Paris riots, the welfare state and the racism of neoliberalism

Anarchists in Turkey on the French riots.

The flame which spread from Paris to the whole France is not new. The flame of the immigrants and laborers of oppressed nations who became the scapegoats of the social and economic destruction of neoliberalism burned Lyon suburbs in France on October 1990, Bristol in the UK on July 1992 and Los Angeles in the US on February 1992. This flame showed to the whole world the economic and social attack of neoliberalism and the racism covered by discourses on integration and citizenship.

Let Paris Burn!

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After the two world wars and the great economic depression the imperialist Western countries transformed themselves in the 1950’s to so-called “welfare states”. These states presented themselves as ideal and egalitarian democracies in contrast to the bureaucratic dictatorships in the East and this illusion was not totally destroyed either by their openly imperialist interventions or by the opposition movements emerged in them in the 1960’s. On the contrary these movements became a mask which strengthened this illusion when they integrated more and more into the system.

“The welfare states” were founded with the profits coming from Asia, Africa and Latin America and form the working class which grows with the immigrants coming from those continents. In the 1970’s “the welfare states” become unsustainable for the hegemony of the bosses and neoliberal screams aiming to steal even the last cent from the pockets of the laborers echoed on the whole world, because the labor movements are defeated and the USSR proved to be not a real hope. Neoliberalism came to power with Thatcher in England, Reagan in the US and Özal in Turkey.

Neoliberal attacks gave the working class nothing more than unemployment, casualisation and social misery. Furthermore the hypocrisy of the West is revealed which shows its respect only according to the skin color and mother languages of the people. In the first flush of victory created by the collapse of the USSR and the hegemony of capitalism on the whole world American and European countries believed that they can deal with this misery growing next to them.

The flame which spread from Paris to the whole France is not new. The flame of the immigrants and laborers of oppressed nations who became the scapegoats of the social and economic destruction of neoliberalism burned Lyon suburbs in France on October 1990, Bristol in the UK on July 1992 and Los Angeles in the US on February 1992. This flame showed to the whole world the economic and social attack of neoliberalism and the racism covered by discourses on integration and citizenship. This flame became a light of hope for the laborers of the Europe and for the millions who are oppressed in the capitalist system of exploitation and sentenced to hunger, poverty and wars. This hypocrisy and economic misery which today became apparent after the death of two kids in French, the Katrina Hurricane in the US and the events in ?emdinli in Northern Kurdistan* can only be stopped by the united attack of the laborers and the oppressed.

They won’t be able to sit comfortably in their plazas, villas, luxurious clubs, and sterile streets. They cannot stop the rage of Seattle, Genova and Thessalonica with oppression or fear from “terror”. We know that they are the source of terror, violence, deaths and hunger and we, the laborers of the earth, can only attain our freedom by uniting and struggling against them. One day the flame of freedom and equality will spread form the suburbs of Paris and streets of ?emdinli to the whole world and at that day they won’t have any place to hide and any lie to mask themselves.

Paris was founded by the products of artisan who was driven to misery, by the hard work of the new workers who were banished from their villages, by the bloody gold coins coming from Algeria and by the knowledge of the engineer who lost his dignity. If burning Paris will let the founders of Paris to breathe freely, if it can make them free even for a while, then we are shouting from here: Let Paris burn! Let the world of the oppressors burn! We can build a new Paris; we can build a new world. That world is growing this minute in our heaths!

Anarchist Communist Initiative