We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Sabine Herold is a courageous young woman who has put herself at the head of a popular uprising against the tyranny of union militancy to which President Chirac constantly kowtows, as reported by the Telegraph. She has been compared to Joan of Arc, and her impatience with her Gaullist government is certainly reminiscent of the saint’s frustration with the French monarchy.
She is another example that despite the Left’s intellectual hegemony established since the 1960s that turned France into a second-rate country with delusions of grandeur, some French individuals can transcend that context. The kind of liberal, cosmopolitan conservatism Mlle Herold embraced is almost extinct in France.
She has a memorable phrase for those, Left or Right, who are leading France to perdition: “reactionary egotists”. Her movement may mark the beginning of the end of the organised egotism that has held France (and countless visitors) to ransom for so long. For France’s sake, let us hope that it is not a revolt, but a revolution.
The good news is that she is by no means the first and only one. One only needs to visit Dissident Frogman’s dacha or Merde in France to see how the blogosphere helped to flush out the illuminated few. The bad news is that if their numbers start growing, that popular Anglo-Saxon past time, ‘frog bashing’, may no longer be completely justified.
Vive les Français liberes! 
As is obvious from reading this blog, we boys and girls at Samizdata are not exactly big fans of the European Union and its attendant horrors of red tape and regulation. So, here’s an interesting experience of mine from last weekend. I managed to leave and enter France and then return without having a single item of paperwork inspected, including my passport. How come?
Well, I sailed to Cherbourg on a yacht from Portsmouth, stayed overnight in France and came back to Portsmouth. No passport check was carried out at either end. Now, I am sure if British Home Secretary David Blunkett were reading this (dream on!), he’d be aghast. (“You mean people can travel, breathe and eat without my express permission? Form a committee!”). But actually, I found the experience rather liberating. I was able to travel, using my own humble skills as a yacht sailor, to travel to and from a Continent without being troubled by officialdom.
And of course I loaded up the boat on cheap wine due to lower French duties on booze. So all in all the whole weekend was a poke in the eye for the offices of the Blairite state. C’est magnifique!
Nice ‘fisking’ of Chirac’s preparations of G8 summit agenda by Collins on Pave France based on yesterday’s article in the Telegraph titled Chirac to embarrass Bush at G8 conference:
He said Evian’s main goal would be “to build the institutions and rules of a global democracy, open and interconnected”
Translation: I’m going to feed Bush a steady line of Communist bullshit until he gets fed up and leaves. Once he is gone, I will take cheapshots at the U.S., and then deny them when later confronted.
The French Trade Unions are up in arms at the disgraceful antics of pro-government activists. It seems that in response to the national strike by bureaucrats desperate to preserve their looting rights, a group of libertarian and pro-market conservative activists bombarded the mail servers of the trade unions with several million email messages crying out a stronger version of “Enough is Enough!” [“Ras le Bol!”].
As Marc Blondel, the General Secretary of FO (Force Ouvrière = “Workers’ Power”) bleated: “This is no way to engage in dialogue”. The anti-strike campaign was launched by “Droite libre” (“the Free Right”) a faction in the pro-government party. The grouping is led by former candidate to the UMP leadership, Rachid Kaci. He described the action as “supporting the reform of [state bureaucrats’] pensions. They blocade France, we blocade their email inboxes.”
The campaign will continue in retaliation for any further strikes by the transport and teaching unions. I thought that I might include the list of email addresses being bombarded by the Free French forces, just in case any foreigners might wish to add their comments:
secgene@snes.edu; SUD-Rail@wanadoo.fr; sudrailpaca@free.fr; g10nat@ras.eu.org; sud.education@laposte.net; mblondel@force-ouvriere.fr; rhoup@force-ouvriere.fr; mbiaggi@force-ouvriere.fr; jmbilquez@force-ouvriere.fr; bdevy@force-ouvriere.fr; jjayer@force-ouvriere.fr; jcmailly@force-ouvriere.fr; jcmallet@force-ouvriere.fr; mmonrique@force-ouvriere.fr; mspungier@force-ouvriere.fr; rsantune@force-ouvriere.fr; rvalladon@force-ouvriere.fr; info@cgt.fr; cgt-com@cgt.fr; presse@cgt.fr; scbc@cgt.fr; synd-societe@cgt.fr; environnement@cgt.fr; territoires@cgt.fr; act-eco@cgt.fr; eco-sociale@cgt.fr; doc@cgt.fr; jeunes@cgt.fr; orga@cgt.fr; form-synd@cgt.fr; polfi@cgt.fr; revendicatif@cgt.fr; formation@cgt.fr; emploi-garanties-coll.@cgt.fr; culture@cgt.fr; travail-sante@cgt.fr; protection-sociale@cgt.fr; compta.conf@cgt.fr; ugict@cgt.fr; ucr@cgt.fr; ihs@cgt.fr; indecosa@cgt.fr; lepeuple@cgt.fr; webmaster@fsu.fr; unsa@unsa.org; cnt@cnt-f.org
Vive La France Libre!
