From Beginning to End: a history of the French Popular Front

The year is 1934, five years before the outbreak of the Second World War and world politics are undergoing a drastic change. The divides between the left and right are becoming all the more apparent, and France is no exception to this great divide.
The French far-right were getting impatient with the apparent lack of progress in the government, and claimed that it was run by the French leftists, mainly the radical party. There was trouble brewing beneath the surface which erupted on the 6th of February in the form of riots instigated by supporters of the far-right. These protesters formed large groups based on the political movements they were part of. There were several main groups of protesters:

• Action Française, the forerunners in the French far-right movement. They were by far the most numerous during the protests and dedicated to restoring monarchy in France.
• La Jeunesse Patriote, strikingly similar to Mussolini and Hitler's youth movements, they boasted to have numerous important political connections.
• Francisme, an organization holding fascist ideologies.
• Le Croix de Feu, an organization composed of war veterans.

The riots came at an opportune time internationally speaking, as both Hitler and Mussolini were now in power and ready to finance the far-right if they were to attempt a coup d'etat.
All of a sudden the streets of Paris were flooded with angry protesters. The police and national guard were called out into the streets and clashed violently with the opposition.
The photo on the left shows the extension of the violence in the city. A young man throws a potato covered in razorblades at a police horse (out of shot). This was but an example of the violence occurring sporadically throughout the center of Paris; and was far from over.



In face of the recent rioting, the left began to fear for the future of the country. The right was rapidly gaining popularity. Something had to be done quickly in order to counter the rise of the right in France. The SFIO (french socialist party) had suggested that the leftist parties joined forces in the upcoming legislative elections in 1936, but the PCF (french communist party) refused to do so. After the rise of Communism in Russia, the French socialists split into two factions, the SFIO, who opposed the Comintern controlling all of the international socialist parties, and the PCF who were loyal to the Soviets. As a consequence of the split, the Comintern forbade the PCF to join forces with the other socialists. Then, a major U-turn occured and the Soviets decided it would be a better idea for the French left to join forces to oppose the far-right. The SFIO and PCF then joined up with the radicals and thus was born the Front Populaire. While they didn't share all of each-other's views on political legislations, they were able to reach a compromise where the two other parties would back whoever appeared to be the strongest, in this case the SFIO. Along came the legislative elections and Léon Blum, head of the SFIO, became the French prime minister with Daladier (a radical) as his executive. The PCF decided to stay out of it all.
This was also notably the first time where three women had participated in the government, even before women had the right to vote. Things seemed good for the left at long last.

The Front Populaire then set about to changing the workings of French society and French economy, notably by inciting workers to strike. The workers striked and took control of the factories, thus making production impossible and immobilizing the economy. The radicals were incredibly unhappy about this, as they themselves did not support the proletariat, but the small enterprises, and urged workers to go back to work.
On the 7th June 1936, the Matignon Accords were put into practice. These accords allowed

• The existence and creation of worker syndicates, most notably the CGT (Comité General du Travail)
• Business owners and the state to have official representatives
• A substantial raise in minimum wage.
• Two legal weeks of paid leave per year
• A reduction of working hours, to 40 hours per week.

The business owners were understandably outraged, as they felt that they were being made to pay their workers more for less work. This proved to be an exceptional opportunity for the far-right to leap in and exploit this feeling of betrayal.
Owners therefore reduced their investments and started to invest their Capital abroad. The reduction in working hours also meant less production and therefore a higher demand, which forced prices to go up. The radicals weren't happy with all of the social unrest, but also were quite annoyed with the government's foreign policy.
In 1936, while Hitler was secretly rebuilding the German army, a situation similar to the French situation unfolded, with the Fruente Popular winning the legislative elections in Spain. Unfortunately, things were about to take a turn for the worst, as the Spanish right reacted with a coup d'etat led by General Franco. This sparked up a civil war between the Nacionales, who were led by Franco and financed by Mussolini and Hitler, and the Republicans who were financed by Russia, and had many young communists from all over the world joining forces with them.
The radicals decided to stay out of it, as did the SFIO. The front populaire officially declared not to intervene, but were secretly shipping arms across the Pyrenees into Spain to fuel the war effort. In charge of this operation was Pierre Cot, who worked with Jean Moulin, the future head of the French resistance and a native of Béziers.
The right wing were starting to exploit the feelings of the French people, putting up posters which played on the fears of Communism in France. One of the most famous strategies employed was in the form of a call published in over three hundred newspapers across the country by the far-right:

