After reading Doug Ireland’s article I have come to two conclusions. First is that it is worth reading in it’s entirely for the detail missing in the mainstream media coverage of the French riots. Second is that it brilliantly demonstrates the leftist mental filter through which the events of the world are sifted to make sense.
Why is France Burning? To understand the origins of this profound crisis for France, it is important to step back and remember that the ghettos where festering resentment has now burst into flames were created as a matter of industrial policy by the French state.The left view the riots in France as products of capitalist exploitation of labor combined with racism. The article does discuss the influence of Islam in the ghettos and concludes that religion is at best a minor factor behind the youthful embrace of destruction. Just in case anyone has forgotten and for those with an appreciation of irony, a Reminder of French Lectures to the US.
Moreover, these immigrant workers (especially Moroccans, particularly favored in the auto industry) were favored by industrial employers as passive and unlikely to strike (in sharp contrast to the highly political Continental French working class and its militant, largely Communist-led unions) and cheaper to hire. In some industries, for this reason, literacy was a disqualification -- because an Arab worker who could read could educate himself about politics and become more susceptible to organization into a union.
Sarko" made headlines with his declarations that he would "karcherise" the ghettos of "la racaille"-- words the U.S. press, with glaring inadequaxcy, has translated to mean "clean" the ghettos of "scum." But these two words have an infinitely harsher and insulting flavor in French. … To apply this term to young human beings and proffer it as a strategy is a verbally fascist insult and, as a policy proposed by an Interior Minister, is about as close as one can get to hollering "ethnic cleansing" without actually saying so. It implies raw police power and force used very aggressively, with little regard for human rights.
