Dr. Kristin Plys has published a compelling comparative history examining how café culture in Algiers served as a vital space for antifascist political organizing across different eras.
Her article, “Antifascist Algiers from La Résistance to the Black Panthers: A Comparative History of Theory-Making in Algiers’ Café Culture, 1942 and 1969,” appears in the latest issue of Social History of Alcohol and Drugs (Vol. 39, Issue 1), the official journal of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society, affiliated with the American Historical Association.
This special issue stems from a conference on café culture and antifascism that Plys organized at the University of Toronto several years ago. In her article, she examines how cafés in Algiers served as critical spaces for antifascist Communist Jewish organizers resisting Vichy colonialism during World War II and later, during the 1969 Pan-African Cultural Festival, where cafés like the Hôtel St. George hosted crucial debates among Black Panther leaders Eldridge Cleaver and Kwame Ture.
Plys’s work connects postcolonial theory, racial capitalism, and antifascism, arguing that these café spaces provide a lens to expand and globalize antifascist praxis. The research offers fresh insights into the intersections of race, colonialism, and political resistance, enriching our understanding of global antifascist movements.