French people!
Despite the hard lesson we have been taught over the past four months, you're still ready to believe everything will work itself out.
Nothing can work out while those who want to bring the Soviets into the country are in power.
Blum's reign will finish one of these days either miserably or tragically.
The communist party is waiting for this opportunity to deliver their final desperate gestures, proclaim a general strike and try, in the light of provoked disarray, to institute their dictatorship and their inevitable reign of shame and horror, [...] as in Spain where the elections of the Fruente Popular ended up in a bloody catastrophe.
The same peril exists here.
French people of all opinions:
Have the courage to look the events that are being prepared in the face. This is the only way you will save your house, your land, your fortune large or small, your work, your freedom, your life.

A campaign of anti-semitism was started against Léon Blum, as well as a smear campaign against Roger Salenegro which claimed he had deserted during the first world war. In response to this campaign, Salenegro commited suicide.
The far-right parties also underwent a makeover, donning new names. Le Croix de Feu became the PSF (Parti Sociale français). A terrorist group was even founded, known as the CSAR (Comité Secret D'action Revolutionnaire), the Secret Comity of Revolutionary Action, who were well trained and had hundreds of hidden weapons stashes dotted around Paris. They were about 12000 men strong and backed by Mussolini, Hitler and Franco. Many rich members of the CSAR split off and created their own enterprises, the most famous being cosmetics company Loréal.
In 1938, Léon Blum decommissioned as Prime Minister, thus calling the end of the FP.

From the Art Gallery...

While the inspiration well has been somewhat dry lately in the art department, I usually manage to surprise myself every now and then by producing a half-competent piece of art. Arguably my best work is "Mona Lisa Overdrive: Redux", which is actually a modification of a previous work.

While I don't pretend to be a serious artist, this piece was slightly different to the others in the sense that it had a concrete meaning behind it. I had wanted to cut up a Renaissance painting into my own vision for quite some time, but had never been able to find a piece that gave me inspiration. For a while I struggled, until I came across perhaps the most famous portrait in the world: the Mona Lisa.
I wanted to give it a modern twist, but also something of a dystopian feel. I therefore picked out a tasty little Soviet gasmask and a generic pistol and got to work. It took me around two hours to complete. The painting (to me at least) shows the contrast between the Renaissance, I.E. the golden age of humanity, and the dystopian, 1984-esque world that we find ourselves in today. I am genuinely proud of this piece, and have not produced anything remotely near it's quality since.

Another piece that I kind of like is called "Shotgun Messiah":


This was incredibly simple to do, and the message is obvious. I wanted to play on the militarism of the fundamentalist right by putting a halo of Fat Men (the atom bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima) over the President of the United States. While not complicated, I think the message is clear enough.

Like the above works of art? Lemme know! You can check out the rest of my work at http://rhy-himself.deviantart.com

I Think What God Meant to Say...

So, earlier on Shiv passed me this link detailing the recent child abuse and polygamy scandal going on in a small Church in Eldorado, Texas.
The story is pretty damn worrying, apparently a member of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS for posterities sake) tipped off the police about the alleged child abuse going on there. The authorities then raided the compound and took the children into protective custody along with their mothers, many of who were married to the same man because the church is a part of the Mormon religion.
A little background: the FLDS is one of the largest sects of Mormon practitioners today, with around 10,000 members. It split from the mainstream Mormon organization (the LDS) when the LDS decided to denounce polygamous marriage, seeing as it's against state and federal laws in the United States. The church itself is run by a man named William E. Jessop, but before him it was run by Warren Jeffs, who had been on the run from the FBI before he was arrested in September of 2007 and found guilty for two counts of rape.

The raid was carried out after the police got a call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl who had been sexually abused by members of the Church. Without further ado, the police raided the church only to discover that they could not find the person who placed the call. So where was the girl? Truth is one Rozita Swinton had placed the call and impersonated a 16 year old. She was later arrested for false reporting to the authorities. Nevertheless, the police and child-protection agencies searched the compound and concluded that the children "had been abused or were in danger of being abused in the future". The children are now in State custody until it is decided where they will go. The control of the Church has now been given back to the FLDS.

