Antifascist Algiers from La Résistance to the Black Panthers: A Comparative History of Theory-Making in Algiers Café Culture, 1942 and 1969

In this article, I compare how the café culture of Algiers provided a space for antifascist Communist Jewish organizers such as José Aboulker, for example, to oppose Vichy colonialism in 1942 with the role of Hôtel St. George (since renamed Hotel El-Djazaïr) in fostering the development of theory and praxis within the Black Panther Party during the 1969 Pan-African Cultural Festival. The Hôtel St. George café was the setting for the now famous debates between Eldridge Cleaver and Kwame Ture over the theory and praxis of Black liberation that led to their falling out. This comparative analysis reveals that theorizing antifascism from the postcolonial and through a critique of racial capital can expand our concepts of antifascism and lead to more global, inclusive antifascist praxis.