Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

No news here, but a norm France’s double standard

“Given that each of the three forces has roughly two-thirds or more of the electorate who did not choose them, and each of them has thus been rejected by a majority of French voters, the message from the people is clear: we do not want to be governed by any of you. We do not want any of you in power, at least not solely.  The far right will thus not suffer, but on the contrary - it will benefit from the mess, political chaos and possible institutional deadlock that lies ahead, along with the potential policy failures of those who govern.” Yes, Alain Gabon. However, the article ignores French capitalism and imperialism and the French security state and provides a ‘nationalist’ domestic analysis, ignoring geopolitics and inter-societal determinants. 

Close ranks, build an alternative

 “ What Macron fears the most is the breakdown of the racial contract. For the more the pressure of liberal forces dismantles the social contract, the more the rulers count on the solidity of the racial contract to continue to link the fate of the white working-class to the bourgeois state. And when the racial contract weakens (i.e. the convergence of postcolonial subjects, the Gilets Jaunes, and other social movements against the police; the Left’s greater understanding of Islamophobia and structural racism; etc.), power panics and is left with only one choice: reinforce the racial contract. This is one of the cardinal functions of the notion of “laïcité,” or secularism, whose meaning shifts according to the ideological needs of the colonial counter-revolution.” Despite Mélenchon’s blunder, I agree with Bouteldja here. Walking the Tight Rope