Inciting fascism for dummies: the Far Right in French Algeria, 1920–1930
So for whatever reason you have decided that you wish to expand your anti-democratic, nationalist, and religious organization to the French living overseas. First of all, well done, you scum. Not many succeed in thinking globally — the fragmented politics of our era, early 20th century, tend to focus on the metropole, with imperialism left to be run by a small, close-knit community of admirals, businessmen, and diplomats. But that is not the case in Algeria, where instead of a small colonial government ruling through local mediation, there are hundreds of thousands of proud Frenchmen, with their own opinions and class divides and politics. So bad-good luck to you.
But it is not as easy as it seems: sure, the local population is generally open to fascism: since the naturalization of the Jewish population in 1870 by the Crémieux decree, the political status of Christians has been challenged — and by Oriental Jews. These are, in fact, the most-hated kind of Jews by Pieds-noirs antisemites: they (according to the hateful propaganda) combine the worst of the Jews of Paris (knavery, mystery, internationalism) and the ailments of the local Arab and berber population (laziness, abhorrence of civilization). The French carried out a number of violent antisemitic riots, in response. But despite these favorable conditions, you must learn from the failure of the Action Française, which was established as part of the political typhoon around the Dreyfus affair.
In the 1920s the AF drew encouragement from Mussolini’s success in Italy (which was near geographically and linguistically, since an Italian-Spanish Christian minority was also considered part of the Europeans of Algiers); The AF wanted a devout Catholic monarchism in France that would save it from spiritual decline. They believed in family values and organic nationalism; And as part of that, in corporatism as an economic method. They were outraged at the humiliation served to their country by Germany, both in the 1870 war and at in it’s daring behaviour during the cMoroccan Crisis. They lamented the education policy, the budget crisis, and the state of the mining industry.
And all this… never interested the Algerian French. The problems in Algeria are completely different: anxiety about the Muslim population, which was 10 times as many; A desire to achieve more independent policy than other departments in France; And of course a grave fear of communism-Judaism that would manipulate the tribes through bribery. Safe borders in a desert area, local employment laws and the prevention of the humiliating situation of a Frenchman working alongside a Muslim, biased courts in favor of Europeans in pasture conflict cases — these are the issues that moved the hearts of the Pieds-Noirs.
And most importantly: times of peril, one has to prove strength. If, say, between 1925 and 1927 almost every meeting of your organization is dispersed by communists who beat everyone up and sing the International — how will you ensure protection from other threats?
Equally critical are allies: if your propaganda is centered on a monarchical-devout traditionalism, Rome should be by your side. But if the leader of the AF in France, Charles Maurras, is a little too extreme, a little indulgent (like many fascists) in pagan ideas — the Vatican will cancel him, sorry, I meant excommunicate him in December 1926. Then what are we left with? A posse of clowns. Thus in 1930 the AF movement was officially disbanded in Algeria, two years after losing most of its members.
