The Politics of Racism in France, Second Edition

by Fysh, Peter; Wolfreys, Jim

• ISBN13: 9781403905154
• ISBN10: 1403905150
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-07
• 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	x
List of Tables	xi
List of Abbreviations	xii
Introduction	1	(9)
The Republic and Her Immigrants	10	(32)
1850-1918, the formation of the working class and the consolidation of the Third Republic	13	(2)
Escaping oppression: Jewish workers of the belle epoque	15	(1)
The 1920s, demographic crisis and industrial expansion	16	(4)
The depression, the rise of Nazism and the Popular Front	20	(3)
War, resistance and the Cold War	23	(2)
North Africans in France: unwilling `subjects' of the Republic	25	(3)
Algerians at war	28	(3)
Immigrants and the long boom, 1945-80	31	(6)
The colonial legacy and racial violence	37	(2)
Economic crisis and state racism	39	(3)
The National Front Breakthrough and Consolidation, 1981-92	42	(46)
Breakthrough, 1981-88	42	(2)
the `gang of four' on the defensive	44	(16)
The Front enters Parliament	50	(5)
Towards the presidential election	55	(5)
Opportunities, challenges and consolidation, 1988-92	60	(14)
Michael Rocard: the politics of pragmatic consensus	61	(3)
The Headscarf Affair	64	(5)
The Gulf War	69	(2)
Stealing the National Front's clothes	71	(3)
Who votes National Front?	74	(14)
`Contact racism'	75	(2)
A protest vote?	77	(3)
Evolution of the National Front vote	80	(4)
National Front voters: core and periphery	84	(4)
Le Pen and the Extremist Tradition	88	(30)
Three crises: MacMahon, Boulanger and Dreyfus	89	(4)
The Dreyfus Affair	91	(2)
Theorists of reaction: the Action Francaise	93	(3)
The paramilitary veterans' leagues	96	(4)
Vichy	100	(3)
The survival of French fascism, 1945-72	103	(15)
Theorising the National Front, 1962-72	105	(4)
Fascist origins of the National Front, 1972-81	109	(2)
The problem of doctrinal renewal	111	(5)
Bringing the family together	116	(2)
Anatomy of a Fascist Party: Ideology, Strategy, Organisation	118	(35)
National Front doctrine	119	(16)
Racial supremacy	120	(3)
The ideal society	123	(4)
Economy and society: between free enterprise and social control	127	(4)
Pagans against Christians	131	(1)
Monarchy or Republic?	132	(3)
Propaganda and press	135	(8)
The strategy of the dual discourse	140	(3)
National Front strategy: political change and the parliamentary road	143	(2)
Party organisation	145	(3)
The satellite organisations	148	(4)
Conclusion	152	(1)
Youth and Anti-Racism	153	(31)
Youth and social exclusion	153	(11)
Towards political mobilisation	155	(2)
School and work	157	(1)
Housing	158	(3)
Police and justice	161	(3)
Youth and political mobilisation	164	(15)
Birth of the associations	164	(2)
Dimensions of Beur identity	166	(1)
The Beurs and political autonomy	167	(4)
France Plus and SOS Racisme	171	(6)
Facing up to the Gulf War	177	(2)
Trying to target the fascists	179	(5)
New Contexts for Racism and Anti-Racism, 1992-2002	184	(23)
The rise of `unofficial politics'	186	(4)
The co-ordination and sans movements	186	(1)
December 1995 and anti-capitalism	187	(3)
Pasqua, Debre, Le Pen ... one struggle	190	(6)
The National Front in a new context: towards the split of 1999	196	(11)
Hope and anxiety, 1997-98	198	(2)
Bruno Megret: the emergence of a challenger	200	(1)
`Neither right nor left'?	201	(1)
Divide and misrule?	202	(1)
In or against the system?	203	(4)
The Republican Model in Question	207	(14)
Anti-racism and the Republic: taking stock	207	(3)
The discovery of `race'	210	(6)
An action plan against racial discrimination	212	(2)
Tested and found wanting	214	(2)
The plural left and the sans papiers	216	(5)
The Collapse of Official Politics	221	(19)
The crisis of the left	222	(6)
Europe: blurring the divide between right and left	223	(1)
Searching for the left electorate	224	(4)
The crisis of the right	228	(4)
Jacques Chirac, lame duck	229	(1)
Europe and the right	230	(1)
Personal squabbles and party rivalries: the collapse of the centre	231	(1)
Winners and losers of the NF split	232	(8)
Picking up the pieces	234	(2)
The Fifth Republic in crisis: the 2002 elections	236	(4)
Where Do We Go From Here?	240	(8)
Confronting the fascist revival	244	(2)
Is the NF back from the dead?	246	(2)
Bibliography	248	(12)
Index	260