International Socialists

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Peter Fysh's article [Socialist Review UK, December 2005] on the roots of the French riots are every bit as smug and complacent as the French republican ideology he criticises. He suggests, in effect, that the French could learn a great deal from British and US sensitivity to ethnic difference, instead of hiding race behind the republican ideal of equality. Fysh mentions the rise of structural unemployment in passing, before moving on to praise Britain's race relations record. Oldham is mentioned as an aberration. Bradford and "the great insurrection" Brixton 1981, don't rate a mention. He returns repeatedly to affirmative action and the cultivation of ethnic leaders as a progressive strategies, and concludes on one of the lamest notes I have ever read in a socialist publication: "Until practical political alternatives are developed which respond in a meaningful way to the anger and defiance shown by the youth of France's suburbs, their fight against racism and for equality will continue to take a variety of forms, rioting being the most visible." The riots in France are the latest example of the massive volatility that has filled the void left by the bankrupt parties of social reform. The riots of Los Angeles, Detroit, and Redfern and Macquarie Fields in Sydney, Australia, will be repeated again and again not because of an easily fixed French republican ideology, but because of a chronic crisis in the world system. They will be repeated, and soon, on a larger scale in many different countries. Fysh is no Marxist, His article is a example of the moribund end-state of liberalism and is incapable of offering any direction in these times.

yours for the revolution,

Mike Tait

Dunedin, New Zealand