The Waco Siege of 1994 has now become synonymous with the concept of fundamentalist Christianity. I am of course talking about the infamous siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas that lasted for 51 days and ended in the compound catching fire, leaving around 80 dead. The first thing I thought after reading the source article above was that we could have very nearly seen another Waco.
The Waco siege was exceptionally badly planned, and one could even say it was rushed. But when you take a look at the Branch Davidian beliefs, it becomes evident that the whole siege could have been easily avoided.
Interestingly enough, David Koresh said it best himself during the siege in a recorded tape he sent out:

You guys could have arrested me when I was running down the path outside of the compound, when I was buying groceries... so why did you have to choose now?

The documentaries "Waco: A New Revelation" and "Waco, Rules of Engagement" explain that the Branch Davidians viewed the ATF siege as a sign of the "end times", as many of the things that they saw colluded to their scripture's descriptions of Armageddon. For them, the American government was viewed as the tyrannical kingdom of Babylon, who would strike against the righteous (I.E. the Branch Davidians). They would do this with chariots of fire, which were interpreted as the tanks used during the siege.

Anyways, I'm going off on a slight tangent here. I'm saying that had the authorities not better prepared for their raid of the Mormon church, it could have all gone horribly wrong. And this is what annoys me with Christianity today; the Bible is so loosely interpreted (usually deliberately), so that the various offshoots of the religion can point at any scripture they choose and say "this is the word of God, he's telling us to do this!", even if it means going out there and killing everyone with an automatic weapon. It also apparently doesn't matter if your interpretation of the bible contradicts every other sect out there. This makes it incredibly easy to start your own branch of Christianity.
For example:

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

John I, 5:14-15

This means that God is that rich uncle you know who's always trying to buy your love and affection. Ask and ye shall recieve. One positive side, is that it also makes things very easy if you want to piss off your average fundie who claims to know the Bible off by heart. Why not challenge their interpretation of the Bible with your own? As long as you come up with logical arguments to support your theory, what's stopping you?

Peace out ;P

More lyrical goodness.

Well, not actually all that good. Music I write to fuel the 24-hour disco in my head.

"The Sun Sets in the West"

Staring up at the sun
Coming closer to the big one
The winners know they're the best
Cuz the sun sets in the West

They try run, they try to hide
But they're with us for the whole ride, messiah
We eradicated all the rest
The sun sets in the West

And now there's noone left to shoot
We climbed the tree and picked the fruit
The generals hide in their nest
The sun sets in the West

We thought that we could overcome
The effects of the setting sun
We think that we have passed the test
And the sun sets in the West

"Children of the Sun"

We stand in the sun
Evolution doesn't affect everyone
And so I stood and watched
Countries go to war
When's it gonna end, I can't take it any more
It's all so sad to me

In the sun we are eternal
Burning in it's glow
While you go forth and plant your seed
We're gonna take it slow

Walk the roughly beaten track
Said the Kettle to the Pot "your soul is black"
Oh, and when does it end?
What is this I see?
Hot dog stands and Mickey D's
Oh, and where does it end?

In the sun we are eternal
Burning in it's glow
While you go forth and plant your seed
We're gonna take it heavy and slow
And in the sun we feel so needed
Generation of the One
And in Love we reign eternal
Just as long as we take it slow

Long lasting hypocrisy
Guy goes loco on a killing spree
Oh, and when will it end?
Shotgun blast reigns out loud
God bless this country, you should be proud
Oh please make it end!

In the sun we are eternal
Burning in it's glow
Whole you go forth and plant your seed
We're gonna take it heavy and slow
And in the sun we feel so needed
Generation of the One
And in Love we reign eternal
Just as long as we take it slow

Classic Words: Tipper Gore

This is actually a repost of a blog I posted some time ago. Due to the overwhelming amount of positive feedback I received from it, I thought I'd post it again, especially since people are actually reading my blog now. Peace out.

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It's no secret that Tipper Gore, creator of the infamous "Tipper Sticker" isn't particularly loved by the artistic community. Then again, is it any surprise? Her name is shoved on millions of album covers each year because they contain what she calls 'explicit content', the very definition of which changes according to each individual.

