France, Nativism And A Piece Of Cloth.

I am not a fan of the Niqab or Burka, but then again I am against enforcing specific dress codes, to wear something or not to wear something.

I argued some time ago on this very topic at Zword, but reconsidering some of those arguments I think there is a better way of looking at it, a simpler way. In the grand scheme of things, how important is it, really? In my view, not much.

When you think of France, with all its numerous social problems, economic ills and political difficulties, would you think that a piece of cloth is the biggest problem that they face?

And does it become a bigger issue when worn by women, in strategic places ?

I suspect most intelligent readers will say, no.

Clearly, there is plenty of historical material on secularism in France, and anyone familiar with the French Revolution would know why, but the contemporary debate in France owes more to the political manoeuvrings of politicians and the influence of the Far Right.

Xenophobia has long been a problem in Europe with its major manifestations in the 1930s and 40s.

More recently we can see increased racial attacks and violence again Roma across European countries, including France and then the spectre of nativism raises its ugly head, where those wearing unapproved fashions are now attacked.

The Far Right’s influence can be seen all over these measures, along with Nicolas Sarkozy’s fingerprints as he panders to French nativism in the hope of electoral success.

Enforced dress codes must be rejected, whether in Saudi Arabia, the Taliban’s old Afghanistan or France.

France has many serious problems and they do not come down to bits of cloth worn by women.

The real problems and social ills in France should be dealt with, and it does not help women in anyway to fine them for not wearing the approved range of clothes.

So in Europe let us be serious, deal with the real problems, infrastructure, social inequalities, decent wages, good pension, a solid welfare state and the stark divisions between rich and poor, and not these panicky measure which only increase racial tension and help the Far Right.

Update 1: Previous posts on the topic, Stigmatising Dress Codes.

Pandering To Prejudice In France.

John Galliano And Bourgeois Taboos.

Eamonn McDonagh has a good piece on fashion, fashionistas and those who defend John Galliano:

“She doesn’t deny that Galliano expressed admiration for Hitler and wished death on people he believed to be Jews but chooses to divert attention from and minimize the importance of this with irrelevant blather of various sorts. By the tone and content of her remarks she also indicates that her admiration for Galliano has not been diminished by his having revealed himself to be a gross racist and enthusiast for killing Jews.

Of course Oloixarac might respond by saying “Oh that was just John being John, being provocative. No one can possibly believe that he really has anything against Jews, those were just words, and he’s an artist for heaven’s sake, always trying to break through the boundaries and limits on what can be said.”

To which, two responses:

1. Great, he broke the bourgeois taboo about endorsing genocide and expressing grossly racist views. Clap! Clap! Perhaps we can now hope that other creative people will step forward and endorse pedophilia, the random murder of strangers and cannibalism and that Oloixarac will defend them with equal enthusiasm.

2. Great, he broke the bourgeois taboo about endorsing genocide and expressing grossly racist views. And because we respect his ability to think and act for himself we have to believe that he understood the likely consequences of expressing such views and making such threats in posh bars and restaurants in Paris and can have no complaints about his having been sacked by Dior.”

John Galliano, Fashion And Fascism.

The New York Times has a piece on John Galliano and High Fascism:

“Maybe we were. Fashion is more than business in France: it’s a mythology, a secular religion, a source of national pride, especially during Fashion Week, when the country recalls its history as the birthplace of haute couture.

In recent days, though, in response to the anti-Semitic diatribe by Christian Dior’s creative director, John Galliano, the French have been recalling a far more ominous chapter in their history.

According to witnesses, a drunken Mr. Galliano exploded at a woman seated near him in a Paris bar. “Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead,” he is said to have told her. “Your boots are of the lowest quality, your thighs are of the lowest quality. You are so ugly I don’t want to see you. I am John Galliano!”

France is highly sensitive to such matters, and reprisals came quickly. Dior fired Mr. Galliano, who now faces charges of using a racial insult, a crime in France. But beyond the spectacle of one man’s abhorrent politics, the episode invites consideration of the curious relationship between French fashion and fascism.

