For Militant Secularism Hijab: ESF Socialism and Animal Rights UKIP
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What Next? Marxist Discussion Journal 29 For Militant Secularism ! Hijab: The Right to Choose ! Theo van Gogh ! Qaradawi and Islamophobia ! Tatchell and Fortuyn ! Anarchists and the ESF ! Socialism and Animal Rights ! UKIP ! A Red Voting Green ! Respect Coalition ! The Left in Scotland ! Union-Labour Link ! CPGB Crisis ! Chinese Stalinism ! Spanish Civil War CONTENTS What Next? No.29 2004 Authors IN DEFENCE OF MILITANT SECULARISM Andrew Coates ................................................... 2 Andrew Coates is a socialist and HIJAB: A WOMAN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE secularist living in Ipswich who Salma Yaqoob ..................................................... 4 has been active on the French left THE VAN GOGH: HERO, ANTI-SEMITE, Salma Yaqoob is a member of MISOGYNIST OR ISLAMOPHOBE? Respect – the Unity Coalition Herman de Tollenaere ....................................... 6 in Birmingham QARADAWI, KEN BIGLEY AND ISLAMOPHOBIA Herman de Tollenaere is a Robert Wilkins .................................................... 8 historian living in the Netherlands A ‘CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS’, Robert Wilkins is a member SENDING PINK SPARKS FLYING? of the Labour Party Yoshie Furuhashi ................................................ 9 WOMBLING FREE? ANARCHISTS Yoshie Furuhashi is radical AND THE EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM activist in the United States and Geoffrey Brown ................................................ 12 author of the Critical Montages weblog SOCIALISM AND ANIMAL RIGHTS Terry Liddle ...................................................... 17 Geoffrey Brown is a Marxist who believes that the principles BROWNSHIRTS IN BLAZERS? THE RISE OF UKIP of Marxism are opposed to those Martin Sullivan ................................................. 19 of anarchism NEITHER NEW LABOUR NOR GORGEOUS GEORGE Terry Liddle is a socialist and Dave Osler ........................................................ 22 animal rights supporter RESPECT COALITION: NO JOKE Martin Sullivan is a member Martin Sullivan ................................................. 25 of the Labour Party PROSPECTS FOR THE LEFT IN SCOTLAND Dave Osler is an independent Vince Mills ........................................................ 27 socialist and critical Green voter THE END OF AN ENDURING ALLIANCE? Vince Mills is a member of TRADE UNION-LABOUR RELATIONS the Labour Party in Scotland and Gregor Gall ....................................................... 29 secretary of the Campaign for Socialism CPGB: CENTRISM, VACILLATION AND CAPITULATION Ian Donovan ...................................................... 34 Gregor Gall is Professor of Industrial Relations at the THE STALINIST STATE IN CHINA University of Stirling and a Wang Fanxi ....................................................... 39 member of the Scottish Socialist Party A DANISH TROTSKYIST IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Åge Kjelsø ........................................................ 45 Ian Donovan is a member of Respect – the Unity Coalition and a former member of the CPGB REVIEWS ......... 51 LETTERS ......... 56 In Defence of Militant Secularism Andrew Coates STRANGE alliance has arisen: from con- progressive decision of an otherwise right-wing A servative members of the Muslim Association French government to ban the veil (le voile), and of Britain, the SWP, to London’s Mayor, all are in other divisive badges of faith from the public an uproar about “Islamophobia”. Ken Livingstone educational sphere. This was supported by the has taken it upon himself to criticise the French immense majority of the French left. Even most of move to ban wearing ostentatious religious those opposed to a formal interdiction admitted symbols in schools. He has also given lessons on “the veil is an oppression” (that is the position of religious freedom by defending a cleric, al- the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire). Nearly Qaradawi, who supports female genital mut- all sides have pointed to the simple fact that men, ilation.1 This bloc draws support from the under dominant interpretations of the Qur’an, are mainstream of the Anglican Church and Prince not required to cover their hair, and that women Charles to, with rare exceptions, the bien-pensant are obliged to do so because it is held that the sight pages of the Guardian. of female coiffure will cause sexual feelings. All are reactionary responses to the secular Members of the North-African feminist movement, view, which is at the centre of anti-racism. This Ni Putes Ni Soumises, were at the forefront of the stand, eloquently supported by Henri Pena-Ruiz battle against the veil. Fadela Amara has declared in Qu’est-ce que la