Leftist Humbuggery in France:
The Death of Clément Méric

3,655 words

Cowardice is a trait of the inferior, a congenital personality defect that one would rightly expect to see prevalent among the extreme Left. Given the demonization of the radical Right, and the manner by which the Left, and particularly Anarchist and Trotskyite street rabble, serve globalization, any confrontation between such Right and Left factions will likely result in an outpouring of indignation from the Establishment news media against the “rise of neo-Fascism.” On June 6 a young member of l’Action Antifasciste in France died allegedly as the result of a scuffle involving five skinheads.

Despite the provocation by some members of Antifa directed at three skinheads wearing “Blood and Honor” tee-shirts, the Times reports:

The spectre of fascist violence returned to haunt France yesterday after a student was battered to death in a fight with skinheads in Paris. The incident sent a wave of revulsion through the country’s political class amid warnings that extremist forces had been unleashed by the virulence of the national debate on gay marriage.[1]

The Left has been quick to mobilize on the streets in a sewer outpouring of righteous indignation, while their ideological kin in the political Establishment have seen the opportunity to use the incident to slander the Right in general, ranging from the Nationalist Revolutionary Youth, the skinheads supposedly being “within the orbit” (whatever that means) of that organization, to the increasingly popular National Front party. President Hollande, whose popularity is slipping badly, said from Japan:

I condemn this attack in the strongest possible way… [A]ll the evidence leads us to think that [the culprits] were a group of skinheads without doubt with a political motivation. These violent people deserve the heaviest of punishments. These groups which have been creating disorder for too long must be suppressed.[2]

As one would expect, there is nothing about Hollande’s knee-jerk reaction that makes sense. The so-called “political motivation” appears to have been a reaction to abuse from a group of Antifa supporters against several skinheads, on a chance encounter at a clothing shop. Given that the Left has spent decades portraying skinheads as ultra-violent, what reaction did Méric expect?

The fracas, according to witnesses, began when a group of Leftists “ran into” youths wearing Blood and Honor tee-shirts at a clothing sale. The deceased, Clément Méric, 19, a student at the prestigious Sciences Po college in Paris, fell and hit his head on a metal pillar after being struck twice by one of the skinheads. The headlines were quickly filled with how Méric has been “beaten to death” (sic), which does not seem to be the case at all, but does conjure up lurid images of a crazed skinhead kicking Méric in the head until it bursts like a watermelon, rather than Méric hitting his head on a pillar, which is not so easily dramatized.

Straight away, before many facts were known, President Hollande stated that he might use the accidental death as a pretext for outlawing several Rightist factions. Others were quick to jump on the bandwagon:

Paul Bernardet, the chairman of the French Students’ Union at Sciences Po, placed Mr. Méric’s death in the context of a hard-right campaign against Mr. Hollande’s decision to authorise same-sex marriages. “It’s almost logical given the way the flames of hatred have been fanned,” Mr. Bernardet said.[3]

In a nation and culture that is still largely predicated on Catholicism, it is hardly surprising that moves to legalize “gay marriage” would be met with vigor. One might just as well blame the Pope and Catholicism, while one is also blaming all and sundry of the “Right,” and blaming the Church might indeed be a reaction from the Left that will be forthcoming. Anything or anyone that objects to some facet of Liberalism or the Left is reflexively condemned as inciting “hate.” Another view is that such reactions could be inspired by “love” of one’s faith, tradition, or culture, to the extent that it worth fighting for.

Eduardo Rihan Cypel, a Socialist Party spokesman, denounced the “fascist violence which is hitting France.” He said: “It is fuelled by all these extremist terms that we have heard in recent months, such as calls for civil insurrection and a bloodbath.”[4]

One might counter that changing the definition of marriage to include homosexual unions is the ultimate expression of extremism – certainly a radical shift from the traditional norm.

Serge Ayoub, head of the National Revolutionary Youth, said that the alleged culprits were not members of his movement, although he knew them and had been in contact with them. He said the fight was started by members of the anti-fascist group. “The young people from the extreme Left threw the first punches, or anyway there was pushing and shoving,” he said.[5]

Another news sources alludes to the Leftist youth as the instigators of an argument:

Méric was a member of a far-left anti-fascist organisation and the clash is reported to have taken place after one of his comrades called him to a private sale of Fred Perry clothes where they had started an argument with a group of skinheads. The dispute continued in the street and ended with Méric being rushed to hospital, where he died.[6]

Méric and his comrades had been asked to leave the shop by a security guard because of their trouble-making.

