Colonial Containment? Repression of Pro-Independence Street Demonstrations in Algiers, Casablanca and Paris, 1945–1962

Abstract

This article draws on three examples of the violent repression of pro-independence nationalist street demonstrations: Casablanca, 7–8 December 1952; Algiers, 10–13 December 1960; Paris, 17 October 1961. Changes in the urban landscape due to migration, urban planning and housing policy brought the threat perceptions of the colonial authorities to centre upon certain poor districts and their inhabitants, in the context of strengthening pro-independence nationalism. These developments help explain where and how this lethal repression took place, as well as its key objectives (containment, punishment, deterrence). The late colonial authorities experienced great difficulties in spatially containing pro-independence demonstrations and urban mobility more widely.