Messali Hadj
Ahmed Ben Messali Hadj (
Arabic, مصالي الحاج) (b. 1898 in
Algeria, d. 1974 in
France) was an Algerian nationalist politician dedicated to the independence of his homeland from France. He founded and led the
Mouvement National Algérien (MNA), an early Algerian
nationalist group and rival of the
Front de Libération Nationale (FLN).
In 1927 Messali Hadj was elected leader of an Algerian workers' association based in
Paris. He attended the Anti-
Imperialism Congress in
Belgium that year, and met with
Vietnam's
Ho Chi Minh. Back in France and in his native Algeria, then a French
colony, Messali helped build an underground movement and work towards Algerian independence. In the 1920s he started
Étoile Nord-Africaine (North African Star), one of the first modern Algerian nationalist organizations, and in 1937 he founded the
Algerian Popular Party (PPA). Both groups were suppressed by France, and in November 1937, Messali was put on trial for agitation, and imprisoned for several years.
During
World War II, Messali worked through
Ferhat Abbas, an Algerian
Social Democrat converted to communism. Their goals were Algerian
independence and
land reform, retaking land confiscated by the
pied-noirs, the million-strong community of French
settlers.
In May 1945, nationalist riots and clashes between French troops and native Algerians during the victory celebrations led to reprisals; tens of thousands of Algerians were killed. The independence movement fractured and grew more radical and violent.
In 1946 Messali and Abbas founded the
Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques (MTLD). Messali lived under house arrest in
Brittany, France, and could not travel to Algeria. His group was perceived as moderate and accommodating, but his
Marxist ideals alienated parts of Algeria's
conservative Muslim society. Messali's brand of Algerian nationalism gained its most important following among Algerian workers in France, while the FLN and other grass-roots groups took hold in Algeria.
After the outbreak of the
Algerian War of Independence in 1954, Messali created the
Mouvement National Algérien, or MNA (
French Algerian National Movement). Messali's followers clashed with the FLN; his was the only
socialist faction not absorbed into the Front's fight for independence. The FLN's armed wing, the
Armé de Libération Nationale (ALN) wiped out the MNA's
guerrilla apparatus in Algeria early on in the war; the infighting then continued in France, during the so-called "
café wars" over control of the
expatriate community. In
1958 Messali supports the proposals of President
de Gaulle and France probably attempted to capitalize on the internal rivalries of the nationalist movement. During negotiation talks in 1961 the FLN did not accept the participation of the MNA and led to new outbursts of fighting.
In 1962, as Algeria gained
independence from the government of
Charles de Gaulle, Messali tried to transform his group into a legitimate
political party, but it was not successful, and the FLN seized control over Algeria as a
one-party state.
Messali Hadj remained in
exile near Paris, with little influence over Algerian poltiics. He died in 1974.
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The Messali Hadj Archive - from www.marxists.org