laïcité? (2003), rests on the that, whilst a believer, she sees the veil as “a tool fundamental principle of the Enlightenment: the of oppression, of alienation, of discrimination, an freedom of the public sphere from religious dogma. instrument of power by men over women”.4 These As he states, of the realisation of the problems brave feminist voices have aroused the violent religion causes: “Il a fallu que les fous de Dieu, hostility of the French Islamicists, the tellingly auparavant encouragés par l’Amérique causant la named Frères musulmans (Muslim Brotherhood). mort en plein coeur de Manhattan pour que le Only a tiny minority of the French left, inspired monde prenne enfin conscience du danger.” (It by the British Socialist Workers Party, or post- required those crazed by God and earlier modernist relativism, defended the absolute right encouraged by America to cause death at the very to be oppressed. heart of Manhattan before the world finally realised This has not been the stand in Britain. As we the danger they posed.)2 The imperialist reaction have seen, a majority appears to align with is well known. But as Henry Pena-Ruiz has also Islamicists against secularism. The Anglo-Saxon stated, we need to activate simultaneously “la lutte “left’s” views correspond to an ideology resting sociale contre toutes les dérégulations capitalistes on three sources. et pour la promotion des services publiques, qui The first derives from straightforward British produisent de la solidarité et non de la charité; la imperialism. That is the practice of separating lutte pour une émancipation intellectuelle”. “communities” on religious ground. Under the Through a “une laïcité universelle” we aim for Indian Raj different religious groups had the right “l’émancipation laïque du droit, gage de liberté de to distinct “personal law”. That is that the tous les êtres humaines”. (A struggle against profoundly unequal relations between men and capitalist deregulation, for public services, for women under Hindu and Islamic “law” (with the solidarity and not charity, a fight for intellectual notable contradiction of Sikh rules) were etern- emancipation. Through universal secularism we alised in jurisprudence. At present in Canada there aim for secular emancipation, the measure of all are serious attempts to re-establish this state of human liberty.)3 Only by defending universal affairs. “Community leaders” (not elected but given rights, and by denying special privileges to by their status as religious figures) are recognised religious groups, can a genuine anti-racialist by the state as those who determine “their” position unite the oppressed. communities’ rules. The immediate cause of this polemic is the The “left’s” response has been to try to gain 2 their own constituency by trawling for support everyone has the right to his/her cultural practices, amongst sympathetic Muslim notables (and and that there are no universal rights. Furthermore notably not amongst other ethnic or religious it is held that for “Europeans” to criticise Islam is groups). The so-called Respect Coalition has inherently racist. The British defenders of the explicitly pitched its propaganda at the “Muslim” Qu’ran are not very open about the affinity bet- vote and welcomed the endorsement of mosques. ween their ideas and the heirs of Maurras. But Abandoning any class-related politics it accepts the there is an American point at which the extreme idea that there are fixed faith “communities” out right culturalists such as Alain de Benoist and the there to be captured. remnants of the post-modern New Left overtly Secondly, there is the adoption of the American meet, and that place is called Telos. model of “multi-culturalism”. This, as Historical Such responses are fundamentally wrong. Materialism (Vol.11 No.4, 2003) details, is a model They divert attention away from the central of social conflict in which different ethnic groups question of racist reactions to “foreigners” (since assert their “rights”. The very particular con- in the UK racialist sentiments are centred on ditions of American class formation (in which the asylum seekers regardless of their religion). They heritage of slavery, different waves of immigration, encourage the birth of communalism, promoting the existence of a colour-based privileged layer in one religious community’s interest against others. the working class, and an immensely powerful They ignore the central problem for secularists in bourgeoisie have combined) are regarded as the Britain: that is to create a republic with no universal. In place of unified class conflicts, we established religion and to free education from the have religious and cultural organisations from the influence of spiritual doctrines. That sphere should different class and ethnic fractions as permanent ideally be a place for equality between the citizens. lobbies. Each is held to be separate but equal.