Ben White (Glasgow)

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.