France, Alternative Libertaire 12th Congress AL
(Castillon-du-Gard, 2015) - The fight against racism is a social
struggle (fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
General philosophy ---- The various racisms were and are ideological constructions
orchestrated by the ruling classes and the institutions at their service, based on
prejudged, possibly pre-existing, to legitimize the domination of a people or to reinforce
their domination over society by providing grazing to popular hatred identifiable
population, and thus dividing the dominated classes. The colonial period was a factor
accelerating the expansion of many of racism that persist today. ---- The fight against
racism and xenophobia is essential for Alternative Libertaire. ---- This struggle takes an
educational dimension, when it comes to deconstructing prejudices that are makers of
discrimination, humiliation and hatred. ---- But it also has a political dimension and
especially, since racism is an ideology erected by the ruling classes and their states,
resulting to divide and weaken the working classes.
Legitimized by this ideology and vexatious Discrimination against minorities have the
effect to convince the majority of the proletariat that is "privileged" and it has, at
least in this way, common interests with the ruling class.
In addition to its intrinsic value for emancipation in general, anti-racism is therefore
vital to the cohesion of the proletariat. If we lose the point of view of class can be
derived quickly in either the identity racism or community or in the anti-racism
sentimental or patronizing.
The reality in France today
Racism and xenophobia are multifaceted: their targets and sources are diverse.
Discrimination in hiring and housing on the basis of a face, a family name or home still
apply. Poor control of the facies is still part of everyday life. Racism and xenophobia
are manifested by hiring discrimination, of racial profiling but also daily violence even
murder.
Are victimized immigrants workers from Africa, Eastern Europe or Asia, but also the French
and French from former European colonies or stigmatized population.
Although "ethnic" statistics are officially prohibited in France, surveys to measure
discrimination against people of French nationality but of "non-European" profile. On the
labor market for the same job, or a European profile worker is four times more likely to
have access to a job interview than a non-European profile of the worker.
On the housing market: equal social status, a non-European profile retoquée person will be
three times more often by estate agencies a person of European profile.
In terms of social housing: for the same situation in the social housing sector, the
European candidat.es profile nearly 50% to obtain satisfaction after one year, against 15%
for others.
The policeman ethnic profiling is a proven reality. A survey conducted in 2007-2008 in
five test sites Gare du Nord and the RER station Châtelet-Les Halles, in Paris, showed
that people with black skin were between 3.3 and 11.5 times more likely to be controlled
than those with white skin; between 1.8 and 14.8 times higher for people of Arabic type.
More generally, the annual surveys of the Commission nationale consultative des droits de
l'homme (CNCDH) show an overall increase of intolerance in France since 2009. End of 2012,
7% of French, whatever their skin color, admitted to "quite racist", 22% "a little racist"
and 25% "not very racist".
All French institutions reproduce and accentuate the discrimination of racialized groups.
This may involve obstructing their access to rights in different sectors (social welfare,
health, education, etc.), for different treatment depending on the origin (in particular
the Justice and Education).
Racialized women are of course preferred victims of racism and discrimination. Among all
women, a specific oppression affects migrant women and / or non-white, which adds to male
domination "classic".
New racism clothes
If biological nineteenth century racist theories have left their mark on many essentialist
prejudices that continue to circulate, he added it is racism "culturalist", renewed in
recent years by the ideology of the "clash of civilizations" without neglecting the
influence of thought "new right".
The instrumentalization of geopolitical conflicts play an important role in maintaining
this imaginary clash of civilizations: China's ascent, Russian expansionism, Islamic
Jihad, Israeli colonialism...
Western imperialism in Africa and the Middle East also plays a key role in how Arabs are
perceived and Africans in our latitudes - to put people under guardianship for their own
good or that of the West.
Finally, the circulation of conspiracy theories involving Jews is a key element of the
revival of anti-Semitism in the West. This revival was boosted by the amalgam between the
State of Israel and the Jews - the amalgam which is made both Zionists as anti-Semitic. In
France, the vogue of Dieudonné Soral-binomial is the most glaring demonstration.
How the state and capitalism fueling racism
In France, the state maintains, deliberately or not, racism and xenophobia by the border
closure policy that has the workers and migrant workers as a threat, and rejects some of
them underground, work concealed and prostitution.