France has a history of violence against the Right, although that is not a record that one can expect the news media and the State to mention. Among the Rightist intelligentsia, for which France is noted, Francois Duprat came to the Right from the Left (Trotskyism). Joining Jeune Nation, he travelled to the Congo where he became propaganda director for the secessionist state of Katanga, which was the subject of United Nations invasion and atrocities.  Returning to France he joined Occident, Ordre Nouveau, and in 1972 was a cofounder of the Front National (FN), and head of the National Revolutionary Groups. On March 18, 1978, Duprat was killed by a car bomb, and his wife Jeanine lost the use of both legs. Jewish Leftists claimed responsibility for the bombing.[7]

The French State banned Ordre Nouveau as the result of confrontations with the Communist League, so Hollande’s threats to ban Rightist organisations has a precedent, which might help to consolidate his flagging support.

While the Left waxes indignant with huge rallies across France, because one of their number came off second best in a fight of their making, Rightist rallies are being banned:

About 15,000 people rallied in Paris and the rest of France to pay tribute to the young student who has become an anti-fascist martyr. Authorities in the south-western city of Toulouse have banned a demonstration, planned for Saturday, by another far-right group, the Jeunesses Nationalistes because of a “serious risk to public order.” Interior Minister Manuel Valls on Friday declared that some far-right groups would “doubtless” be banned, although he warned that the procedure might take some time.[8]

According to the BBC, “Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has asked the interior minister to take steps ‘immediately’ to dissolve the Revolutionary Nationalist Youth (JNR).” What has emerged so far is that the suspect who is to be charged with “manslaughter,” struck Méric twice, the second blow causing him to knock his head. The “skinhead” group included a young woman, the only person present who was a member of the JNR. Her membership is presumably the basis of the claim that the youths were “within the orbit” of the JNR. The BBC reports: “The government has vowed to crackdown on fascist groups.”[9]

Some news sources show a photo of a masked Méric at a recent pro-gay marriage Leftist demonstration.[10] He fancied himself as one of the “hard men” of the Left but didn’t measure up when the odds were even.

One might ask – albeit facetiously – why Antifa is not banned, their raison d’etre being specifically to confront the Right violently.

Now Revolutionary Nationalist Youth is to be banned. Reuter reports:

The leader of the Youths group, Serge Ayoub, told French television that it was a “stupid” move and denied any links to Meric’s death. “The Revolutionary Nationalist Youths are in no way implicated by the police in this case. . . . None have been questioned by police,” he said. The Paris prosecutor had said in an earlier press conference on Saturday that all the suspects under investigation had ties to the Third Way, without specifically mentioning the Youth wing.[11]

These threats of State repression of the Right, and tenuous efforts to associate the Front National, and indeed conservative Catholics, with the death of a Left-wing extremist, comes at a time when Marine Le Pen, having assumed the presidency of the FN from her father several years ago, last year garnered the biggest ever vote for the FN; 6,421,773 votes in the 2012 presidential elections.[12]

Antifa in France

Meric is being described by some Leftist sources as a “liberal.” While his fresh-faced look bodes well for those who want to portray him as a nice kid who was the victim of nazi thuggery, the organization he joined was on the far extreme of politics, with the aim of physically “smashing” anyone deemed “fascist.” Antifa in France had in recent months been focusing its attention on Third Way, which is the parent body of Nationalist Revolutionary Youth.[13] The group’s opposition to globalisation and capitalism seems to be a particular irritant to Antifa, which lacks the acumen to challenge JNR and Third Way ideologically, judging from Antifa’s own comments.

