ThePeoplesProf
19th January 2014, 18:39
Hey comrades. I'm a new RevLeft member currently organizing in Paris but usually in the northeast U.S. (I introduced myself more thoroughly in the Introductions section). I've been asked to share my thoughts on the struggle here in France and I figured I'd post them here since it seems like people with a particular interest in these struggles might find my thoughts more easily in this forum (I also posted in the Ongoing Struggles forum but maybe that wasn't the most effective place to post this).
I can go into more detail via PM if anyone has specific questions about the struggle in France, but in general I can say that much is happening on many fronts. In the five months or so that I've been here, I've been particularly in solidarity with sex workers fighting against a law that would penalize their clients (and, consequently, plunge these already precarious workers, who are often undocumented immigrants, into further instability and vulnerability); I've been pretty involved in anti-Islamophobia organizing: I organized a forum on Islamophobia where we watched a great documentary called Un racisme à peine voilé ("A thinly veiled racism") after which three awesome grassroots activists (two of them veiled Muslim women) shared their experiences and ideas about possible directions organizing might take from here on out, which led to a very constructive and comradely dialogue; I helped to mobilize folks to the 30th anniversary of France's first antiracist march, which explicitly made the connections between racism, xenophobia, fascism, capitalism, sexism, etc. It was great! However, just like 30 years ago, this time it was also co-opted/interfered with by the status quo-maintaining establishment. What follows is a bit more historical context about this movement.
In 1983, a new generation of suburban youth -- primarily the descendants of France's North African immigrant labor force -- living on the outskirts of major cities in abject conditions, facing crushing unemployment, discrimination and police brutality (the "banlieues" or "suburbs" in France being vastly different from the suburbs in the U.S.) took to the streets and marched from all over the country to Paris to challenge French society to empathize with their struggle. They were able to mobilize over 100,000 people and became very visible and vocal, so much so that the President (François Mitterand) begrudgingly met with delegates of the movement to concede a residence and working permit, which was one of his campaign promises to begin with, and which, unsurprisingly, he never followed through on. Given the lack of progress and betterment in their situation, these marginalized youth organized yet another march the following year, however another group emerged called "SOS Racisme" which completely co-opted the movement, widely distributing pins that said "Touche pas à mon pote" ("Hands off my buddy"), which unfortunately, despite the good intentions of many involved, ended up being a paternalistic predominantly white takeover of a genuine grassroots movement that was quickly sidelined and silenced. If anyone wants to read more about this, look up France's March for Equality and Against Racism.
This past December, the weekend before the 30th anniversary march was to take place (and it's important to note that it had been planned significantly in advance), the same group (SOS Racisme) in conjunction with the presently-ruling Parti Socialiste (PS) launched a separate anti-racist march, supposedly in support of the Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira (a woman of color originally from French Guyana) who was ignorantly insulted by far-right wing idiots; unfortunately this separate march was completely devoid of political arguments other than "racism is bad" (with no focus on concrete socio-economic grievances). On the far left, we see it as yet another attempt to wrest the movement out of the hands of the people. It's no surprise that the leaders of SOS Racisme back in the 80s ended up making comfortable careers for themselves in the bourgeois "democratic" electoral system (particularly in the PS). Furthermore, as anyone who's been following French politics lately can see, the PS is far from being authentically "socialist" and is instead just another branch of the EU's austerity-focused neoliberal agenda which has been actively persecuting and deporting immigrants, crushing workers' living standards, pensions and retirement benefits, and slowly but surely privatizing the education system à l'américaine (in the style of the U.S.). It's so shameful that I don't even call myself a "socialiste" here, just to avoid people assuming that I'm a card-carrying PS member (perish the thought!). Many radical comrades here even have anti-socialist (anti-PS, to be clear) chants during protests and I don't blame them!
One more quick, telling anecdote about my experience at the antiracist march last month: I marched with a group called "Mamans Toutes Égales" ("Equality for all Mothers") which fights against discrimination towards veiled Muslim mothers in their children's schools where they are often explicitly excluded from participating in activities with other parents, in the name of protecting France's beloved "laïcité" (secularism) from being corrupted by the threat of these veiled mothers. Ironically enough, the very women who wanted to be present at the march to voice their grievances were stuck at theirs kids' schools as they were needed to help out with Christmas party preparations! I kid you not! So much for French secularism! #doublestandardmuch?
So much more is going on right now, nationally (and throughout Europe really), and I'd be happy to address any specific movements here or via PM at some point. One last promising detail I'll add is that despite the worrying reactionary shift of a lot of youth in Europe, there is also a very noticeable leftward shift among youth; in France alone, thousands of high school students have been protesting the xenophobic deportation of their classmates, tying together many interconnected issues with an exciting openness to revolutionary politics! Anyone who has anything to add to (or qualify about) my post, please feel free to do so. I've been making it a point to strike a balance between my research, my involvement in larger movements (like the ones I mentioned above) and in more local struggles, like defending the rights of exploited housekeeping, cleaning, maintenance and cafeteria staff at the school I'm attending as an exchange student this year. If anyone here happens to be in Paris, drop me a line and perhaps we can meet up and organize together!
