France on the edge
«We want to continue our efforts to keep Paris affordable for the poorest Parisians and the middle classes»Ian Brossat, aged 39, is a professor of modern literature who formerly taught in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles. In 2014 he was elected as deputy mayor of Paris, in charge of housing and emergency accommodation. He is also a national spokesperson for the French Communist Party (PCF).
In this mid-February interview, he sat down with Ethan Earle to discuss the French municipal elections taking place in March, ...
read more "Interview with Ian Brossat, Deputy Mayor of Paris in Charge of Housing"
read more "Interview with Ian Brossat, Deputy Mayor of Paris in Charge of Housing"
An interview with André Chassaigne, Member of France’s National AssemblyAndré Chassaigne is a communist member of parliament representing the Puy de Dôme department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. He has been a member of the French National Assembly since 2002 and has headed the Democratic and Republican Left group, made up of 16 members of parliament, since 2012.
In this mid-January interview, he sat down with A Season in Hell Editor Ethan Earle to discuss Emmanuel Macron’s proposed pension reform, the strike and the popular ...
read more "“There is so much more to us than opposition”"
read more "“There is so much more to us than opposition”"
In a handful of cities across France, left-wing parties are setting aside their differences and running united tickets in March’s municipal elections. But tensions and uncertainties never linger far from the surface.
In cities, suddenly, the mud seemed red and black
like a mirror when the lamp moves about in the adjoining room,
like a treasure in the forest!
~Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”
The French Left has seen better days.
Since the election of President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, the country’s smorgasbord of left-wing ...
read more "Storming City Hall"
read more "Storming City Hall"
Macron has committed to raising military spending in France. His goal? To increase France’s and the EU’s capacity for ‘strategic autonomy’. What does this mean, and what else should you know about Macron’s defence policy?
Forward! The march, the burden and the desert,
weariness and anger.
~Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”
Emmanuel Macron's five-year term as President of France (following his election in May 2017) began with an event rarely seen since the birth of the Fifth Republic in 1958: the head of state rebuking his ...
read more "The Europeanisation of French defence policy?"
read more "The Europeanisation of French defence policy?"
The 'debate' about immigration, rewritten by Maryam Madjidi, winner of the Prix Goncourt for a first novelI invented the color of vowels!—
A black, E white, I red, O blue, U green.
—I regulated the form and movement of every consonant,
and with instinctive rhythms I prided myself on inventing
a poetic language accessible some day to all the senses,
~Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”
In this crooked blind alley, as the chill descends,
They feed fires
With logs of song and poetry
Hazard not a thought:
These are strange times, my dear.
...
read more "Strange times, my dear!"
read more "Strange times, my dear!"
Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National
I have swallowed a monstrous dose of poison.
~Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”
When the far-right Front National (FN) changed its name to Rassemblement National (National Rally, or RN) in June 2018, media commentary tended to follow a familiar pattern, taking party leader Marine Le Pen’s words at face value. The Associated Press interpreted the change as an indication of the party’s desire to “appeal to a broader range of voters”. It drew a similar, if rather odd, conclusion about the party’s...
read more "Don’t you know that you’re toxic?"
read more "Don’t you know that you’re toxic?"
Far from birds and flocks and village girls,
What did I drink, as I knelt in the heather,
A tender hazel copse around me,
In the warm green mist of the afternoon?
~Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”
Two political parties – Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV) and President Macron's The Republic on the Move (La Republique En Marche, or LREM) – are now vying for the centrist vote in France. But while LREM is veering to the right, the French Greens are being 'blocked' from following suit by a militant base that's pulling them to ...
read more "The Greens and/or Macron: the fight to hold the centre"
read more "The Greens and/or Macron: the fight to hold the centre"
The massive coming strike and mobilisations against pension reform
By Daniel Cirera, General Secretary of the Scientific Council of the Fondation Gabriel Péri
Tuesday 19th November. Dinner at the Élysée Palace. The President brings together a close circle of ministers and parliamentarians. No more hesitation: the pension reform will be implemented.[1] Everyone must be on a war footing. No question of letting oneself be afraid. It had been necessary to back off in the face of the yellow vest protests,[2] to let slide in the case of the hospitals....
read more "Macron against the “5th December wall”"
read more "Macron against the “5th December wall”"
One must be absolutely modern.
No hymns! Hold the ground gained. Arduous night!
~ Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”
In France, the pension regime associated with social security dates from the Liberation of Paris and was set up under the leadership of Ambroise Croizat, former Minister of Labour and trade unionist with the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), and based around the objectives of progress, solidarity, democracy and social transformation. Back then, the trade unions representing salaried workers were in charge of social ...
read more "An attack on the solidarity-based system"
read more "An attack on the solidarity-based system"
And its contested meaning, past, present and future
I dreamed crusades, unrecorded voyages of discovery,
untroubled republics, religious wars stifled, revolutions of customs,
the displacements of races and continents:
I believed in all marvels.
~Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”
In France, the idea of the “nation” and of the “Republic” are deeply intertwined. To be French means to be a republican. The notion of the Republic is commonly and interchangeably associated with a political system and its institutions; a historical moment ...
read more "French Republicanism"
read more "French Republicanism"