The mentality of Antifa in France, as with other such organizations worldwide, is indicated by a graphic on their website depicting someone on the ground adorned with a Celtic Cross, being beaten by someone with a skateboard. Surrounding the figures are the words: “Good Night White Pride.” The appeal is to join “l’Action Antifasciste.”[14] The appeal is overtly to violent confrontation with “fascists,” the ideal fantasy, depicted here, the beating with a skateboard of an unarmed Fascist. Yet when there is a violent confrontation with the “fascists” the response is a weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth because it was an “Antifa” who got the worst of it in a confrontation that seems to have been reasonably equitable. The symbol seems to be an adaptation of a Rightist sign captioned “Good Night Left Side,” a notable difference being that the Rightist version depicts two figures involved in a regular fist fight. However, a one-on-one fist fight between a Fascist and an Antifa is not likely to end well for the latter, given historical precedent, and Antifa prefers the safety of numbers. They are not encumbered by “bourgeois” moral concepts such as honor and chivalry. Another symbol of Antifa depicts someone within a Star of David aiming a pistol outward, to make “anti-Semites tremble.”

The emblem of the Paris-Banlieue branch of Antifa to which Méric belonged features a masked “activist” firing a slingshot. The whole political culture of Antifa is directed towards violence, not just towards “fascists,” but towards anyone of the Right, including traditional Catholics, opponents of abortion, etc. They adopt the attire of the violence-ridden anarchist “Black Blocs” which are particularly violent in Europe, given to throwing Molotov cocktails during riots. The Antifa flag is the red-and-black of anarchism. Illustrations appealing to the violent fantasies of Antifa show balaclava-clad figures with the slogan “Smash Fascism,” and kicking “fascists.” A caricature shows two utterly crazed Antifa smashing a stone Celtic Cross with their fists. One picture of an actual confrontation by Antifa, apparently in Italy, shows black masked and helmeted rioters fighting opponents. Photos of “Antifa worldwide” depict rioting on streets across Europe, including Greece, where there is a long history of Golden Dawn members being attacked. Among the actions boasted of by Antifa Paris is the disruption of a march by “Paris Pride,” with the aim of “stopping the march,” albeit unsuccessfully, despite the use of projectiles. Antifa opposes any manifestation of French patriotism, including opposition to even the mainstream conservative parties,[15] such as the UMP.[16] It was a violent, hate-filled world to which Méric belonged, and the confrontational tactics of Antifa resulted in his death.

The gutless character of Antifa worldwide is a source of perverse pride for people who are not really able to understand decent norms of behavior. Hence, a Prague Antifa site depicts Rightists being kicked on the ground, after the Left mobilized to violently halt a demonstration by the Young National Democrats against the war in Iraq, stating:

Some 1,000 anarchists, some German-speaking, gathered in the city to protest the banned neo-Nazi march, chasing and beating up the few neo-Nazis who made it downtown. Forty anarchists armed with sticks were detained after they turned against the police who tried to break up the isolated brawls, Brozova added.[17]

In 1997 Leftists attacked the elderly German Rightist Manfred Roeder in Marburg with clubs, while 400 police were under orders not to intervene. “During his 1998 campaign for political office in Stralsund a group of leftists on the roof of a four-story building dropped a 65-pound concrete block on Roeder who was in the street below. The block narrowly missed killing Roeder striking his shoulder.”[18]

Blair Peach

The death of Méric has analogies with the death of the New Zealand schoolteacher Blair Peach in Britain. Peach died after a Leftist riot against the National Front in 1979 in Southall, London, after reportedly being hit on the head by a Metropolitan Policeman.[19] Peach remains a Leftist icon, whose mythos is aided by the mainstream news media, as in the Méric incident. There is even a “Blair Peach Primary School,” named in his honor in Southall.[20]

Peach, like Méric, chose to align with the most violent of Leftist factions. That Peach was killed in the process of rioting to violently prevent a peaceful campaign meeting by the British National Front during the General Election, is of no account to the Left. Like Méric, the fact that Peach’s actions were motivated by hatred of the Right is sufficient to gain him sanctity. A police report states that the mob marching against the NF was “very difficult and unruly.” “Police were very patient, and throughout the long march of about 5 miles only 19 people were arrested.” Demonstrators gathered outside Southall Town Hall where the NF was holding its election meeting. There was increasing disorder over a wide area.