During the Occupation, the Nazis and their French allies recognized the power and national prestige of the French fashion industry and sought to harness it. When the collaborationist Vichy government took over direction of the French lifestyle magazine Paris Soir, it announced in its pages a “summer of couture … and shopping.” The Nazis were so enamored with fashion’s place in French culture that in their plans for postwar Europe, they stipulated that, unlike other industries, the fashion sector would remain in France.
…
Which brings us back to Mr. Galliano in the Paris bar. His was not a generic anti-Semitic tirade, but the self-conscious pronouncement of a world-class arbiter of taste (“I am John Galliano!”). Not only did he use ethnic slurs, he accused the woman of being unattractive and unfashionable, associating both with ethnicity, with being Jewish (which she happened not to be).

The link is clear: like a fascist demagogue of yore, he was declaring that she did not belong to the gilded group who wear the right boots, and from this Mr. Galliano slid effortlessly to a condemnation of her very flesh, and a wish for her death. “

Antisemitic Rehab And John Galliano.

Hadley Freeman takes on the fashionistas and John Galliano’s excusers:

” If Field, Kidman and the rest of the fashion corps took their heads out of their butts for a few minutes and read a book, they would doubtless cite what is known as The TS Eliot Defence, which is that Eliot’s distasteful views of Jews haven’t stopped people reading his work. The answer to this is, quite obviously: 1. While antisemitism is always abhorrent, Eliot did live in a different era and some adjustments of expectations must be made, and, in any case: 2. Eliot, to my knowledge, never said all Jews should have been gassed.

If reading feels like too much of a trial, perhaps they could cite The Coco Chanel Defence, which argues that Chanel herself was not averse to having some sexy time with top-level Nazis during the war but people are not condemned for wearing the Chanel label today. Again, two simple replies: 1. Chanel was punished for her treacherous behaviour and her business suffered (because Parisians in the 1940s understood that wearing clothes by someone who expresses love for a Nazi is not such a good look), and: 2. The clothes are no longer designed by Coco Chanel as she is, in fact, dead. Yes, the designer for the label these days, Karl Lagerfeld, is German but, come on, we’ve all moved on. Well, all of us except Galliano.

While we all wait with bated breath to see how rehab cures Galliano’s antisemitism problem (and how, pray tell, does antisemitic rehab work? Is he force-fed matzo-ball soup? Made to watch Annie Hall on loop? Taught the ways of hypochondria? Gosh, sounds kinda like my childhood), let us muse on how the answer to Lucinda’s question is in fashion patois. The fancy term in fashion land for wearing a designer’s clothes is “showing support”, eg: “Tom Ford’s such a dear friend so I always try to show support for him.” Ergo, perhaps now is not the time to “show support” for Galliano. “

(H/T: Phoebe)

Update 1: At the Poor Mouth, Defending Galliano – When Silence is Golden.

Unentertainment News, John Galliano: “I love Hitler”

As with so many bigots and antisemites their history comes back to haunt them.

John Galliano, who was suspended by Dior for an antisemitic incident at a Paris cafe recently, did it before.

According to the JC, a video has surfaced on the Internet with Galliano making a comment “I love Hitler”.

Further, Galliano goes on to say

“People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be fucking gassed.”

Update 1: Linda Grant’s thoughts are here.

Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen And John Galliano

You might think that antisemitism was a relic of the 20th century, something of the past, something that humans had learnt from, to avoid.

Yet you would be wrong, outbursts of antisemitism in the 21st century are becoming more common, with the passage of time, Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen are just two notable examples.

Now John Galliano, the famous designer, has been indulging in his own brand of antisemitism, according to AP:

“PARIS (AP) — Officials say Dior designer John Galliano was briefly detained after a spat in a Paris restaurant.

An official with the Paris prosecutor’s office says a couple in the restaurant accused Galliano of making anti-Semitic insults. A police official said Friday that Galliano also exchanged slaps with the couple.

The flamboyant British designer was questioned and released after the Thursday night incident. Both officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing say Galliano’s blood alcohol levels were high.

