Poursuivre la révolution: une perspective depuis les camps de réfugiés sahraouis

Revolutions create exceptional contexts of liminality during which militants undertake extraordinary actions in the pursuit of social, political and economic transformations. But when revolutionary action must stretch beyond moments of exception to last decades, what resources and circumstances help militants keep revolution going? Among exiled Sahrawis in refugee camps in Algeria who support self-determination for Western Sahara, over the long and difficult years of exile some refugees have drifted away from some of their liberation movement’s efforts to institutionalize revolutionary forms. Yet some revolutionary initiatives have proved longlasting, such as the reworking of traditional labour pooling into ad hoc revolutionary work groups. In the challenging circumstances of exile and international indifference to failed decolonization in Western Sahara, the act of drawing on and reshaping longstanding social relations can give rise to lasting revolutionary forms that help keep the revolution going.