This may only be one man’s perspective but the picture it paints of France can only be described as melancholy:
France is almost finished. The nightmare is almost here. France has to know the horrors of the nightmare if you want her to have a chance to wake up. Sure, you may find some exceptions to the rule. France has some decent intellectuals: but they have about the same access to the mainstream media that dissenters had in the Soviet Union twenty years ago. France has bold politicians: one, maybe two if I want to be extremely generous. France still has genuine journalists: you could count them on the fingers of one hand. For the next years, come to France if you want, visit old monuments, but do not expect to be understood or appreciated by the locals. Behave as you would in a third world country; soon France will be a third world country. Perhaps it will wake up with a start, but who knows? Right now, if you read the polls, only 53% of the French hope the U.S. army will defeat Saddam: the rest hope the United States will be defeated and Saddam will win…
The author of the article is a Frenchman.
[My thanks to Boris Kuperschmidt for the link]
Another one you didn’t see in the media.
“The demonstration comprised about a hundred protestors demonstrating against the arrest of Vietnamese pro-democracy campaigners. This action was organised by the ‘Alliance Vietnam Liberté’ (Vietnam Freedom Alliance) and various Ngos were invited. A representative of Amnesty International was present as well as Françoise Hostalier, former Human Rights Minister [yes we have one of those in occupied France!] and president of ‘Action Droits de l’Homme’ (Action Human Rights), as well as myself Laurent Muller, president of the ‘Association Européene Cuba Libre’ (European Association for a Free Cuba). The demonstration ended at 17 hours outside the Republic of Vietnam embassy [in Paris].”
It continues with the following:
“I take this opportunity to remind you that tomorrow, 8 April 2003, the AECL is holding a press conference about the latest wave of repression in Cuba. Some 80 non-violent dissidents are currently being tried for ‘treason’ and ‘supplying information to an enemy state’ (the USA). Prison sentences from 10 years to life have been requested [by prosecutors]. It appears that one death sentence has been requested against one dissident.”
The press conference will be held at 15 hours at the aid centre for the Foreign Press, maison de la Radio, 116 avenue du Président Kennedy, 75016 Paris. The best contact I have is Prégentil (Americans will really like the graphics on his front page). Sad note: repression is operating worldwide whilst the eyes of the world are focused on the liberation of Iraq.
What do Stalinists do when they’re a minority in the Party, and they want to oppose pluralist democracy and internal dissent on the grounds of loyalty to ‘democratic centralism’?
Well the French Communist Party ended a chaotic weekend with just this problem. They re-elected Marie-George Buffet as their National secretary, the architect of reforms which allow among other things, several candidates for internal elections, more compromises with the socialists and other heresies for a Party that refused to condemn Stalin until… er, last year, I think. These are the guys that thought Leonid Brezhnev was a crypto-liberal!
At the last minute a revolt by the anti-democrats was averted by persuading them to withdraw their opposition candidates for the leadership election which they oppose on the grounds of revolutionary discipline. Embarrassingly, France’s major news website doesn’t carry a single comment on this story after more than a day: iron discipline or sublime indifference?
What ‘the comrades’ need isn’t a Marie-George Buffet, but a Warren Buffett.
In Iraq, ordinary people begin to appear and cheer the liberators. In France, the pro-Saddam mob is disappearing as fast as a Republican Guard tank brigade.
I use the French TV station TF1 as my weathervane of authorised French opinion.
The Free French… in exile in London yet again!
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have, thus far, refrained from engaging in the billious rounds of reflexive anti-French bashing that pepper the blogosphere.
This is because I appreciate that, despite the odious example set by their political classes, France is a very complex and varied country that is not always fairly represented by the mephitic emanations of its ‘intellectuals’.
