Last month, young Aboubakar Cissé was stabbed in a mosque in the Gard department. On Saturday 31 May, in the Var department, a racist shot his Tunisian and Kurdish neighbors, killing Hichem Miraoui, a 46 year-old hairdresser. And every day, there are media reports of yet another anti-Semitic aggression.
For every known and publicized aggression, there are so many more racist, anti-Semitic or Islamophobic slurs. There are so many hostile stares and humiliations inflicted. And Muslims, Arabs and black people suffer so much discrimination when looking for a job or accommodation.
The murderer in the Var says that his motivation was not racist. But his social media posts show him spewing racism and, right after his deadly acts, he took responsibility for what he did, claiming, just like a terrorist, allegiance to the French flag.
The right and the far right have been pushing a xenophobic, racist and anti-Muslim agenda for months and this is what it leads to! They even use the fight against anti-Semitism to provoke hatred and divide workers. Presenting those who oppose Netanyahu’s extermination policy as anti-Semitic is revolting.
Fighting Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians doesn’t mean we should lump all Israelis and all Jews together with the executioners in Tel-Aviv. In much the same way, it would be stupid to equate workers here with Macron, Algerians with the Tebboune regime or Moroccans with King Mohammed VI.
The right and the far right always try to outdo one another on xenophobia and homeland security. They’ll use any sensational news story to illustrate how foreigners, immigrant workers or Muslims are a threat and a danger.
It has become a hate campaign that plays on fear, the rejection of foreigners and racist prejudices. It runs 24/7 on the Cnews television channel that is part of the Bolloré media empire. But it also has support in the highest levels of government, with Interior minister Retailleau playing a leading role.
And Retailleau won’t stop any time soon! As the head of the LR (Les Républicains) party, he’s a presidential candidate so he’s always campaigning. When he’s not re-enacting the Algerian war with people who are nostalgic for colonial times, he’s putting on his Crusader’s armor to defend what he calls the Christian roots of France against Muslims.
And it’s not just talk! There are laws and decrees that make life miserable for workers who are tied to two countries, particularly those from the Maghreb, that make it much harder to renew residence permits. Tens of thousands of workers have lost their legal status and thus their jobs.
Racists find comfort in repeating that there are too many immigrants and that sooner or later they should be sent home. This encourages the more violent to take action, to insult, to hurt or to murder. Xenophobia doesn’t just divide workers, it kills.
The situation is highly explosive and the breakage and violence on the evening of the PSG football team victory gave added support to the view of the right and the far right. Sadly, there is a small fraction of young people in working-class neighborhoods that is delinquent and into all kinds of trafficking!
The same violent gangs can also make life a misery for whole housing estates. It’s such a terrible waste but above all it’s the fault of a government that despises and tramples on the poorest. It’s the result of a system that has nothing to offer working-class youth other than exploitation, inequality and, as an added bonus, more and more racism.
If each of us were to hunker down in what we think of as ‘our’ community, we would be falling into a trap. We would be following all the vicious little right-wing wannabes. We would be dividing workers and dissipating our strengths.
On the contrary, we need to be aware of our shared interests as workers and have the will to unite despite our differences. We are already united in exploitation by big business and the government.
The only way out is for us to be united in our demands as exploited people and to remain united against the capitalist class, their political lackeys and their system, a system that is ruining the whole of society.
Nathalie Arthaud