This racism and xenophobia that are prolonged and aggravated by regular stigmatization and
cast discredit on minorities supposedly threaten "national identity" (UMP FN-view) or "the
Republic" (PS version).
Currently, assaults against two populations are particularly noteworthy: first Muslim or
assumed Muslim populations; other hand Roma. The hierarchy created by the capitalist
economy also plays a role. Thus, the over representation of stigmatized minorities in the
poorest sections of the proletariat contributes to racism against them. One feeds the
other in a vicious circle.
The colonial legacy and the imperialist policies remain key factors in the dissemination
of racist ideas and must be combated as such. Faced with migratory flows which are a
secondary consequence, the revolutionaries have a responsibility to denounce the
structural adjustment plans, the neocolonialist policies and imperialist wars that spread
violence and misery among the peoples of the South. Finally, and although for now the
consequences are not massive, the climate crisis will increase the population movements.
All these phenomena are and will be used by the privileged social classes to spread racist
poison in order to split classes, and some of these, poisoned by this poison can then
solidarity with the former, which are nevertheless their oppressors.
Avoid identity, and religious relativists traps
About Islamophobia
The stigmatization of the Muslim minority in France is a fact. Horse battle of the extreme
right, it is taken by the politician class to flatter the fear of "Islamization" existing
in a mainly Christian or atheist population.
It has long been said that the attacks against Islam was a roundabout way of making
anti-Arab racism. It is a reality, but in recent years, it added the fact that Muslims are
stigmatized specifically (degradation of mosques by extreme right groups, aggression
veiled women...). This suggests that there is a dimension not persecution - it is not
there - but stigmatization of a religious minority, considered incompatible with "national
identity", thus constituting a form of "enemy within".
To characterize this phenomenon, the term Islamophobia is now widely used in the media and
tends to trivialize and it would be futile to conduct a rearguard battle to impose
another. However, it should be used with caution because it carries some ambiguities
religious looking to play: that of the anti-religious silence criticism in the name of
anti-racism; that of seeing in all racist anti-religious act, to summarize, the enclosing
class of the population in a religious identity.
We must therefore be vigilant, and limit the use of the word "Islamophobia" to proven
cases of stigmatization of the Muslim minority (irrespective of skin color). The rest of
the time we typically talk about racism. We criticize all religions, without any saving.
This criticism obviously take into account the specificities of each religious oppression
and alienation of specific strategies of each religion and superstition system.
Against the rehabilitation of religions
For a secular social movement.
Defend secularism, therefore, freedom of worship, does not mean the promotion of religions
or send e-each a religious identity assumed. There may emancipation movements within the
different religions but the fact remains that religious institutions by their hierarchical
forms, their dogmatic speeches and prescriptive rules, are powerful factors of alienation.
When we condemn anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, we do not defend Judaism or Islam but we
defend people discriminated against because of their religion but Islam assumed we defend
people discriminated against because of their religion assumed.
To consolidate largely working people in defense of their class interests, the social
movement has to be secular. If emancipation movements within different religions want to
join forces in the social movement, this must be done on clear bases involving separation,
within the common framework, the political and the religious.
Denouncing religious discrimination and defend religious freedom should certainly not lead
us to abandon our radical criticism of religions. That's because we respect individual
choices and because we defend the equal rights we denounce oppression and persecution.
The criticism of religion conducted by Alternative Libertaire does not imply atheism of
each of its members-e. Membership result of an overall agreement with the Manifesto for a
Libertarian Alternative, which clearly states that "religions are among the main vectors
of alienation," but he is not about to control any beliefs would be a dangerous perversion
of anti-racism.
About the "anti-white racism"
Since 2005, the right and the extreme right are campaigning against racism "anti-white",
hoping to elicit a communalist reaction within the majority population. This is a sham
designed to make believe that the domination of culture "white" Republican is threatened.
Indeed, for the system, racism must be part of a relationship of domination that today in
Europe and its colonies, whites still occupy the dominant place.