Also, as I have said before, not everyone who opposes the war is dishonourable or idiotic. However, some manifestations of anti-war sentiment in France plumb such depths of perversity that they serve only to drag that once-great country’s reputation into the sewer.
For example, according to a French opinion poll published in the UK Times:
Relations will be further rent by a second poll, in Le Monde, showing that only a third of the French felt that they were on the same side as the Americans and British, and that another third desired outright Iraqi victory over “les anglo-saxons”.
A THIRD!!?? Thirty-three per cent!!?? One out of every three people want Saddam Hussein to win?
Having given some careful consideration to the various social and cultural factors which necessarily play a part in such political dynamics and giving due weight to the nuances that ought properly to be examined to the extent that they shape the fabric of public debate in that demos, I have just one little question which arises out of this important article of statistical data:
What the f*cking hell is going in that country??!!
Those of you who still think that US foreign policy is a tool of commercial oil interests, might be advised to look away now:
The former president of Elf Aquitaine testified Monday that the French oil giant paid about $5 million to French political parties during his leadership — including to President Jacques Chirac’s former party.
Loik Le Floch-Prigent said nearly all the money went to Chirac’s former party until then-President Francois Mitterrand, a Socialist, demanded the cash be spread to both sides of the political spectrum. Chirac, a conservative, succeeded Mitterrand as president in 1995.
But hang on a minute, I thought it was George Bush who was supposed to be up to his neck in oil industry slush funds??!!
“We absolutely needed French politicians who supported us,” Le Floch-Prigent testified. “There were politicians who didn’t want to favor Elf … We had to keep them quiet, to have them on our side.”
But surely European politics is driven by high-minded ideals of social justice? I don’t know, it’s all too much, it really is. How many more cherished myths are going to be put to the sword by reality?
Looks like Jacques Chirac has given up on all hope of having an influence on temporal matters:
President Jacques Chirac sought to undermine the legitimacy of the war yesterday by offering to work with the Vatican to ensure the “primacy of law” in the future.
Having failed to stop the war, M Chirac still hopes to live up to the “Warrior for Peace” label given him by the French press.
What is the difference between Jacques Chirac and John Paul II? Well, one of them is deeply spiritual and holy man appointed as God’s representative on earth and an inspiration and guide to millions of people across the world. And the other is the Pope.
According to the latest polls 85 per cent of the French approve of M Chirac’s position on the war but he knows that people will soon start to ask whether it was worth it, especially if America seeks to isolate France internationally.
Who cares about isolation in this world when you can have rapture in the next?
Le Monde’s editor, Jean-Marie Colombani, wrote yesterday that the diplomatic row over Iraq may finally have ended Europe’s ambitions to be a military and diplomatic superpower.
Yes, yes Belgium would have bestrode the earth like a colossus if it hadn’t been for those pesky Anglo-Saxons.
I expect Michael Moore is sitting by the telephone today waiting for the call from Jacques. Together they can build a better world.
I do not share the blood-lust of some of my fellow Samizdatistas, but I could not help thinking that if the [economic] Planning Ministry in Bagdad has indeed been destroyed, that a more suitable target would be hard to imagine for a free-market individualist. If President Bush hates Iraq, he’ll have a bigger one rebuilt later…
I have been silent about the former Mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac for some time now, but all I can say is that since I wrote this, this, this, this, this and this, nothing the so-and-so has said or done in the last month has come as a surprise. Chirac has only ever caved in to the left in his entire political career, apart from his infantile attempt to ban a royalist wreath-laying ceremony in early 1993.
Some voices I hear are talking about French loss of influence on the world stage and Chirac out within two years. On the first count, that’s pure wishful thinking. For a start there is an element of this argument about the apparently incongruous alliance of France, Rusia and China. If you’re looking for a reason to sack Colin Powell, his failure to keep Russia onside, or apparently to even realise what was happening are serious lapses on a par with Britain’s judgement in 1939 that Poland would be a more capable military ally than the USSR against Nazi Germany.
On Chirac’s imminent departure, I wish it were that simple. Chirac is in until 2007, unless he dies in office. I don’t think he actually can be impeached: an investigator into his affairs can be either appointed by him (or by his appointees) or switched to other cases, if they come too close to finding anything, and his almost worse henchman Alain Juppé controls the party machine which has the majority in both houses. It would take street protests or a foreign invasion to remove Chirac, which is why his pandering to the left is so handy.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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