Solidarity with the Muslim migrants! Drive out the French occupiers from Mali and other countries!

 

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 26.10.2020, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

1.             The French government has declared war against the Muslim migrants in its country and the Muslim people around the world. A wave of repression is hailing down on the brothers and sisters in France, numerous people get arrested (including 14 and 15-year old youth), mosques are closed, and a public campaign of hatred has been launched. The pretext is the revenge killing of Samuel Paty by an 18-year-old Chechen youth. Paty was a racist teacher who enjoyed to shock his young school pupils by showing them (for years!) disgusting and humiliating cartoons – published by the disgraceful Charlie Hebdo magazine – against the Prophet Mohammed and Muslims in general.

 

2.             Instead of condemning the racist provocations which deeply offend one and a half billion Muslims around the world, President Macron has cynically hailed Paty as a “quiet hero”. Macron praised the teacher by saying: “He was killed precisely because he incarnated the Republic. He was killed because the Islamists want our future. They know that with quiet heroes like him, they will never have it.” The government decided also that Paty will posthumously get France’s highest award, the “Legion d’Honneur”. Macron explicitly announced that France will continue publishing the Charlie Hebdo provocations: “We will not give up cartoons.” Consequently, authorities exhibited the disgraceful Anti-Muslim cartoons of Charlie Hebdo in public places. All this demonstrates that the French state stands for the values of Islamophobia and racist hatemongering against Muslim people. No one should have any illusion: Macron continues the centuries-old tradition of French colonialism which suppressed and humiliated Muslim people!

 

3.             As we said already in past statements, the RCIT opposes killings such as that of Paty. However, we do so not out of any sympathy for the racist provocateur Paty but rather because such incidents are utilized by the government as a pretext to launch a campaign of repression and racist hatred against Muslim people.

 

4.             The French government claims it is only defending the so-called “freedom of speech”. What a blatant lie! Righteous people, democrats and socialists do not accept “freedom” of hatemongering against the oppressed! This is why we deny such rights for Nazis and racists. In the past when the Anti-Semitic scum organized pogroms against Jews in Europe, socialists resolutely defended them. Today, socialists must defend the Muslim migrants against the Islamophobic crusaders. We ask the French government, if “freedom of speech” is so sacred for Macron and his government – why do they hunt Islamist forces instead of giving them the freedom of speech as well? Why do they arrest people who criticised Paty in the past for his racism? Imagine the public outcry that would happen if Muslim people would publish such disgusting cartoons with the deceased Paty as Charlie Hebdo did with the prophet Mohamed! Obviously Macron’s “freedom of speech” only applies to his racist and Islamophobic supporters!

 

5.             As a matter of fact, Macron launches his Islamophobic campaign for cold-blooded political reasons. His bourgeois government faces a severe domestic crisis as it visible fails in combating the pandemic as well as the economic crisis. It needs to deflect attention from its highly unpopular plans for the pension reform and other social cuts. Furthermore, Macron hopes to rally public support for France’s imperialist foreign policy against Muslim peoples. Most important among these projects are its military adventures in West Africa, its support for the ex-Gaddafi and ex-CIA General Haftar in the Libyan civil war, its attempt to regain domination in Lebanon, its aggression against Turkey and its collaboration with the Egypt dictatorship, Greece and Israel in order to secure gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean.

 

6.             However, in reaction to Macron’s Islamophobic crusade a wave of protests has began in the Muslim world. In Palestine, Idlib, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries, spontaneous demonstrations have taken place in the past two days. French products are boycotted in supermarkets and the tricolore flag gets burned. The foreign ministry in Paris tries to play down these events and claims: "The calls to boycott French products are being made by an extremist minority". But it will soon find out that this is a global and popular mass movement! In fact, the popular masses are fighting against imperialist and Islamophobic aggression – in contrast to the cowardly Arab tyrants in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, etc. – who are kissing the feet of Israel and Western leaders!

 

7.             The RCIT strongly welcomes the mass protests and the popular boycott movement against imperialist and Islamophobic France. Macron must be taught a lesson! It is important to build a broad international solidarity movement of workers and popular organizations – Muslim and non-Muslim. Such a campaign should organize an effective support for the brothers and sisters in France and other European countries who currently face conditions of harsh repression by the state and the media. Such a movement should also organize an effective campaign to boycott French products. It should also organize mass actions against the imperialist aggression of Paris in the Eastern Mediterranean as well as in North and West Africa. In addition, it should state its support for the Chechen people who experience a horrible regime of occupation by Russian imperialism. Finally, socialists in France should try to link anti-racist activities with protests against the anti-democratic repression by the Macron government (under the pretext of COVID-19) as well as with protests against neo-liberal attacks (e.g. with the Yellow Vests movement)

 

* No to Islamophobic hatemongering!

 

* Release all arrested Muslims in France!

 

* For popular action to close down the racist Charlie Hebdo magazine!

 

* French Navy – out of the Eastern Mediterranean!

 

* Drive the French occupiers out of Mali and all other African countries!

 

* Freedom for Chechnya! Down with Russian imperialism!

 

* No “normalization” with Israel! For a single red and democratic state in historic Palestine from the river to the sea!

 

 

 

* * * * *

 

 

 

We refer readers also to the following articles and statements of the RCIT

 

Yossi Schwartz: Down with the Islamophobia in France: “We Are Not Samuel!”, 20 October 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/down-with-the-islamophobia-in-france/

 

RCIT: France after the Attacks in Paris: Defend the Muslim People against Imperialist Wars, Chauvinist Hatemongering, and State Repression! 9.1.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/statement-paris-attacks/

 

Michael Pröbsting: The Racist Character of Charlie Hebdo and the pro-imperialist campaign “Je Suis Charlie”. Solidarity with Muslim People! NOT Solidarity with Charlie Hebdo! 17.1.2015, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/racist-charlie-hebdo/

 

Down with French Neo-Colonialism in West Africa! Protest against the imperialist “Operation Barkhane” / “Coalition for the Sahel”! Joint Statement of Anti-Imperialist and Socialist Organisations, 12 February 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/joint-statement-down-with-french-neo-colonialism-in-west-africa/

 

RCIT: Expel French Imperialism from West Africa! Macron and his G5 Lackeys plan to intensify their colonialist “Operation Barkhane”, 15 January 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/expel-french-imperialism-from-west-africa/