A Patriotic Internationalism: The Tunisian Communist Party’s Commitment to the Liberation of Peoples

At its onset, internationalism has been the horizon of struggle of communism and the spearhead of its strategy. In the Third World, however, it has been remoulded due to the spread of the nationalist wave and the challenge of underdevelopment. By focusing on the Tunisian Communist Party (PCT), this chapter examines key features of its commitment to the external front, notably in the ‘tricontinental’ arena, subsequent to the nationalist turn of the mid-1950s. After analysing the PCT’s stance towards the Arab movement of national liberation, special attention will be devoted to the Palestinian and Sahrawi causes. Th e different stance adopted by the PCT – activism in the first case and taciturnity in the second one – sheds light on the party’s priorities and networks, where pride of place was given to the Soviet Union and the Maghrebi communist parties.