While such racism can exist subjectively. If someone gets a "dirty white", "dirty white
man" or "dirty French," it's not that he suffers from auditory hallucinations. Means
indignation instead of denying it - otherwise it will quickly find the willing ears, right
and far right;
But it must be said with clarity objectively, this racism then is not the system, and that
it is not a social issue. Europe and its colonies, no one suffers discrimination in
housing or employment because of the white color of his skin. All populations, including
victims themselves of racism, may develop racist and xenophobic behavior. Being a victim
of racism is not an excuse to turn develop reflexes of exclusion and hatred must be fought
like any racist behavior.
For a unified anti-racism
Some academic circles have attempted to leftism fashionable terms like "white feminism",
"white racism", "white labor movement". Again, this is a sham.
The relativism of values and emancipatory struggles are a dead end that serves the
interests of the powers that be, clergies and patriarchy. In France, if the majority of
the population is white, there are no organizations deliberately "white", except at the
extreme right.
The use of this formula leads to racialize the social question and to divide the world
according to identity boundaries. It has no other purpose than to discourage people of
color to join the social movement. She happily smashes on classroom reality: in France,
the social movement is very colorful, be it trade unionism, ill-logé.es organizations,
feminism... The problem is that, social movements, coordination and public representation
of the roles are themselves too little colorful. It is this problem that the social
movement must resolve.
Faced with dividers and centrifugal logic, we need unifying struggles. The fight against
racism must be concerned primarily with self-organization of all victims of racism, but
also apply to all classes regardless of the color of their skin.
One can, in the context of the overall analysis, address the specific characteristics of a
particular Racism (Negrophobia, Islamophobia, romophobie the sinophobie, anti-Semitism,
etc.). But we must be careful to segment the sort of propaganda or claims. If we yield to
this segmentation, we risk to prioritize and put victims in competition.
One can only challenge the assimiliationnisme, this policy which calls for the complete
abandonment by minorities of their culture to conform to a "national identity"
artificially predefined and standardized. The assimilation encourages guilt, identity
malaise and internalization of domination. It is also a weapon of social order, justifying
precarious by a supposed "failure to adapt to French society."
Instead, we must work out as a multicultural society, with secularism will shield - a
genuine secularism, not secularism warped by the extreme right to make a weapon of
musulman.es invisibility in public space.
In defending cultural freedom, it does not defend multiculturalism in Imperial, assigning
each to communities for living separately, nor the uncritical defense of cultures, which
can include all elements of oppression incompatible with the ethical requirements and
policies of libertarian communism.
But against the "duty to intervene" to empower people from outside, we advocate the option
of changing each and every one.
An anti-racism strategy of emancipation
1. social struggles
The social movements (unions, dis-logé.es committees, neighborhood associations...) are
the main instruments of social change, action on reality, and thus a tool to reduce racism.
A strike, a militant campaign (feminist, for the right to housing...) certainly does not
carry "racist" label explicitly. But implicitly, they back the suspicions and hatreds. By
their class character (which puts identity divisions); because they are born
reconciliations, new solidarities; because they will encourage emancipatory their actors
and actresses, and especially because they occupy the social terrain, to the detriment of
the identity of all stripes.
Racism and isolationism thrive on the decline of social movements. Demobilization, loss of
class solidarity, solitary confrontation with precariousness make the individual more
susceptible to identity and religious discourse.
Finally, from a general point of view, the issue of anti-racist struggles refer to a fight
against a form of inequality between human-e-. From this point of view, anti-racist
struggles, struggles against such domination and those against class domination are
carriers of the same logic. It is building within the social struggles bridges between all
these struggles that our fight strengthens.
This means that within each "front" we must take the fight against other forms of
inequality. It is this convergence that will overcome the contradictions carried by each
fight taken in isolation.
Specific organizations are also an essential component of the anti-racist struggle. They
ensure the permanence of this struggle and liaison on this issue among the various
components of the social movement. They are integral parts of the Social Front of equality
and solidarity.
First, it is nationwide organizations such as the League of Human Rights, MRAP, Cimade,
the FASTI, GISTI or RESF: these organizations have a hearing and conduct demonstrations
which make them particularly significant intervention fields. Without feeding any
illusions about these organizations or on the back thoughts that politicians can wave
their national directorates, their strengthening and autonomy are support points not to
neglect the fight against racism and develop equality.
On the other hand, there is also a host of local organizations, local committees of
national organizations, support committees for Roma, undocumented migrants, etc. They are
crucial field relay to develop a speech and fight against racism practices.