The Dior fashion house would not comment on the incident. “

Update 1: As if on cue, Mel phones:

“He said he had received calls of support from fellow celebrities, including Mel Gibson. “Occasionally, you know, a giant marquee name comes through on your caller ID. And it’s like, winning,” Sheen said. “

In Paris.

From the EJP:

“PARIS (EJP-AFP)—The Paris City Hall has mobilized its employees to remove wall posters making publicity for an anti-Semitic book denouncing the “Jewish mafia”.

The move followed a complaint by the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), a body monitoring anti-Semitic incidents in France.

According to BNVCA president Samy Ghozlan, these posters are regularly placed on wall of Paris and its suburbs since November 12.

They represent three men standing upright with the mention “The Jewish mafia, the great international predators” and feature a new book by extreme-right and anti-Semitic author, Herve Ruyssen.

The BNVCA was alerted by several of its Parisian correspondents who were shocked to discover on the walls of diverse locations in the French capital the anti-Semitic advertising posters.

On these posters one could also read: ” Racket, weapons trafficking, murder under contract, drug trafficking, money laudering, casinos and discotheques, pornography, diamond trafficking, slave trade, Third world plundering, artworks trafficking, swindle.”

Penned By Petain Himself.

A French historian has confirmed what most of us suspected, that Petain was an antisemite as well as a collaborator with the Nazis, France24 has more:

“Serge Klarsfeld, a leading Holocaust historian and Nazi hunter, says a newly discovered document is definitive evidence that French wartime leader Philippe Petain was an anti-Semite who actively supported the holocaust.

Vichy France is the term used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944, which was headed by Marshal Philippe Petain and generally encompassed the south, which maintained some legal authority under German occupation during World War Two.

The document, anonymously donated to the Paris Holocaust Memorial, is a copy of a draft bill from 1940 intended to change the official status of Jews in France. The typewritten document has handwritten additions that considerably toughen the law, expanding proposed bans on public jobs and posts for Jews. According to Klarsfeld, these notes were penned by Petain himself.

The draft bill – with Petain’s alleged changes – was adopted on Oct. 4, 1940, exactly seventy years ago, and marked a tragic turning point for Jews living France.

Over 76,000 Jews were deported from France to Nazi concentration camps between 1940 and 1943. Fewer than 3,000 returned alive.
…
Until the discovery of this latest document, the strongest evidence of Petain’s anti-Semitism was the testimony of the former minister of foreign relations under Vichy, Paul Baudouin. In his 1946 book, ‘The Private Diaries of Paul Baudouin’, he said that it was Petain who argued for harsher policies actions against Jews, and not his prime minister Pierre Laval, as was thought at the time.”

Update 1: I appreciate that many in Britain might not be fully informed on this topic. Some 76,000 Jews in France were rounded up and shipped off to concentration camps, to be killed.

These are historical facts, and no one outside of David Irving would dream of denying them or equivocation. I hope this explains it better:

“Jews were eventually banned from the professions, show business, teaching, the civil service and journalism. After an intense propaganda campaign, Jewish businesses were ‘aryanised’ by Vichy’s Commission for Jewish Affairs and their property was confiscated. More than 40,000 refugee Jews were held in concentration camps under French control, and 3,000 died of poor treatment during the winters of 1940 and 1941. The writer Arthur Koestler, who was held at Le Vernet near the Spanish frontier, said conditions were worse than in the notorious German camp, Dachau.

During 1941 anti-Semitic legislation, applicable in both zones, was tightened. French police carried out the first mass arrests in Paris in May 1941when 3,747 men were interned. Two more sweeps took place before the first deportation train provided by French state railways left for Germany under French guard on 12 March 1942.

On 16 July 1942, French police arrested 12,884 Jews, including 4,501 children and 5,802 women, in Paris during what became known as La Grande Rafle (‘the big round-up’). Most were temporarily interned in a sports stadium, in conditions witnessed by a Paris lawyer, Georges Wellers.

‘All those wretched people lived five horrifying days in the enormous interior filled with deafening noise … among the screams and cries of people who had gone mad, or the injured who tried to kill themselves’, he recalled. Within days, detainees were being sent to Germany in cattle-wagons, and some became the first Jews to die in the gas chambers at Auschwitz.”

