“The biggest strategic mistake was to think that the left was inherent in favour of human rights.”
In the context of France, the colonial enterprise was initiated by the left — the discourse was pronounced in the hearts of parliament saying that there is an obligation for the superior races to civilize the inferior races was not given by the far-right lunatics, it was given by Jules Ferry, supposedly from the left, father of French public schooling system.
If we take a look at the past 40 years, what the socialist party did was actually neutralize the political will of the non-white minorities, namely the Arabs who marched in the 1980s.
If we take a look at the 1990s, there was a fundamental or a clear sign that the socialist party took for granted those votes but in the return they framed countering racism only on moral grounds — racism is evil. They behemothly fought the notion that racism is structural, it was always about random events that happened here and there, they literally fought and they were extremely well funded to make sure that those who march in the 1980s first were put on the side, many of them paid a heavy price for their mobilizations, and further 1990s and 2000s we saw the struggle against racism being hijacked.
What the socialist party also did along with the communist party in France was to have their agents bonue to act on their behalf in order to make sure that any rising personality with the potential of mobilizing the grass roots is immediately apprehended and put into orbit of the socialist or communist party.
And the fact that we deprive them of their grass roots, legitimacy, we make sure that they become dependent upon the party, through a salary, through a political position, through some visibility, whatever.
Today people look at the left and still wait for signs.
Regarding November 2019 anti-islamophobia march in France:
For the first time I will publicly speak on this and I know many people may not want to hear this, but that march first took place after a Muslim organized rally on the 17th of October.
The left boycotted that demonstration because it was one hundred percent organized by Muslims themselves — what happened in November the 10th, there was a collective set-up around Mélenchon’s party (Jean-Luc Mélenchon) La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon who voted for all the anti-muslim laws who at each anti-muslim convention was at the forefront to legitimise it, today as we were approaching the municipal elections to elect new Mayors, the agents of La France Insoumise mobilized the Muslim grass roots — they found validators along the Muslim communities to make sure that the march takes place with the Muslim validation.
During that march, the march was in itself ordered by La France Insoumise and commanded by the “non-white” agents of La France Insoumise. The calculation was that we were going to offer the Muslim vote for La France Insoumise and then in return the agents that organized these marches will be thanked — none of it happened.
Today the noise we hear from the left, “hush hush duck and save your head”.
There is nowhere, no one to be found to speak about what is going on from the left.
The other problem, on this one I will quote Malek Bennabi, the lost Algerian scholar of the last century who spoke of the relationship between the European progressives, in our case the French left and the indigenous people fighting for independence and in his book, the ideological battle he said, the European progressive will support the indigenous when he is supporting the rifle but the day that the indigenous steps into the area of intellectual battles which is thought as the most noble forms of struggles, he is always sidelined — he is welcomed to carry a gun, he’s not welcomed to think.
And what are we seeing today? We see exactly that and I can speak for the left.
Take a look at what’s happening today with the French “left-wing media” — there were no journalists from Muslim backgrounds, if you take a look at the editorial teams of those newspapers, there are no Muslims and when Muslims are invited into those newspapers, they’re only invited to complain and whine, when it comes to bringing solutions, to say this is the analysis, these are the solutions we can think of, it is always a white scholar, a white lawyer, a white sociologist and the list goes on.
So, non-whites are kept in the position of witnesses of a world led by white men, when it is time to think of the solutions, it is always white people thinking and that is why even today and I mentioned it in the radio that there were no Muslims invited on French outlets.
Which means in return that the French left has been a problem for minorities forever, they have never been reliable allies, they always shut-down minorities to speak on their behalf or they welcome them in demonstrations or movements but when it is time to negotiate with the state, the Blacks and Arabs activists and minorities are put aside, question of racism is dismissed and it becomes a way to white negotiations, that is why there is no counting on the left today, there maybe individuals who are sincere, I do not deny that but the organizations, La France Insoumise has a staunch islamophobe legacy, we keep in mind that the legacy of the past, 30–40 years came from within the left, what we call secular fundamentalists or laïques.
So, that is why the solution now, that’s why the government is cracking down on Muslim organizations to prevent Muslims from organizing and in the speech held at Les Mureaux he said if there are elections, if there are elections that are held, the incumbents are to lose the elections, we shall be able to intervene to make sure our allies in those organizations are kept in power.”
Transcripts by Tiago Suleman Ramos
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