French territory was the scene of a deadly clash between the National Liberation Front (FLN) and its rival, the Algerian Nationalist Movement (MNA), heir to the North African Star, created in 1926 in Paris by Messali Hadj. A fratricidal war which would have made, according to official figures from the French authorities, nearly 3,957 dead and 10,223 wounded in the two camps between 1956 and 1962. Physically eliminated by the FLN, the MNA will then be erased from Algerian memory.
In France, officials of the Union of Algerian Workers’ Unions (USTA), close to the MNA, were assassinated from 1957 to 1959 by the FLN. On September 17, 1959, an armed group from the National Liberation Front attempted to kill Messali Hadj, the old nationalist leader in Gouvieux, in the Oise. This failed attack against the pioneer of the Algerian independence cause constitutes a significant episode in the violent competition between the nationalist organizations in the fight against French colonialism.
Throughout the Algerian war, the fight between the FLN and the MNA is fierce to obtain the adhesion of Algerians working in France. At stake, to impose himself at the negotiating table with de Gaulle and especially to get his hands on the money collected within immigration, which finances the purchase of weapons of the FLN. FLN tax is around 8% of salary. In 1960, it represented 80% of the FLN budget. An individual who persists in refusing to pay his monthly contribution to the FLN can be eliminated by commandos of the movement.
The FLN, in the minority in 1955, gradually imposed itself by force against its rival in France: bloody settling of accounts (strafing of cafes, physical liquidations, targeted attacks) resulted in several thousand deaths and injuries. To protect themselves, supporters of the MNA grouped together by neighborhoods or hotels. Some streets include FLN hotels or MNA hotels. The police set up roadblocks at night on certain axes to separate the two camps and, at the end of the war, to protect the MNA.
Having emerged victorious from its confrontation with the MNA, the FLN is also leading the fight against the French police services.
Messali Hadj embodied from 1926 to 1958 the nationalist cause despite the political persecutions inflicted by French governments, on the right and on the left. However, his prestige began to fade with his refusal to join an organization formed in 1955. “at his expense”, according to him : the National Liberation Front.
After the war, the propaganda of the Algerian government will only glorify the FLN, the MNA will be erased from Algerian memory.
It was two months after General de Gaulle came to power on June 1, 1958, that the leaders of the French federation of the FLN, meeting in Cologne, Germany, decided to extend the armed struggle on French territory. The FLN launched its first attacks on fuel depots in September. The stocks of Marseille, Rouen, Gennevilliers, Vitry, Toulouse are in flames. Railways are sabotaged, police stations attacked.
These 250 or so attacks and sabotages left 88 dead and 180 injured. The prefect of Paris Maurice Papon decrees and imposes in October 1961 a curfew on Algerians. In order to denounce it, the FLN launched an appeal to demonstrate in Paris on October 17, 1961. The peaceful demonstration was, as we know, savagely repressed.