The Independent’s 21st Century Racism.

I am indebted to one of my readers, Sarah Annes Brown, for pointing out Mary Dejevsky’s comments in the Independent.

If you read Mary Dejevsky’s appalling article you might be struck, as I was, how attitudes towards the Roma haven’t really changed in the past 80 years.

The Roma have suffered stigmatisation, extermination and marginalisation yet the comment below did not come from a 1930s fascist publication, although given its contents it could have.

It comes from a Western broadsheet, renowned for occasionally provocative but reasoned articles. Surprisingly, in 2004 the Independent won the British Press Awards’ national newspaper of the year.

Mary Dejevsky argues:

“”As it is, though, they [the Roma] are parasites on a state of civilisation, material and cultural, they have done nothing to build and could not reproduce for themselves.”

How such a conspicuous festering pile of racism managed to seep past the Independent’s subeditors I can’t say, but rarely outside of fascist thinking do you see such arguments, and we shouldn’t forget how often they were repeated in the 1930s.

These forms of attack on the Roma are common currency amongst European neofascists, as members of the Vlaams Belang show:

“France’s policy of expelling Roma to Romania and Bulgaria has attracted a storm of criticism at home and abroad from human rights groups and churches but has found support among some far-right politicians.

Philip Claeys, one of two MEPs from the far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang, said he wants to defend “French policy concerning Roma.”

“The dismantling of illegal camps, the struggle against petty crime, criminality and prostitution, and the expulsion of foreigners with no legal earnings are perfectly legitimate in a democratic constitutional state,” said the Belgian euro-deputy in a statement Thursday (2 September).

Getting rid of the Roma camps puts an end to “public order disturbance,” he continued.

France’s own far-right National Front also agrees with the deportations. Its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen described the situation as “a problem caused by the European Union opening the borders between European countries.”

The Independent really should make an effort to stop publishing this anti-Roma racism.

Update 1: As Sarah AB points out the article receives plenty of support in the comments box.

Sarkozy And The Jobbik.

I often wonder if politicians and political activists actually have a sense of history?

You only need to see the treatment of the Roma by the Sarkozy government to think that politicians have learnt nothing?

Or possibly they have? That stirring up hatred against the Roma is politically useful? Whatever the supposed reasons, now that Sarkozy’s government has started an institutional attack on the Roma the Jobbik are joining in, again.

This is not new, as I pointed out before, but the actions in France have allowed xenophobia into the open and the Jobbik fully intend to exploit it.

That this was going to happen is perfectly foreseeable, even by the Sarkozy government.

The Toronto Star reports:

“BUDAPEST—Hungary’s leading far-right party said on Wednesday that Roma who are considered a threat to public safety should be forced from their dwellings and placed in highly-controlled camps, some of them for life.

The Jobbik party capitalized on deep-seated popular resentment toward Hungary’s large Roma minority to get into parliament for the first time in April elections. It recently launched its campaign for municipal elections due on October 3.

“We would force these families out of their dwellings, yes,” Csanad Szegedi, the party’s vice chairman and European Parliament representative, told Reuters. “Then, yes, we would transport these families to public order protection camps.”

“At these camps, there would be a chance to return to civilized society. Those who abandon crime, make sure their children attend school, and participate in public works programmes, they can reintegrate,” he said.

“No doubt there will be people who show no improvement. They can spend the rest of their lives in these camps.”

Jobbik is particularly strong in the northeast of Hungary, where most of the country’s 700,000 Roma live, many in squalid conditions. Unemployment among Roma is extremely high and petty crime is rampant. Jobbik Chairman Gabor Vona said that attempts to integrate the Roma community had failed and that segregation was the best tool to teach them to coexist with the majority, national news agency MTI reported.

Szegedi rejected the idea that the public order protection camps, where inmates would need permission to leave the premises and a 10 p.m. curfew would be enforced, resembled ghettos. “These are not ghettos, they are camps to protect public order,” he said. “I don’t believe this should be a problem as we would execute these plans in accordance with all laws.”

