Macron and his government emerged victorious, but deeply weakened, from the battle over pensions. To regain control of the situation, they had to try to soften up potential allies on the right, inject racist divisive elements into society and divert attention from social issues. Gabriel Attal, the new Minister for Education, has responded with a ban on the abaya in schools. An abaya is a robe-like loose dress originally from Arab countries, but it is in itself separate from religion.
Thomas Portes, MP for La France Insoumise (LFI) summarized: “School materials have become 11% more expensive. There are too few teachers and tutors. Some parents cannot even pay for school meals. And for Gabriel Attal, the most pressing issue is the introduction of dress code! An Islamophobic decision.”
It’s up to women to decide!
Macron set the tone for the new political season: “we must significantly reduce immigration” (referring to the Immigration Bill) and “we must re-civilise” (referring to the uprisings in the suburbs at the end of June). Banning the abaya is yet another attack on the Muslim community. It’s also yet another attack on women: clothes that are too short, clothes that are too long; women’s bodies are constantly being exploited for divisive purposes, with the help of Islamophobia and sexism.
Whether it’s a mini-skirt, a T-shirt with holes in it, a crop top, trousers, a veil or the abaya: we defend the right of women to freely choose to wear what they want. This means resolutely opposing conservatives who want to ban a garment, but also other conservatives who want to impose it.
The wearing of the abaya is presented — wrongly — as an attack on secularism and the Republic. Banning the abaya or even any religious symbol has nothing to do with the fight against Islamist extremism. If anything, the measure is likely to reinforce its influence through a boomerang effect. If we want to tackle the impact of Islamist extremism on young people alienated from society, we need to tackle discrimination and the lack of resources, particularly in the field of education. The issue is totally linked to the defence of quality education that is accessible to all, takes account of different backgrounds and has sufficient qualified staff to deal with discrimination within the school and pressure from family and friends.
The pretext of defending women’s rights is regularly used as a racist alibi in Western countries, with a very gendered aspect: migrant men are seen as “oppressors” and “dangerous”, and women as “victims to be saved”. There are of course sexist relations of domination, but they are present throughout society. Nonetheless, while the rape and assaults committed by someone like Patrick Poivre D’Arvor, a well-known former news anchor in France, are seen as an individual case, a case of violence perpetrated by a migrant or a person of immigrant background is directly linked to their “culture”.
To make it truly possible to make a choice in complete freedom, it is essential to improve the social position of all women in society, and in particular to guarantee their financial independence. This means fighting for social benefits above the poverty line, a decent wage regardless of gender, religion or appearance, etc.
The crucial role of the workers’ movement
The uprising in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods after the racist police killing of young Nahel in June 2023 was accompanied by riots, which were expressions of despair. The potential of anger against attacks on pensions was not fully exploited by union leaders, which also left room for disillusionment and despair.
Trade union leaders often look only at the already organised strata. Involving those who were not yet organised could have broadened the fight against the pension reform. In the face of measures such as the ban on the abaya or racism towards the population of the suburbs, there is also a need for a consistent class approach.
The general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet, also spoke out in favour of banning the abaya from schools: “If it’s considered a religious sign, of course it should be banned.” Macron probably didn’t expect to find such support for his desire to divide our social class! This division is also partly reflected in the National Assembly within NUPES, the alliance of parties around La France Insoumise, bringing together formations to the left of Macron and to the right of the LFI.
Trade unionists and LFI activists have an important role to play in the emergence of a unified movement. Mélenchon scored exceptionally well in working-class neighbourhoods in the 2022 presidential election. The NUPES alliance that followed, however, undermined some of this support as it incorporated those responsible for local austerity policies. The collective “On s’en mêle”, a network of grassroots organisations from working-class neighbourhoods launched in support of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s candidacy, quickly expressed its anger and disappointment by denouncing the NUPES’ apparatus-based approach, which had been imposed to their detriment.
The strengths and the combative mood of the historic movement on pensions can serve as a lever for a mass struggle in favour of a general rise in wages and benefits, to block the future “immigration” and “labour” laws and all oppressive and austerity policies. The workers’ movement has a crucial role to play in defending through struggle a programme that leaves no one behind. That is the only way we can ensure that no one’s anger is misdirected towards the far right or its twin brother, reactionary political Islam.
