Re: When you grow up in America, you know when a barrio is getting ready to explode. Its a talent Europeans have yet to master. If you want more understanding, look up Gustav's and my exchange on the subject.
Somehow, France's current immigrant upheaval illustrates what I told you about the parallel between the early 20th-century proletariat and today's immigrant underclass:
Three concepts of revolution
Trotsky developed his theory with the 1905 revolution in the background. Practically all Marxists of the day, from Kautsky to Plekhanov to Lenin, believed that only advanced industrial countries [ie Germany] were ready for socialist revolution. To put it crudely, they argued that countries would achieve workers' power in strict conformity with the stage to which they had advanced technologically. Backward countries could see their future image mirrored in the advanced countries. Only after a long process of industrial development and a transition through a parliamentary bourgeois regime could the working class mature enough to pose the question of socialist revolution.
[...]
anu.edu.au
And here's the rewritten version to fit today's context:
Three concepts of revolution
Jaeger developed his theory with the 2005 French riots in the background. Practically all Anarchists of the day, from Kautsky to Plekhanov to Lenin, believed that only advanced multicultural countries [ie France, Britain,...] were ready for immigrant revolution. To put it crudely, they argued that countries would achieve ethnic minorities' power in strict conformity with the stage to which they had advanced politically. Multiculturally backward countries could see their future image mirrored in the advanced countries. Only after a long process of multicultural development and a transition through a parliamentary bourgeois regime could the immigrant class mature enough to pose the question of ethnic revolution.
Re: Chirac like a good rightie is pushing the ethnic issue in France.
To be fair, President J. Chirac isn't pushing anything --and he's actually very popular among Arab/Muslim minorities. Chirac was hailed and feted like a rock star on his last visit to Algeria...(*) Besides, he was the ONLY Western statesman to attend the funeral of Syria's Hafez El Assad.
Actually, the "ethnic minorities" problem doesn't lie so much with the (rightwing) political class as with the (racist) corporate world.... Chirac and Villepin's government face a challenge similar to that of LBJ and his so-called "Great Society" scheme. But the economical environment and the political circumstances are dramatically different: President Johnson could rely on a steady GDP growth of 4% annually and the US federal gov. to hire white-collar minorities in a booming service/office sector --to make up for a racist, lily-white, private sector.... Unfortunately, today's France can't do likewise: her GDP "growth" is zilch and the French public sector is laying off, not hiring, workers. Just look at EDF (in a privatization process), the Post Office, SNCF (railways), France Telecom, etc.
Gus
(*) Algerians flock to Chirac the hero
Memories of the independence war set aside in honour of a man bearing development aid and standing up to Washington
Jon Henley
Monday March 3, 2003
The Guardian
Jacques Chirac, on a diplomatic roll as the de facto spokesman for the international opposition to an early war in Iraq, was given a hero's welcome yesterday at the beginning of a three-day tour of Algeria, the first state visit by a French leader since the former colony won its independence more than 40 years ago.
Half a million people poured on to the streets of Algiers to cheer him, many waving posters bearing his portrait. Others threw confetti from their balconies as a grinning Mr Chirac, who as a young second lieutenant fought in the 1954-62 war to keep Algeria French, rode through the capital in an open limousine.
There are signs that the US is trying to bolster its influence in a region France has long considered its backyard. The visit will end with a "friendship declaration" and the promise of 95m euros (£65m) of French development aid for the economic reform programme of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
The particularly brutal war of independence ended 132 years of French rule and left deep scars on both sides of the Mediterranean.
"It is a painful moment of our common history that we must not and cannot ignore," Mr Chirac told Algerian newspapers on the eve of his visit. "But it is time now to move forward and build with Algeria a strong, trustful and impartial relationship."
The visit, likely to be an emotional affair of seeking to heal wounds from a struggle which Algeria claims cost 1.5m lives, will focus principally on reinvigorating the often prickly diplomatic, cultural and economic relations between the two countries.
Mr Chirac is accompanied by a delegation of 77, including five cabinet ministers, executives of such companies as Airbus and TotalFinaElf, and artists such as the Algerian singer Cheb Mami and the dancer Kader Belarbi, a star of the Paris ballet.
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guardian.co.uk |
