Anti-Racism in the Sarkozy Years: SOS

1 Anti-racism in the Sarkozy years: SOS Racisme and the Mouvement des Indigènes de la République Thomas Daniel Martin Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD The University of Leeds School of Modern Languages and Cultures September 2013 2 Intellectual Property and Publication Statements The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. © 2013 The University of Leeds and Thomas Daniel Martin 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank, first and foremost, my supervisors Jim House and Sarah Waters, who have been consistently helpful and accommodating, and who have been willing to give time, effort and numerous invaluable suggestions over the course of my work. I am also grateful to Loïc Rigaud of SOS Racisme and Houria Bouteldja of the Mouvement / Parti des Indigènes de la République for clarifying so many key points on the ideologies, strategies and worldviews of their respective movements. In addition to my supervisors, I would also like to acknowledge the Department of French at the University of Leeds in a wider sense, which over the course of 10 years has allowed me to study at BA, MA and now PhD levels, as well as giving me the opportunity to gain experience in teaching. Finally, I would like to thank my family, and in particular my father Paul Martin, who in the last few years, just as in the rest of my life, has been endlessly supportive, and has kept me grounded through even the most trying times: without his support, this thesis may not have been possible. 4 Abstract This thesis examines the discourse and strategy of two contrasting French anti-racist movements – SOS Racisme, the consensus-seeking centrist movement founded in 1984 and the Mouvement des Indigènes de la République (MIR), the radical anti-colonial movement founded in 2005 – over the years 2005 to 2009, a period which I argue is defined by a conservative and potentially exclusionary conception of national identity on the part of Nicolas Sarkozy and his political allies, as well as by an intense debate on colonial legacies and memory (typified by Sarkozy’s rhetorical attacks on ‘repentance’), a widespread rejection of multiculturalism and communautarisme , and a cross-party consensus on the language of republicanism but not the underlying definition of the concept. I find that the central ideological difference between the two movements can be found in their respective relationships with republicanism. Whereas SOS, in line with the traditions of the French anti-racist movement, bases its ideology on universalist republicanism and sees France’s mainstream political culture as fundamentally supportive of anti- racist aims, MIR is highly critical of republicanism, highlighting the way in which ‘universalist’ principles have been used in French history as a justification for colonialism, racism and discrimination. The thesis argues that the positions of the movements on the defining themes of the period 5 identified above have caused them substantial issues in campaigning, with MIR’s questioning of republicanism, emphasis on colonial memory and support for multiculturalism diametrically opposed to the prevailing political climate, and SOS’s favoured republican ideology, thanks to its inherent flexibility, being used by Sarkozy as an implicit means of stigmatising minority populations. 6 Contents Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 Contents 6 List of abbreviations 9 Introduction 10 Chapter 1 French anti-racism and republicanism: contrasting perspectives 35 Why anti-racism and republicanism? 39 Republican ideology and French anti-racism: benefit or impediment? 46 Origins of contemporary debates on anti-racism and republicanism 67 Limitations of existing works 81 Chapter 2 Sarkozy and national identity 2005-2009 89 Sarkozy and history 96 Sarkozy, repentance and populism 105 Sarkozy, the Republic and communautarisme 118 Sarkozy’s national identity discourse: anything new? 133 7 Significance and meaning? 138 ‘Sarkozysme’ and potential reasons for its success 143 Chapter 3 SOS Racisme and the Mouvement des Indigènes de la République, 2005-2009: an introduction 149 SOS Racisme 2005-2009: republicanism, pragmatism and consensus 153 The Mouvement des Indigènes de la République 2005-2009: radicalism, autonomy and anti-colonialism 165 Chapter 4 SOS, MIR and national identity 180 SOS and national identity: rationale for rejection 184 An alternative conception: the République métissée 195 MIR and national identity: rationale for rejection 201 An alternative conception: multiculturalism and new citizenship 213 Chapter 5 SOS, MIR and colonialism 228 SOS and colonialism: the perils of victimisation 232 MIR and colonialism: the all-encompassing colonial Republic 248 Chapter 6 8 SOS, MIR and the question of ‘race’ 273 SOS: republicanism, colour-blindness and the ‘social question’ 275 MIR: ‘republican racism’ and the primacy of the ‘racial question’ 295 Conclusion 316 Bibliography 339 9 Abbreviations AFP Agence France-Presse CRAN Conseil Représentatif des Associations Noires CVUH Comité de vigilance face aux usages publics de l'histoire EU European Union FN Front National HLM Habitation à Loyer Modéré LDH Ligue des Droits de l’Homme LICRA Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme MIR Mouvement des Indigènes de la République MRAP Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l’amitié entre les peuples NPA Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste PIR Parti des Indigènes de la République PS Parti Socialiste SOS SOS Racisme UE Union européenne UMP Union pour un Mouvement Populaire UN United Nations 10 Introduction This thesis emerged out of research carried out as part of an MA dissertation entitled ‘Redefining Frenchness? – the roots of the contemporary immigration and identity debate’. In the dissertation I aimed to analyse the provenance of the dominant discourse on national identity in contemporary France, considering its historical origins and its transposition into politics and law. In the conclusion to the dissertation, I suggested that one social movement capable of challenging this dominant discourse and promoting a counter-discourse was the anti- racist movement. The question of whether the French anti-racist movement could indeed challenge the type of defensive, narrowly defined and backwards-looking conception of national identity associated particularly with Nicolas Sarkozy therefore provided the platform for my doctoral research. As the research continued however, it became clear that anti-racism in the political context defined by Sarkozy was a substantially (and surprisingly) under-researched area: the majority of scholarly publications on French anti-racism focus on earlier and very different political contexts, particularly that of the early to mid-1980s, when the Left was in power under Mitterrand, and the movement was more visible in the public debate than at any point before or since. Consequently, I decided to concentrate on the reactions of two contrasting anti-racist organisations – SOS Racisme (SOS) and the Mouvement des Indigènes de la République (MIR) – to Sarkozy and his 11 national identity discourse, and on these movements’ own discourses and preoccupations over my chosen period. Underpinning my argument is the question of republicanism, and I shall seek to show that both movements have had to adapt to a context within which the consensus on the language of republicanism is accompanied by a semantic ambiguity permitting its use in support of almost any political position – including one which implicitly stigmatises minority populations (Noiriel 2007a). I argue that the political and ideological stances of the two movements I am considering are strongly conditioned by their dialectal relationship to republicanism, a relationship which affects each movement in complex and contradictory ways. SOS, this thesis argues, aims to protect and enforce the Republic’s proclaimed values of liberté , égalité and fraternité , and frequently proposes practical action aimed at making them a truly universal reality throughout France. At the same time however, it is critical of the way in which these principles are used by those in political power; and has difficulty both in taking targeted action against racial discrimination (due to its belief in republican ‘colour-blindness’ and consequent rejection of ethnic statistics), and in making critical analyses of colonial history and its ideological links with universalist values (due to its belief that France’s mainstream republican political culture is fundamentally just, and supportive of anti-racism). 12 MIR, on the other hand, adopts a more oppositional stance towards ‘republican values’, seeing their supposedly emancipatory nature as a myth and preferring to emphasise their use over French history as a justification for colonialism, racism and discrimination. Paradoxically however, even despite this self-definition, in defining itself against republicanism MIR still ultimately finds itself determined by the concept. Furthermore, although highly critical of the uses republican universalism has been put to, it could be argued that MIR is in favour of a genuine universalising of the Republic’s proclaimed values of liberté , égalité and fraternité (even if the movement sees this as highly unlikely to happen without a fundamental rethinking

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