I can go into more detail via PM if anyone has specific questions about the struggle in France, but in general I can say that much is happening on many fronts. In the five months or so that I've been here, I've been particularly in solidarity with sex workers fighting against a law that would penalize their clients (and, consequently, plunge these already precarious workers, who are often undocumented immigrants, into further instability and vulnerability); I've been pretty involved in anti-Islamophobia organizing: I organized a forum on Islamophobia where we watched a great documentary called Un racisme à peine voilé ("A thinly veiled racism") after which three awesome grassroots activists (two of them veiled Muslim women) shared their experiences and ideas about possible directions organizing might take from here on out, which led to a very constructive and comradely dialogue; I helped to mobilize folks to the 30th anniversary of France's first antiracist march, which explicitly made the connections between racism, xenophobia, fascism, capitalism, sexism, etc. It was great! However, just like 30 years ago, this time it was also co-opted/interfered with by the status quo-maintaining establishment. What follows is a bit more historical context about this movement.
In 1983, a new generation of suburban youth -- primarily the descendants of France's North African immigrant labor force -- living on the outskirts of major cities in abject conditions, facing crushing unemployment, discrimination and police brutality (the "banlieues" or "suburbs" in France being vastly different from the suburbs in the U.S.) took to the streets and marched from all over the country to Paris to challenge French society to empathize with their struggle. They were able to mobilize over 100,000 people and became very visible and vocal, so much so that the President (François Mitterand) begrudgingly met with delegates of the movement to concede a residence and working permit, which was one of his campaign promises to begin with, and which, unsurprisingly, he never followed through on. Given the lack of progress and betterment in their situation, these marginalized youth organized yet another march the following year, however another group emerged called "SOS Racisme" which completely co-opted the movement, widely distributing pins that said "Touche pas à mon pote" ("Hands off my buddy"), which unfortunately, despite the good intentions of many involved, ended up being a paternalistic predominantly white takeover of a genuine grassroots movement that was quickly sidelined and silenced. If anyone wants to read more about this, look up France's March for Equality and Against Racism.
This past December, the weekend before the 30th anniversary march was to take place (and it's important to note that it had been planned significantly in advance), the same group (SOS Racisme) in conjunction with the presently-ruling Parti Socialiste (PS) launched a separate anti-racist march, supposedly in support of the Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira (a woman of color originally from French Guyana) who was ignorantly insulted by far-right wing idiots; unfortunately this separate march was completely devoid of political arguments other than "racism is bad" (with no focus on concrete socio-economic grievances). On the far left, we see it as yet another attempt to wrest the movement out of the hands of the people. It's no surprise that the leaders of SOS Racisme back in the 80s ended up making comfortable careers for themselves in the bourgeois "democratic" electoral system (particularly in the PS). Furthermore, as anyone who's been following French politics lately can see, the PS is far from being authentically "socialist" and is instead just another branch of the EU's austerity-focused neoliberal agenda which has been actively persecuting and deporting immigrants, crushing workers' living standards, pensions and retirement benefits, and slowly but surely privatizing the education system à l'américaine (in the style of the U.S.). It's so shameful that I don't even call myself a "socialiste" here, just to avoid people assuming that I'm a card-carrying PS member (perish the thought!). Many radical comrades here even have anti-socialist (anti-PS, to be clear) chants during protests and I don't blame them!
One more quick, telling anecdote about my experience at the antiracist march last month: I marched with a group called "Mamans Toutes Égales" ("Equality for all Mothers") which fights against discrimination towards veiled Muslim mothers in their children's schools where they are often explicitly excluded from participating in activities with other parents, in the name of protecting France's beloved "laïcité" (secularism) from being corrupted by the threat of these veiled mothers. Ironically enough, the very women who wanted to be present at the march to voice their grievances were stuck at theirs kids' schools as they were needed to help out with Christmas party preparations! I kid you not! So much for French secularism! #doublestandardmuch?
So much more is going on right now, nationally (and throughout Europe really), and I'd be happy to address any specific movements here or via PM at some point. One last promising detail I'll add is that despite the worrying reactionary shift of a lot of youth in Europe, there is also a very noticeable leftward shift among youth; in France alone, thousands of high school students have been protesting the xenophobic deportation of their classmates, tying together many interconnected issues with an exciting openness to revolutionary politics! Anyone who has anything to add to (or qualify about) my post, please feel free to do so. I've been making it a point to strike a balance between my research, my involvement in larger movements (like the ones I mentioned above) and in more local struggles, like defending the rights of exploited housekeeping, cleaning, maintenance and cafeteria staff at the school I'm attending as an exchange student this year. If anyone here happens to be in Paris, drop me a line and perhaps we can meet up and organize together!