“The left is White. It is Eurocentric. It believes itself to be materialist but it is actually idealist. For example, it is anticlerical, and this is understandable in the historical context of a powerful church at the heart of the state. But, as a materialist, you understand that neither Islam nor Muslims dominate the French state.
Muslims are the poorest section of the working class.
These two elements should have made the left the main allies of Muslims. Without discussion. But there was discussion, on the backs of the poorest classes. The left did not see the wretched of the earth, they saw the veil. Again this Eurocentrism. The White experience prevailed over everything. Liberation would be the way White people experience it. The experience of White women would be the experience of humanity. But the veil affair showed that this particular experience of gender relations is not the experience of everyone.
When our parents came here, they were the poor relations of class struggle. The dream was to be a legitimate part of the working class. What they wanted was the unification of the working class. But, for that, you have to put an end to imperialism and chauvinism. Otherwise, the racial conflict which structures relations between proletarians will persist and prevent the construction of a revolutionary historic bloc. North African railway workers are not treated like White railway workers. They are discriminated against. The same goes for access to employment, pensions... During the Covid pandemic it became clear that it was the Indigènes who had to go out and do the dirty work, while the better-off sections were locked down.
If the White proletariat adopted communist solutions, that would be the worst thing that could happen to the ruling bloc. So they have to talk and talk about the danger represented by Muslims and Indigenists. Drive the White proletariat towards the fascists rather than questioning class relations and capitalism. The idea of a Muslim danger must be preserved.
This is exactly what the ‘separatism’ law is for. The ferment of the White proletariat must continue to serve the interests of big capital and preserve the racial pact.
I am not saying there is an ontological ferocity in Whites. They are the products of their history. And I’m not saying there is an Indigène innocence. I think of humans only in social and political relations. If one were to think about what humans were like before colonisation in Africa or the Arab world, I can well imagine traditions of war or fierce conflict that would offend our sensibilities today. It is not that inhumanity is White, but that modern inhumanity is essentially caused by whiteness.
But I am not interested in pre-colonial history. I am interested in what produces savagery today. I’m interested in today’s power systems. In this context, it is not the wretched of the earth or the Indigenes who bear responsibility for the course of the world: we are victims. But victims can also be bastards. Let’s take an example: we don’t say that Indigène men are not rapists, that we have to defend Indigènes when they rape. We are asking for White and Indigène men to be treated equally with respect to their crimes. That’s very different. We do not defend them as criminals, but as discriminated subjects.”
A long interview with Houria Bouteldja
‘The witch, that suits everyone’
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