26.02.2004

French left looks away

Islam

The massive vote by the French national assembly to ban conspicuous religious and political symbols from state schools has not ended the opposition to what is regarded by all genuine secularists and democrats as a scandalous attack first and foremost on France’s five-million-strong muslim population.

February 10 saw 494 votes in favour of the bill, with only 36 against. The 21 deputies of the Parti Communiste Français were, incredibly, given a ‘free vote’ and seven of them actually backed the new law. Apparently an assault on religious and political freedom and the rights of minorities is regarded by the PCF as a matter of ‘individual conscience’, not an issue requiring disciplined, coordinated action and the mobilisation of the working class.

Yet the stance of France’s ‘official communists’ was actually better than most of the revolutionary left. At least the PCF leadership was formally opposed to the bill. Lutte Ouvrière, for example, while claiming it is unnecessary, nevertheless welcomes it as a “point of support” for those who wish to discard the headscarf - the rights of those who do not wish to do so must be sacrificed, it seems. LO teachers have been in the forefront of those actually campaigning to exclude young muslim women from schools - all in the name of secularity and opposition to women’s oppression.

On February 14 a demonstration in Paris of between 5,000 and 10,000 opponents of the bill united supporters of 30 or so groups under the slogan, ‘A school for all’. There were up to 8,000 protestors in other towns and cities across France - small numbers, considering the nature of the attack. The demonstrations brought together civil rights, immigrant and muslim groups - but the left and working class movement, to its shame, was almost entirely absent. A statement was issued by organisers of the Paris march condemning forced integration and demanding that women should not be obliged either to wear or discard the veil: “Emancipation cannot come through repression; only through the winning of rights.”

The PCF did not sign the organisers’ statement, although some individual PCF leaders gave their backing. The Parti Socialiste is for Chirac’s anti-democratic measure. Lutte Ouvrière ignored the protests, of course, while the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire also stayed away: “We don’t want to take part in a demonstration that might appear ambiguous on the wearing of the veil,” said Christian Picquet of the LCR political bureau. The LCR, like the PCF, is formally opposed to the bill, but its teaching members have also gone along with exclusions of school students whose attire offends their sensibilities.

However, a group of minority LCR militants issued a call against “discriminatory exclusions” and backed the protests, as did the LCR’s youth section, the Jeunesses Communistes Révolution-naires. The JCR also went against the leadership line in refusing to vote for Jacques Chirac to keep out the Front National’s Jean-Marie Le Pen in the presidential elections of 2002.

It might be thought that, in the absence of the left, the February 14 protest would have been dominated by islamic fundamentalists. Not so. In fact several muslim groups urged their followers to stay away. They did not approve of the demonstration’s secular nature, with its demand that women should have the right both to wear and not to wear the veil.

“Those who say we are communitarians should take a look at the streets today,” said one of the speakers, Hamida Ben Sadia. She was referring to the fact that more than half of the women (a majority of those present) did not have their heads covered. All joined in the chanting: “With or without the law, we won’t give up the headscarf.”

Another theme was opposition to the demonisation of migrants in general: “We don’t care: we belong,” they sang. To emphasise the point, a group of young women wearing red, white and blue tricolour headscarves marched along singing La Marseillaise.