Elite Spokesmen or Mass Action: Political Strategies of Algerian War Veterans' Associations in France, 1958-1974

When the Algerian War of Independence ended in 1962, the battle was not over for the French soldiers sent to fight.  Between 1954 and 1962, over 1.2 million conscripts served in Algeria, combining with career military to make about 3 million soldiers total.  Returning from a "war without a name," they faced attitudes ranging from indifference to disdain, and the government would not recognize them as veterans until 1974.  Two main associations struggled for rights and dignity for this generation of young veterans.

     Their political orientations led these groups to use dramatically different organizing methods.  The rightist, nationalist Union Nationale des Combattants d'Afrique du Nord (UNCAFN) drew chiefly on networks and establishment contacts to achieve its objectives.  However, the leftist, anticolonialist Fédération Nationale des Anciens Combattants en Algérie (FNACA) was an institutional outsider, which required mass mobilization.  From the time of the war itself, the UNCAFN received the lion's share of political access and prestige, but by the 1970s, the FNACA grew to surpass it in prominence and power.

      This paper will compare the political methods these associations used in their campaigns for veterans' rights and commemoration.  I find that the reversal in prominence and power between the UNCAFN and the FNACA reflects changes in French political culture from Gaullism to post-Gaullism, and also illustrates the challenges that Gaullism posed to civil society movements.  My paper draws upon research performed in 2012 with a CES pre-dissertation fellowship, as well as further work in 2013-2014 as a Fulbright Student fellow.