Militant investment in these organizations is necessary to ensure that our actions and our
actions are consistent with our analysis and our discourse. Without such investment, we
can not check the validity of our analyzes and our theories.
2. Promoting workers and racisé.es workers in social movements
There may be a class approach to the notion of "positive discrimination".
There are mechanisms to facilitate the access of "visible minorities" to positions of
power of the bourgeoisie and of the Republic, this is not the problem of the proletariat:
it is an internal problem with the bourgeoisie, which may seek to promote diversity within
it to establish its legitimacy;
However, it begs the question as regards the social movement organizations. Indeed, trade
unionism is colorful, but it "rises" in organizations, the less it is. It is a problem.
For years, the CGT and SUD some experimenting with mechanisms to encourage the rise of
women in their bodies. Why similar mechanisms for racialized people should they be taboo?
AL does not pretend to answer this question instead of the organizations concerned, but it
is worth asking.
3. By repairing past traumas
In October 2012, a co-signed by several personalities call (antiracist, trade unionists,
political...) tried to launch a "national debate on repairs related to slavery."
This debate is legitimate, since the historical legacy largely determines the social and
international order now, but on condition that we avoid two pitfalls related to the
concept of "compensation": the legalization of political action, which can only lead to
deadlock. For as old facts, including all actors and actresses have long since
disappeared, the court proceedings have a tiny chance of success. Justified in the name of
historic abuses of contemporary claims. Legitimate claims are self-sufficient. There is no
need to promote them to the genealogy of the atrocities committed between peoples, at the
risk of opening a Pandora's box.
In summary, the issue of reparations can be a moral argument, which comes in reinforcement
of a legitimate claim. It should not base it nor to deflect in a judicial proceeding.
The fight against inequalities inherited from the past, with regard to the French case,
resulting in claims to date still unsatisfied: creation of infrastructure in the
departments overseas (Dom), still under-equipped services public; independence of the Dom;
abrogation of free trade agreements that provide Western and Asian imperialism on Africa,
and rivet underdevelopment; freedom of movement and establishment of working people,
against the myth of invasion; withdrawal of foreign troops occupying Africa or the Middle
East, often under humanitarian pretexts. These withdrawals must not however let the people
thank you to the reactionary forces. They must be made to enable the people to take their
destiny in hand. When local progressive forces exist, support should they be brought,
including weapons when such forces request to fight the reactionary armed, as in Rojava
example; solidarity between North and South workers to overthrow their own ruling classes
(whether or not they enjoyed formerly of slavery and colonialism); repeal of the so-called
debt of formerly colonized countries and repayment by all developed countries of the sums
extorted from those countries (eg Haiti by France).
4. For the symbolic satisfaction of certain claims
While voting for foreign and foreigners residing in France is not a fundamental claim,
since representative democracy is a scam.
But to challenge this fraud and to abstain in elections, we must have the right to vote.
Alternative Libertaire is so favorable.
This claim of foreign voting is especially interesting since it comes in a logic of total
equal rights for everyone, and that it dissociates citizenship nationality, linking
instead of life more than the original. In other words, a Malian who lives and works in
Seine-Saint-Denis is legitimate for a French living in New York to get involved in the
political life of the country, since the free movement of labor and installation must be
accompanied by equality of rights of all persons living in the same territory.
Renewing the public expression of G
We must return to a teaching expression, an anti-racism "basic", avoiding victimization
and dismantles prejudices against each of the other communities. AL has already released
material to this effect could be adapted in different formats (stickers, posters).
Repeat in a leaflet X times the word "racism" (to denounce) or the word "antiracism" (to
flatter), or add other words ism has little scope only from a Left public, sensitive to
this issue. For the rest of the population, regardless of skin color, racism is not a
taboo, and anti-racism is not necessarily a supreme value.
It should apply to all workers and popular classes to demonstrate that they have the same
interests that class solidarity is necessary and that discrimination between them and they
are banned.
To do this, the anti-racism commission needs more investment at the federal level. One of
the first tasks after the Congress could be to compile an inventory of existing struggles
and frameworks on anti-racism at national and local level.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?La-lutte-antiraciste-est-une-lutte
