Racism & Fascism - new material (50)
01 March 2005
Hitler was great; I can't say more. Roger Boyes, The Times, 12.3.05. Article detailing the views of Udo Voigt, leader of the German far right National Socialist Party (NPD), who is facing prosecution for glorification of the Nazi era. Also outlines the development of the NPD and its strategy for Germany's national elections in 2006, for which Voigt, who initiated an NPD recruitment drive targeting skinheads, is preparing a national alliance of far-right parties, known for their divisive nature.
De la laïcité égalitaire à la laïcité sécuritaire. Le milieu scolaire à l'épreuve du foulard islamique [From egalitarian secularism to security-based secularism. The school environment tested by the Islamic veil], Pierre Tévanian. Chapter 7 of
La machine à punir. Practiques et discours sécuritaires, L. Bonelli & G. Sainati (eds.), L'Esprit Frappeur, 2004, Euros 7. This insightful chapter, written by a teacher from a school attended by a large number of pupils with ethnic minority backgrounds, focuses on the debate surrounding the introduction of the headscarf ban in French schools. He views the debate as artificial, misleading and as being framed in imperialist terms, in terms of Republican values (and "security") having to reclaim school territory from "savage" pupils (the use of "colonialist" terminology in the debate is an aspect that is highlighted in the article) through punitive and/or discriminatory measures. He questions the degree of support that this "unjustifiable" measure enjoyed among teachers (to restore respect for authority, undermined by a growing teacher-pupil division), feminists (to fight a symbol of oppression) and part of the left, noting that the Stasi commission, whose report laid the foundations for the ban, listened to several actors but ignored the views of students. Tévanian challenges the ban on a number of grounds, including the following: the betrayal of the Republican principle that no one is to be excluded from the public education system, regardless of their faith or background; that a denial to provide schooling to girls who wear a veil (whether they do so by choice or under constraint), far from liberating them, will deny them schooling as well as the intellectual weapons to fight this battle within their family or community; and the fact that girls who wear head-scarves to school in France do not have a record of being particularly troublesome or disruptive ("it is rarely the girls who wear a veil who complain loudly"), at the same time as they represent an "easy target".
The book is available from: L'Esprit frappeur, 9, passage Dagorno, 75020, Paris, France.