So just what IS 'explicit content' by her standards? As with most right-wing Christians these days, it would appear that explicit content is anything that offends their precious moral values, which seem to be so fragile that even sneezing on them would break them, sending Tipper and her minions into a frothed jabber-frenzy about how we're promoting violence, promiscuity and drug addiction to our children, who have been coddled and bubble-wrapped until they're so alienated from modern culture that they can't make it in the real world when they leave home.
One could argue that the Tipper Sticker has now become the new Yellow Star, a-la Nazi Germany era. But instead of the Jewish community bearing the brunt of alienation and hatred, it's Snoop-Doggy-Diddle or Icey-Tea. Book burning has been replaced by Wal-Mart casually slapping a Parental Advisory sticker on the album cover, so that the fundamentalist Christian far-right, gay hating, liberal bashing monkey-people can keep their kids away from it, lest their ears should shatter like they were made out of expensive china.

I think in a world where we have innocent people dying in bloody and highly illegal wars overseas, offending our children (They are our future, dontchaknow) should be the least of our worries. In any case, we're just trying to prevent the inevitable. They're going to come into contact with these things sooner or later, so why not at an early age? At least when they leave home to become real people they're prepared for the real world. And what are they prepared for? The horrors of life.

"I'm a strong believer in the First Amendment," says Mrs. Gore. This is a lie. She's doing all that she can to castrate freedom of speech.

It's not often I say this, but I'm actually somewhat thankful that Bush cheated his way into office. Already, Gore uses her husband's status as a senator to pass these ridiculous legislations that that would have banned the sale of albums with warning labels to anyone younger than 18. Now, think how much more leverage she would have been given if Gore had become president? She could try and pass virtually anything she wanted, making it a bona fide law if it had passed.
What next? It wouldn't surprise me if she tried to pass legislations enabling her to send so-called "controversial" artists to Concentration Camps sponsored by Nike and Barbie, where Icey-Tea and William Murderface spent some time with their new camp counsellor Barney the Dino-Sore and learned how to be good little boys and girls, and coming out with those Ritalin-Grins plastered all over their faces. Where lyrics about drugs and pimping once stood, they're now writing songs about how Jesus was a white man, and how we should all bow down to the almighty consumer market. God bless America and fuck anyone else who says different.
It's the invasion of the body-snatchers for the new millennium! No. It's invasion of Neo-Baptist Democrats. Ask yourself, which sounds more menacing?

But disregard all that you have read here. Just remember that if you say anything deemed too 'controversial', Tipper and her Pharmasmile Cronies may come a-knocking on your door.

Peace

Cripes!

You poor, poor Londoners. You have no idea how much I pity you at the moment. A city that used to be the most powerful in the world, a city that is steeped in culture. And what have millions of Londoners gone and done? Voted this man for mayor.
It's a sad, sad day for politics.

Hear ye, hear ye! Renaissance Fairs suck.

So I walk to school. To get to school from my house it usually takes me around ten minutes on foot. I have to walk through the town center to get there, and it usually takes me a good three minutes to go through it. Not today. Oh, no.
Béziers holds a three-day annual event each year called the "Caritas", which is basically a Medieval/Renaissance fair. By the way, I refuse (absolutely refuse) to write "Fair" in that kiddie, faux-nostalgia way, with the E at the end. Look in a goddamn dictionary, there is no such thing as a 'Faire'.
So anyways, I finally got out of school around six this evening looking to get home quickly so that I could put my feet up and get a few things done. I left my friends at the theatre and walked into the town center to see... oh, lawd... a goddamn Renaissance Fair set up right in the middle of the goddamn town.
The local barmaids were dressed up in that vaguely-provocative, slightly slutty, 100% tacky medieval reproduction dress, with their cleavage pouring out for the German tourists to drool over. Looking at the expressions of mild self-disgust and désespoir on their faces, I assume they were contractually obliged to dress as such. Either that or they'd just had some kid vomit all over them.
Then come the people who were there voluntarily. One thing you need to understand about people who voluntarily dress themselves up as asses for other people's amusement, is that in their real life they're usually very dull accountants. They may claim that they're doing it to preserve the town's cultural heritage, but in reality they're just trying to escape from their mundane everyday lives and hold off suicide for one more day. But at the end of the day, I hold them in the same regard as I do for people who celebrate halloween with the cheaply-made gimp costumes: they must die. If not to preserve the evolutionary characteristics of humanity, at least think of the fucking children.