French Intifada: Day 12?

It's now the 11th, or is it the 12th night of France's current "troubles," and as of this writing, no end appears to be in sight. We have yet to see the French military appear on the scene to restore order (too much like the boorish US, no doubt), nor have we yet seen, to this writer's knowledge at least, any sign of a curfew being imposed. The latest news? The current French Intifada has apparently drawn its first blood, reportedly a hapless fellow trying to put out a fire in a trash can who was mobbed and beaten to death, probably by the pyromaniacs themselves.

We've opined here already that we detect some signs that this is turning into an Islamofascist Intifada in the lands of the infidel. The Belgravia Dispatch has a different take on this:

Now, I am not one who believes that some pan-Eurabian intifada is in the offing, or that the implications of these riots rival 9/11, or that Shamil Basayev's guerilla tactics are being adopted off la Place de la Republique--as breathless, under-informed 'commentary' has it in some quarters of the blogosphere. But we certainly have a pivot point here, one where the ruling elite's inefficacy and ineptness is being laid crudely bare for all the world to see. They have been tone-deaf and caught off guard by the depth of the alienation in their midst, and it has now caught them very much unawares and seemingly clueless on how next to respond.

HazZzmat would no doubt be part of this "breathless, under-informed 'commentary,'" since we've been pushing the Islamofascist angle. And indeed the author of this piece, Gregory Djerejian, rightly identifies the socio-economic background of this type of rioting, a background well-known to those who managed to survive the 1968 urban rioting in American, including Watts, Detroit, and the nation's capitol itself. (Some areas of the latter have only now begun to recover.)

Djerejian's remarks are well taken to a point, and his commentary on the background of French politics and economics are backed up and well-informed. But his analysis does not give the proper place to the exploitation of root causes by professional revolutionaries who infiltrate the initial uprisings, whatever their cause, take them over, and harness the pent up energy:

• To further their own revolutionary cause (heretofore generally Marxism-Leninism); and
• To create fear in the bourgeoisie by making these revolutionary outbursts seem as if they have sprung up from an outpouring of fealty to the revolutionary party.

A case in point was 1968 Watts which was skillfully exploited by the Marxist-front Black Panther organization to create the myth that they, themselves were supported by the masses and that their redistributionist ideals were one with the entire community.

We'll be the last to deny that Western Europe's culture--still, despite protestations to the contrary, far more class-stratified than our own--denies top opportunities in education, politics, and government service, as much as is humanly possible, to those who are not from the best families and the best schools. This, added to pre-existing and pernicious high unemployment, the direct results of the continent's ingrained socialism, works to the detriment not only of unassimilated immigrants but to the frequent exclusion of the native population as well.

The bottom line: such class-ridden societies create and sustain a rigid lower class from which there is rarely any escape, leading to low educational attainment, high unemployment, increased criminal activity, and a high misery index. It is in this kind of fertile ground that revolutionary and anti-US messages can take hold, such as seems to be happening once again in Latin America where a pure Marxist thug like Castro-apologist Hugo Chavez is rapidly gaining respect and resonance among the populace. For such people, it seems as if the only way out is a kind of mindless violence that allows them to be "noticed," whereas civilized behavior does not, which will perhaps lead to a solution. And left-wing criminals like Chavez are only too happy to co-opt this violence by using it to further their own not-so-attractive aims, cloaking the uprisings in revolutionary respectability.

The same thing, we fear, is going on right now in France, Denmark, Berlin, Belgium, and elsewhere. European class repression is coming home to roost--again. But this time, Marxism's lazy intellectuals have been too busy sipping adult beverages at the local subsidized cafe to pick up a few bricks and join in the fun.

A far more sinister element is poised to pick up the bricks now, and is without a doubt already doing so. Criminal and Islamofascist elements are increasingly driving this activity, the former hoping to settle scores while the latter is aiming to exploit the issue with a goal of carving out enclaves ruled by sharia--not by Western jurisprudence, such as it is these days. Writers like Djerejian who would sniff at an observation like this have simply not studied Marxism in the West over the last 70-80 years to discern its pattern of co-optation and infiltration of indiginous movements against standing governments for whatever means.

But the Islamofascists have. They have watched and they have learned. They are already exploiting this situation and will continue to do so as opportunities are made available. It is ostrich-like behavior to suggest otherwise. Power Point would agree, and the same site has another chilling link as evidence for this point of view. See also Austin Bay (who uses the same "Is Paris Burning?" connection HazZzmat explored last week). And Wretchard at The Belmont Club worries further:

What I am afraid will happen is that the French authorities will apply the worst possible combination: a short-term crackdown based on profiling together with an agreement to cede the governance of these ghettos to some kind of Islamic councils. That will make the banlieus more opaque while at the same time making them more alien.

Patient revolutionaries are like experienced practitioners of jiu-jitsu, exploiting the weaknesses of their enemies rather than attempting to use their own often inferior strength to crush the opposition. Neither their existence, their tactics, nor their deadly final aims should ever be discounted.