Unions latines (UL) was an early 20th century

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

Algerian political party.

Background

Deeply

anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and

xenophobic Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...

, the political focus of the extreme right

Pied-Noir The (; ; : ) are an ethno-cultural group of people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French colonial rule from 1830 to 1962. Many of them departed for mainland France during and after the ...

settlers in Algeria was guided by the unrelenting torrent of violence between them and local Muslim population. In 1871, the

Kabyle Revolt French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...

had resulted in the slaughter of 2,686 settlers by Berber rebels. This led to repressive measures including reparations, summary executions and laws that stripped tribes of their property rights. By 1920 the legal reforms of 1883 and 1887 had given 2.6 million hectares of Algerian land to Europeans. Impoverished by these reforms, Algerians were forced to work as virtual slave labor on lands now owned by Europeans. They grew more violent under the brutal colonial laws known as the '' Code de l'Indigénat'' under which the legal rights of "citizens" were formally distinguished from "subjects". The Algerian "subjects" were not afforded any right to jury trials. They were punished heavily for even minor infractions and forced to pay burdensome fines. The result of these measures was a murder rate eight times greater than that of Metropolitan France. When the Jonnart Law in 1919 gave Algerians mostly symbolic political rights, a great torrent of

anti-Muslim Islamophobia is the irrational fear of, hostility towards, or hatred against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general. Islamophobia is primarily a form of religious or cultural bigotry; and people who harbour such sentiments often stereot ...

sentiment was unleashed that mirrored the earlier anti-Semitic colonial politics of the 1890s. The rift between continental republicanism and colonial politics deepened in the 1920s as anti-Republican movements like the Action Francaise (Af) and

Jeunesses patriotes The ''Jeunesses Patriotes'' ("Young Patriots", JP) were a far-right league of France, recruited mostly from university students and financed by industrialists founded in 1924 by Pierre Taittinger. Taittinger took inspiration for the group's crea ...

(JP) emerged in opposition to countless real or imagined enemies—communists, socialists, metropolitans, Muslims and Jews were all seen as acting against settler interests. Even though AF and JP were established in continental France, they were not able to duplicate their success in Algeria due to their core position in support of French imperial monarchy.

Algérianité

Algérianité ''Algérianité'' was the conception of a unique "Algerianess" under French colonial rule in Algeria that encompassed an independence from the French identity, and the political ideal of an Algerian homeland. ''Algérianité'' conceives of Algeria ...

'' (Algerianess) was a synthesis of revisionist history and various

racial Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 16th century, when it was used to refer to groups of va ...

theories of civilization that claimed the successes of Algerian settlers lay in their unique blend of Spanish, French and Italian ancestry that had created a new, superior race of Algerian Europeans. ''Algérianité'' had roots in the works of early 20th-century writers like Louis Bertrand and Robert Randau. It was the conceptual basis for the distinct colonial settler identity of UL and its supporters.

Anti-semitism

Anti-Semitism was rampant among settlers who had rejected the

Crémieux Decree The Crémieux Decree (; ) was a law that granted French citizenship to the majority of the Jewish population in French Algeria (around 35,000), signed by the Government of National Defense on 24 October 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. It was ...

that granted French citizenship to Algerian Jews. European settlers saw the Jewish population as a threat to their electoral dominance. The anti-semitic tone in municipal politics intensified as "Latin" settlers voted seeking to politically weaken Algerian Jews. UL gained support under the anti-Semitic mayor Jules Molle who promoted the party through his paper '' Le Petit Oranais'' which was emblazoned with a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

on its front page.

Colonial fascism

UL developed a new form of colonial fascism in response to the political climate in Algeria. UL supporters were

anti-semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and

Algerians of European descent who opposed traditional right wing politics as much as left and center parties. They wanted independence from

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France ( or ), also known as European France (), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises #Hexagon, the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" ( or ), and Corsica. This collective name for the ...

which they saw as weak, immoral and effeminate, distinguishing them from the continental far right. The relatively large number of the European settlers in Algeria gave the imperial fascist movement greater momentum than similar movements in

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

and

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

. The UL's promises of Latin hegemony gained them many adherents in

Oran Oran () is a major coastal city located in the northwest of Algeria. It is considered the second most important city of Algeria, after the capital, Algiers, because of its population and commercial, industrial and cultural importance. It is w ...

where the staunchly anti-Muslim local population believed in the racial superiority of the "Latin race". Critically, UL made overtures of support for the creation of an independent settler state. They were the dominant political party in Algerian municipal politics from 1924 until Molle's death in 1931.

References

{{reflist Antisemitism in French Algeria Politics of French Algeria Fascist parties in France Fascism in Africa Anti-Islam sentiment in Africa Islamophobia in France Pieds-noirs history