‘Anti-Imperialist’ Fascists in France

10Aug12

From Tendance Coates, with apologies for some added hyperlinks and gently corrected typos:

Counterpunch’s friend Israël Adam Shamir does not only write about Dreyfus on Entre la Plume et l’Enclume (between the Pen and the Anvil).

He, for example, wrote a vibrant defence of Gilad Atzmon on the same site earlier this year […]  calling him “un volcan vivant, un titan pourvu d’un sens de l’humour rabelaisien..”

What is Entre la Plume et l ‘Enclume?

It forms part of a network of French ‘Anti-Zionists’ and  ’Anti-imperialists’ who defend, amongst other causes, the Syrian regime, and the rights of those who question the Holocaust. They also stand for the rights of religious groups, Islamic and Christian, against Secularism.

On the margins of the rest of the French far-right, this current, in the shape of  ’humourist’ Dieudonné M’bala M’bala  has had some impact, though its electoral success is minimal.

This network of the far-right includes former Green Party member Ginette Skandrani who heads Le Mouvement des damnés de l’impérialisme (MDI). At present she vigorously opposes ‘American’ efforts to depose Syria’s President Assad.  María Poumier, who runs the La Plume et L’Enclume, is best known for her support for Holocaust deniers.  Both these two claim to be strongly ‘pro-Palestinian’ – a claim contested by supporters of the Palestinian cause who oppose anti-semitism.

The Parti antisioniste, brought together many of these figures. It stood  in the Isle-de-France for the 2009 European Elections. It got 1,30% of the vote.

At present the Parti reproduces Iranian propaganda stating,

“La Syrie est le théâtre d’une guerre opposant le front de l’athéisme et du colonialisme à celui de la Résistance, a affirmé mardi 24 juillet, Seyyed Ali Khamenei devant le « rassemblement des oulémas musulmans » (formation libanaise regroupant des religieux sunnites et chiites).

Syria is the theatre of a war which opposes the Atheist-Colonialist Front against the Resistance.

That is, not what is normally called The Resistance, but those against ‘foreign’ Free Army and other intervention.

This is from the  ‘Anti-Zionist Party’s list of supporters in 2009:

(from Action Antifasciste)

Support in 2009 European elections:

– Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala (les Ogres – « Utopie Concrète », qui n’est plus à présenter)
– Alain Soral (ancien P«C»F, ancien FN, Égalité & Réconciliation, ultra-républicain nationaliste violemment misogyne)
– Yahia Gouasmi (Centre Zahra, Parti « Anti-Sioniste », islamiste chiite, proche de l’Iran)
– Raba Serbout (Centre Zahra, « fière d’appartenir à cette liste antisémite »)
– Ginette Skandrani (ancienne Verte, Entre la Plume et l’Enclume, négationniste soi-disant pro-palestinienne, caution vaguement écologiste et plus-que-vaguement juive)
– Maria Poumier (Plume & Enclume, négationniste, sort une casquette pro-Chavez pendant la conférence de presse)
– Ahmed Moualek (La Banlieue S’exprime, soutien à Dieudonné et au FN, pour l’intégration brutale des minorités dans le giron nationaliste)
– Samya Ayari (Égalité & Réconciliation)

This year Dieudonné stood in Dreux dans la 2^e circonscription d’Eure-et-Loir, with the backing of the Parti antisioniste He got 1,14 % of the vote.

Ideology

On the sidebar of Entre La Plume et l’Eclume are links to articles by Roger Garauday,Noam Chomksy, Dieudonné, Gilad Atzmon, “Carlos” (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez),  Israël Adam Shamir, and Ginette Skandrani.

The ideological mix of the site can be seen in the following themes:

• Protests against ‘Censorship’ of  Holocaust denial. Articles include those  by  Robert Faurisson on the ‘Auschwitz myth’ for example, are posted.
• ‘Anti-Imperialism’ “Anti-impérialistes de tous les pays, unissez vous!” Moblisation against any intervention in Syria*, ‘Homage to Gaddafi, Salutations to ‘Commander Carlos’.
• Publicity for figures such as Hussein Triki, Former Arab League Representative in Argentina. By his enemies, he is alleged to have said that the Holocaust was invented by Global Zionism, and that Israel Betrayed the US by Not Giving It Prior Warning of 9/11.

The ideological project of this grouping,  which extends from La Plume, and the Parti Antisioniste, to the so-called Réseau Voltaire **, involves.

1. A  strategy based on ‘anti-imperialism’, against imperial intervention in Venezuela, in Iran, in Serbia, and, above all, opposition to Israel, which is seen the pawn of American imperialism.
2. A national  and social synthesis: fascism as a diverse current including nationalist Catholics, and Islamist Shiites, the irreligious, around a common ‘anti-system’ agenda.
3. Anti-Semitism as the ideological cement of fascism. Using the term ‘Anti-Zionist’ is purely cosmetic, for legal reasons. When fascists talk of social issues, when they talk of capitalism, they mean ‘Jews’.

Like their forerunners in the Nouvelle Droite this strategy is based on an ideological war of position: a struggle to promote ideas and win over allies for  a new political bloc. That this has had an echo can be seen by the American Counterpunch taking up one of their prominent allies. Some of their ideas are reflected more widely, though largely only within  minorities inside  the Front National and – more thoroughly –  small hard-right ‘identity’ groups.

We ask: what does Counterpunch think of this strategy? Do they simply ignore the background of Shamir? Do they think these people are too marginal to comment on? If so, why do they  promote a key member of the far-right team around Entre la Plume et l’Enclume?

What really do they think of them?

*Nous avons gagné sur ce coup-là : nous pouvons bloquer la propagande guerre en Syrie! La mère Clinton veut un coup d’état militaire en Syrie, veut déclencher le crime contre la paix, veut faire commettre des crimes de guerre et des crimes contre l’humanité, malgré le veto de l’ONU, par l’OTAN: pour cela, une vaste opération de substitution des télés syriennes (le but était de répandre de fausses informations, comme en Libye en 2011, comme en Haitï en 2004, comme au Venezuela en 2002). Non, la guerre mondiale ne commencera pas en Syrie, grâce à notre mobilisation!

** Typical statement Though the Western press portrays the Free Syrian Army as an armed revolutionary group, for more than a year Thierry Meyssan has affirmed that it is on the contrary a counter-revolutionary body.

Also read:

from Tendance Coatesy: On Syria and the poverty of “anti-imperialism”, on Shamir’s anti-Dreyfusism, on Piers Paul Reed and the Catholic sources of Shamir’s anti-Dreyfusism.

from BobFromBrockley: Alexander Cockburn and CounterPunch,

Filed under: Fascists in the anti-globalization movement, France, Left-right convergence, Middle East, the poverty of anti-imperialism   |  1 Comment
Tags: Ahmed Moualek, Alain Soral, Alexander Cockburn, Anti-imperialism, Égalité & Réconciliation, Centre Zahra, Counterpunch, Dieudonné, Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, Entre la Plume et l’Enclume, France, Gilad Atzmon, Ginette Skandrani, holocaust denial, Hussein Triki, Israël Adam Shamir, Israel Shamir, La Banlieue S’exprime, Le Mouvement des damnés, María Poumier, new right, Nouvelle Droite, Parti antisioniste, Raba Serbout, Réseau Voltaire, Robert Faurisson, Roger Garauday, Samya Ayari, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Syria, Yahia Gouasmi