The plight of the Roma, Europe’s largest ethnic minority, has gained attention since French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a crackdown one month ago on Roma camps in France.”

Paris.

The EJP reports:

“PARIS (AFP-EJP)—Swastikas were discovered on Thursday on the frontages and windows of a dozen kosher stores in Paris, the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) announced.

“We see it as a new demonstration of anti-Semitic hatred,” the union said.

A police source said four nazi swastikas were traced with a black marker on two shops, on the wall of a Jewish school and on a nearby building of the Boulevard Voltaire, in Paris’s 11th district.”

12% Too Many.

As the final results of the recent regional elections tallied up it becomes clear that the French National front have advanced.

Apparently, they have about 12% of the vote, which is an incredible figure. To think that French neofascism would be able to convince some 12% of the voting electorate that they were a valid and reasoned choice is disturbing.

Jim at the Daily (Maybe) points to Le Monde’s breakdown. He has done a good job of analysing the results, thus far.

12% in my book is 12% too many.

Update 1: The election-politique site has much more on the results, remembering there is a second round on Sunday.

National results, but worse is the fact that Le Pen achieved 20.29 % in the region of Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur.

Pandering To Prejudice In France.

Anyone following the debate concerning the Burka or Niqab in France might imagine that there are tens of thousands of people sauntering around, committing nefarious acts, hidden by these pieces of cloth.

But in fact according to a BBC correspondent, there are only about 1900 wearers in the whole of France.

Even taking account of French history and anticlericalism it strikes me that this debate is taking on the form of a moral panic in France.

Personally, I think it is regrettable when people wear these particular forms of dress, I think they are demeaning and sexually regressive, but it is their choice.

However, as I argued previously at Z-blog, implementing a ban is in many ways implementing a dress code. It is telling people what they can or can’t wear, even if it’s just in a negative sense.

Why ban the Burka and Niqab? What other forms of dress are socially unacceptable? Should we legislate on those too? And if not, why not ?

My view is, that if someone consciously decides to wear the Burka or a Niqab, for their own reasons, who are you or I to say no? Would you like someone telling you what you can or can’t wear? Of course not, then why apply that to others.

State implemented dress codes are wrong, either in the form of enforcing what you can wear or what you can’t.

The problem is, I think it is the wrong type of debate and in the end it panders to prejudice.

What Did You Do During The War, Mummy?

Not the type of question that Coco Chanel would like to answer, as Counterfire relates:

“The truth is that Coco Chanel spent the occupation of France holed up in the Paris Ritz with her Nazi lover Hans Gunther von Dincklage. He was a spy sent to Paris as part of an advance party preparing for the Nazi invasion.

She used the law banning Jewish people from owning businesses to try and rob her business partners the Wertheimer’s of their share in their co-founded perfume business. Described by French commentators as “indomitably anti-Semitic,” Chanel moved in the highest Nazi circles in Paris and even played a part in a failed Nazi plot called ‘Operation Modelhut’ that involved her being an intermediary to Winston Churchill.

Disgraced in post war France, Coco Chanel was arrested for war crimes but mysteriously released. Facing the possibility of being attacked and having her head shaved as a ‘collaboratrices horizontales’ she fled to Switzerland with Hans Gunther von Dincklage where she lived in exile for fifteen years. Her comeback into the fashion business in the 1950’s was coolly received in France and only the American market saved her from disappearing into obscurity.

In the new film biopic of her life ‘Coco avant Chanel’ it’s as if none of these things ever happened. Instead viewers bathe in the warm glow of the story of a woman who struggled through hardship to bring us the little black dress, the Chanel suit and Chanel No. 5 perfume.”

Time has more.

The Times on Coco and the Nazis.

On that film.

Tendance Coatesy on it.

I Do Like The Tune.

For all of us who missed Bastille Day yesterday I offer La Marseillaise. It is a damn fine tune and here’s what the National Assembly in France tells you about it.

For those who like the tune this site has a variety of formats, I think Rugby World Cup semi-final one is my favourite, along with the one in Casablanca.