La possibilité du fascisme

by Ugo Palheta

Mouvement réactionnaire de masse contre l’égalité des droits ; migrants enlevés, tabassés et laissés pour mort par des milices à Calais ; large diffusion de thèses réactionnaires, xénophobes et islamophobes ; intensification du quadrillage répressif des quartiers populaires et violences policières impunies ; manifestations interdites et criminalisation croissante de toute contestation ; scores inégalés du Front national à toutes les élections depuis 2012. Sous des formes disparates et encore embryonnaires, mais dont la seule énumération dit le pourrissement actuel de la politique, c’est le fascisme qui fait retour.
Et celui-ci s’annonce non comme une hypothèse abstraite mais comme une possibilité concrète. Pourtant, la possibilité du fascisme est généralement balayée d’un revers de main par les commentateurs : comment la République française, patrie autoproclamée des droits de l’homme, pourrait-elle engendrer le monstre fasciste ? La France ne s’est-elle pas montrée « allergique » au fascisme tout au long du XXe siècle, comme le prétendent certains historiens français ? Le Front national n’a-t-il pas renoncé au projet ultranationaliste, raciste et autoritaire qui le caractérisait depuis sa création ? N’assiste-t-on pas au renouveau du capitalisme français sous les auspices d’un jeune président réalisant enfin les « réformes » prétendument nécessaires ?
C’est à démonter ces fausses évidences que s’attache ce livre, scrutant ainsi la trajectoire d’un désastre possible, enraciné dans la triple offensive – néolibérale, autoritaire et raciste – dont Emmanuel Macron est la parfaite incarnation, mais un désastre résistible, pour peu que le danger soit reconnu à temps et qu’émerge un nouvel antifascisme, capable de mener de front le combat contre l’extrême droite et celui contre les politiques destructrices qui favorisent son ascension.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

276 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2018

Reviews

[Jessy · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I learned interesting things, the storyline is all over the place. The author is trying to come to the issue from different perspectives, but it feels chaotic and unstructured. It feels more like an outlet where he can rant and not a book. In addition, all the topics overlap, so that the author has to repeat himself often.


Given the author's radical left background, I should have probably not been so surprised at the lack of neutrality exhibited throughout the book.


But first, a few points I took away:

- while the current movement in France does not call itself "fascist", there are strong arguments to do so. Fascism is not the same as anti-semitism, it is the discrimination of certain groups and the contrast and benevolence towards the "true" people of the nation. And the RN/FN is doing that through its Islamophobia and discrimination against non-European immigrants. The discussion on this point felt WAY too long and too theoretical.

- France's political system is going through a crisis in general. Laws are often passed outside of parliament, and many situations are used as excuses to impose an "extraordinary" state and bypass government even more.

- Politicians are not standing up (or counteracting) neoliberalism sufficiently, even reducing social security, resulting in a weakening of their following in the working class. The rising inequality of course does not help things.

- On the other hand, government is overreacting in term of immigration, exhibited by increase police violence and rising number of imprisonment (which are of course largely consisting of non-european migrants)

- The political center carries part of the blame by either actively supporting the FN (considering them a beneficial ally or wanting to split the right) or incorporating their ideas in their own programmes. This made Islamophobia and racism socially acceptable somehow.

- The FN made an about turn in their views, going from pro-neoliberalism to left views when it comes to economy (previously pro privatization and EU, now against). These days RN is often shifting views depending on which electorate they want to target.


The reason I am saying that the author is not neutral is that he does not address or acknowledge the underlying issues that led to a rise of islamophobia. The fact that certain neighbourhoods in France do not feel safe anymore, the terrorist attacks that - yes, also were used as an excuse for increased and maybe overly harsh security - did anchor into public consciousness, as well as the demographic trends that force the hand of not only the French, but also other European governments. 


Quantitative data indicating that there might be an issue: the number of immigrants increasing steadily, with a higher percentage of migrants coming from Africa (https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques/...). Similarly, islam is the fastest growing religion (if you discount "no religion" as a religion. I am not saying that this is a bad thing, but this could be a reason why people feel threatened just because there are more muslims, as opposed to "fancy" political reasons (which people feel more and more distant to anyways).


He also keeps saying fasicism is not FN, but then fails to outline other material symptoms of the rise of fascism in France (other than survey results).

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Marxist priest doing his provincial sermon. Unoriginal, unremarkable, probably just an excuse for him to get to a higher pay echelon because he likes living off the taxes paid by the poor and the workers.

[Malvina Buffet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il manque une mise à jour à cette analyse complète mais arrêtée en 2018 !

[Tom Lewandowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

hate to see it