Parisian Pierrot posted by Richard Seymour

I once started pedestrians by singing that song while drunk with a perfect Noel Coward pitch (or so it seemed to me). Quite what else they were expecting in the unpromising surroundings of North Woolwich, I can't guess. At any rate, I promised pictures, and so - like touriste racaille - I got some for you. There now follows a lurid display of those parts of Paris in which few people actually get to live or work, yet which tourists are encouraged to see as essential to the city itself. This here's the view from Montmartre (click to enlarge):




This is the shrine to the cult of the sacred heart, which is apparently illuminated at night:


This is a monument to the cult of the French Empire (with the Eiffel Tower in the background):

The Champs-Elysee, trees strapped with Christmas lights. In a sweet-store on this street, I found gums called 'The Melting Pot', liquorice flavoured black gums that caricature various 'races'. Chinoise, Africaine, etc.:

The basilica of the sacred cult of Louis Vuitton:


The lower part of the Seine below the Isle de Cite, with the Notre Dame in the background:

Zizek talking politics and psychoanalysis with a packed hall at the Sorbonne:

Inside the Sorbonne:

Outside the conciergerie where counter-revolutionaries where executed en masse:

The bloody Louvre which probably matches the British Museum for its loot of ransacked cultural and historical artefacts:


To answer some queries, I didn't get to the Banlieu Rouge, and Saint-Denis doesn't appear to have a Rue de Staline any more (they keep the streets and stations modelled after American presidents, a sure sign of the overbearing influence of the nouveau philosophes). My Michelin guide also denies that there is any such thing as a street named after Lenine, by the way - the admission of Lenin as a hero for the French is evidently too traumatic for the producers of tourist maps.

Labels: lenine, paris, staline, tourist scum

Paris posted by Richard Seymour

First time I've visited Paris for purposes other than tourism, and, ironically, the first time I've really enjoyed it. Tourists go to the Louvre and the Sacre Coeur basilica (a rather menacing-looking counter-revolutionary icon) and the Notre Dame. Far better to forget all that rubbish and take dander round the arrondisements (that's French for 'hood'). I have picked up the lingo after one day of these travels, and apparently "au revoir touriste racaille" is shopkeep talk for "have a nice day". Additionally, "un petit peu" means "I do speak English, but why don't you speak French?" I also saw Zizek at the Sorbonne and had prepared a Zhdanovite intervention until I realised that (mais bien sur!) the speech was in French and I hadn't a clue as to 45% of what he was saying. The place was packed, mind you, with mostly young people on the brink of either riots or splendid careers (or both). I skipped a PCF counter-Sarkozy demo to see this, but then I see a few PCFers did as well, if the amount of L'Humanités circulating among the Rouge and Liberation is any guide. I did illicitly record the Zizek talk (ssshhh), and my recorder has translation software, so I might even squeeze out a transcript. Anyway, I'll be back on Tuesday with some pictures and sticks of rock and things. In the meantime, it's all rather like this:

Labels: bill bailey, paris, zizek

Paris jihad posted by Richard Seymour

I can't resist a title that is sure to enrage the assorted neocons that have been piling into the comments in the post below. Hard-right Sarkozyite blogger ¡No Pasarán! (no, irony isn't his strong point) has some video clips and reports from the protests against Sarkozy last night. The Times reported that protesters were dispersed in Paris with tear gas:

Noemie Capart, 24, a psychology student and supporter of Ms Royal, said: “There weren’t very many demonstrators, but all of a sudden the police charged out with extreme violence.

“I really don’t think it was justified. They used an incredible amount of teargas and I was caught in the middle of it. I was choking and very, very frightened. I think the police wanted to put on a show of force and I hope this isn’t an indication of what Sarkozy’s presidency is going to be like.”

Olivier Besancenot writes on Sarkozy's victory:

The populist demagogy used in this campaign will lead to anti-social, repressive and antidemocratic measures, which will undoubtedly provoke very broad resistance and struggles.

The LCR will now concentrate all its strength on building these mobilisations. It proposes a united front of all the social and democratic forces is immediately built to organise a response faced to the extreme neoliberal and repressive programme of Sarkozy. The LCR will take all the initiatives possible in this direction in the next days.

It has also been shown that a social-liberal left, which tried up to the very end to make an alliance with the UDF of Bayrou, is not a very effective protection against a hard and authoritarian right.

I hope the mass mobilisations begin swiftly, because a few isolated riots and protests on their own don't stand a chance against the armed might a Sarkozyite national security state. Sarkozy still has to win control of parliament, and is flattering Bayrou to accomplish this end. According to some interesting polls, it seems that Sarkozy has won strong support among blue collar workers, a substantial layer of voters among the poor and 15% of the far left vote. Sarkozy's peculiar popularity among some layers of people who would tend toward the left is not necessarily going to translate into support for the UMP. But PS leaders are already responding by inisting they move their agenda further to the right, and there will be an inevitable tendency among some on the left, and in the labour movement, to be pulled along by that trend. The LCR did well despite the tragedy of the radical left's disunity, and are well-placed to take a leading role in a united front against Sarkozy's policies. And the French working class is by no means resigned to accepting a more aggressive version of the CPE or a renewed EU Treaty.

Labels: france, french elections, jihad, neocons, neoliberalism, paris, racism, sarkozy, socialism