The Politics of Racism in France

by Fysh, Peter; Wolfreys, Jim

• ISBN13: 9780312217228
• ISBN10: 0312217226
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This wide-ranging and provocative book is at the same time a cry of warning for the threat to democracy posed by the French National Front, an analysis of the factors which have made possible its rise and repeated success, and a ruthless critique of the failures of anti-racism. The authors deploy meticulous scholarship in examining the NF's ideology, structure, antecedents and present activities before concluding that is it much better seen as a species of modernized fascism than as simply another temporary emanation of a vague "national populism." The lack of serious opposition to the NF is attributed to the failure of mainstream anti-racists to link up with and defend the minorities which it targets, a reflection of the complacency bred by the enduring myth that France is and has been since 1789 the natural home of the Rights of Man.

Author Biography

Peter Fysh is Senior Lecturer in French at Nottingham Trent University.

Jim Wolfreys is Lecturer in French at King's College London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi	(1)
List of Tables	xii	(1)
List of Acronyms	xiii
1 Introduction	1	(33)
2 The Republic and her Immigrants	8	(34)
1850-1918, formation of the working class	11	(2)
Escaping oppression: Jewish workers of the `belle epoque'	13	(2)
The 1920s, demographic crisis and industrial expansion	15	(3)
The depression, Nazism and the Popular Front	18	(3)
War, resistance and Cold War	21	(3)
North Africans in France: unwilling `subjects' of the Republic	24	(3)
Algerians at war	27	(4)
Immigrants and the long boom, 1945-80	31	(6)
The colonial legacy and racial violence	37	(2)
Economic crisis and state racism	39	(3)
3 The National Front Breakthrough, 1981-8	42	(33)
The `gang of four' on the defensive	43	(7)
The Front enters Parliament	50	(5)
Towards the presidential election	55	(6)
Who votes National Front?	61	(14)
`Contact racism'	61	(3)
A protest vote?	64	(2)
Evolution of the NF vote: Sociology, geography, political provenance	66	(5)
National Front voters, core and periphery	71	(4)
4 Le Pen and the Extremist Tradition	75	(32)
Three crises: MacMahon, Boulanger and Dreyfus	76	(4)
The Dreyfus Affair	78	(2)
Theorists of reaction: the Action Francaise	80	(3)
The paramilitary veterans' leagues	83	(5)
Vichy	88	(3)
The survival of French fascism, 1945-72	91	(16)
Theorising the National Front, 1962-72	93	(4)
Fascist origins of the National Front, 1972-81	97	(3)
The problem of doctrinal renewal	100	(4)
Bringing the family together	104	(3)
5 Anatomy of a Fascist Party: Ideology, Strategy, Organisation	107	(36)
National Front doctrine	108	(17)
Racial supremacy	109	(3)
The Ideal Society	112	(4)
Economy and society	116	(4)
Pagans against Christians	120	(2)
Monarchy or republic?	122	(3)
Propaganda and press	125	(7)
The strategy of the dual discourse	129	(3)
National Front strategy--political change and the parliamentary road	132	(3)
Party organisation	135	(2)
The satellite organisations	137	(4)
Conclusion	141	(2)
6 Youth and Anti-Racism	143	(27)
Towards political mobilisation	145	(2)
School and work	147	(2)
Housing	149	(2)
Police and justice	151	(3)
Birth of the associations	154	(3)
Dimensions of Beur identity	157	(1)
The Beurs, from Giscard to Mitterrand	158	(12)
7 In and Against the System: The Third Force in French Politics	170	(34)
Michel Rocard, the politics of pragmatic consensus	171	(3)
The headscarf affair	174	(6)
The Gulf War	180	(2)
The corruption of mainstream politics	182	(2)
Edith Cresson, stealing the National Front's clothes	184	(2)
Re-inventing anti-racism	186	(2)
From Cresson to Beregovoy, the Socialists in free fall	188	(4)
Cohabitation mark two: Mitterrand and Balladur	192	(3)
1995-7, Jacques Chirac, lame-duck president	195	(6)
Anti-racism revives	201	(3)
8 Where Do We Go From Here?	204	(14)
Defending a cause	204	(6)
Confronting the fascist revival	210	(3)
Where do we go from here?	213	(5)
Bibliography	218	(11)
Index	229