The struggle for Algerian independence has entered into the pantheon of heroic anti-colonial revolutions lionised by the left, epitomised by the continued popularity of Gillo Pontecorvo's film The Battle of Algiers. Indeed, at the time, it galvanised revolutionary activists who rejected the pro-colonial positions of the traditional parties of the French left and wished to show their solidarity with an epic struggle that foreshadowed the conflict over Vietnam a few years later. However, it is important to look beyond the mythologies of the Algerian struggle to understand why, after independence, the country failed to advance towards justice and equality.

As well as the recommended readings below, there are a number of useful shorter articles:

• Jean-François Lyotard and the Algerian Revolution, by Ian Birchall

• Daniel Guérin Showed Us What a Socialist Writer Should Be, by Ian Birchall

• On This Day in 1961, French Police Murdered Dozens of Pro-independence Algerians, by Henri Benoits and Clara Benoits

• How Jean-Paul Sartre and Les Temps Modernes Supported Algeria’s Struggle for Freedom, by Ian Birchall

• Mitterrand’s War, by Ian Birchalll

• Hadj-Ali Abelkader: A Muslim Communist in the 1920s, by Ian Birchall

• Algeria, by Jean-François Lyotard