At about this time a number of Asians took lengths of wood off a nearby lorry and smashed the windows of a London Transport Bus. More police were deployed to the area and were greeted with a hail of missiles, injuring a number of police officers and at the same time shop windows were broken by the demonstrators. Shield serials were deployed and the demonstrators were contained.[21]

Three to four hundred demonstrators sat on the road and blocked traffic. The demonstrators who were throwing stones were asked to disperse otherwise there would be arrests. They refused. The police arrested several, and the mob moved on. At a police cordon on High Street, near the Police Station, missiles were being thrown, including smoke canisters, and mounted officers were used to disperse the crowd after police injuries. Curry powder was thrown into the faces of police, and two policemen were stabbed.[22]

The Town Hall was filled to capacity, but included anti-NF rioters whom the police permitted to enter, while NF contingents were denied entry to the Hall. It was after the NF meeting, at 8:15 pm that Blair Peach was found staggering and taken to hospital by ambulance The police report notes that he was a member of the Anti-Nazi League. The report also notes: “A man, believed to be a National Front sympathizer, named [blanked out] was set upon by Asian youths and suffered serious injuries. He also had a heart condition, and he must be considered as being seriously ill.”[23]

The report notes that many of the rioters, often Asians, appeared to lose complete control, and were extremely violent. Twenty police were treated for injuries in hospital, three for serious injuries. There were 340 arrests and a huge amount of damage to shops. The report states the belief that the attacks on police and damage to property were likely to have been pre-planned.[24] There were few “white Leftists” at the march, but those who were there were organizing the riots.[25] Two police horses were injured.[26]

The police report remarks that Peach’s death would become a “cause célèbre” among his associates, regardless of the circumstances.[27] The report lists previous arrests of Peach over the course of five years.[28]

The serious injury of a “National Front sympathizer” mentioned in the police report seems to be that of NF official Richard Wagenaar, who had been brutally kicked by Asians. The assault was met with silence from the media.[29] NF Organizer Martin Webster wrote of the riot that the Anti-Nazi League, to which Peach belonged, had issued a leaflet prior to the riots, giving locations for their first aid posts and legal aid centres. Webster writes of Wagenaar:

One 67 year old NF branch official – Richard Wagenaar, secretary of Wandsworth Branch – unable to get into the meeting was ambushed at Southall Station on his way home. His appalling injuries indicate that the Asian/ANAL[30] mob tried to kick him to death.[31]

This is the character of the “anti-Nazi” organization to which Peach belonged. It was a predecessor of the Antifa network; same mentality, same methods. Peach, like Méric, was part of the most violent of Leftist faction, and was killed in the process of violently confronting those he sought to “smash.” The Anti-Nazi League was established in 1977 by the Socialist Workers Party, the main Trotskyite faction. Like Antifa, ANL did not try to hide its violent intent. They relate their struggle to that of the pre-war and wartime fights against Nazism and Fascism in a laudatory survey of Leftist thuggery called Heroes or Villains?[32] by the simple expedient of classifying anyone on the Right as “nazis” or “fascists.” Among the chronicles of violence against the Right that are listed are the assault on NF leader John O’Brien by three assailants, and attacks on NF candidates’ homes in Bristol in 1971; a riot at High Road, London in 1977 against an NF march, where 13 were injured by flying bottles, stones and smoke bombs; a report form the Daily Mail on the police display of weapons taken form Leftist rioters in Lewisham in 1977 against an NF march, including “A carving knife, honed to razor sharpness, metal pipe, with wickedly lacerating studs” and acid; resignation of NF official Anthony Reed-Herbert following threats to his family; assault with pickaxe handles on a small team of NF newspaper sellers at North London, 1981; and many others.[33] The chroniclers are right to link the thuggery against the post-war Right with the pre-war thuggery against the British Union of Fascists: then too, the Left used razor blades and spiked clubs against the fists of disciplined and stoic British Blackshirts.

Among the anti-fascist heroism of note we can also add was the killing of Albert Mariner, an old age pensioner and avid NF supporter, struck on the back of the head while walking on his was to an NF election meting at Tottenham, North London, on May 3, 1983. On the way to the meeting Mariner and some friends were showered with bricks and bottles, one missile hitting Mariner’s head. Treated at hospital and sent home, he died the following day. No mention was made in the media and no police investigation or enquiry was pursued regarding Mr. Mariner’s death.[34]

No street, school or other public edifice was ever named after François Duprat or Albert Mariner, but the likes of Blair Peach remains an icon in Britain with a primary school perversely named in his honor. Méric will be lauded as a heroic fighter against “Fascism,” obscuring the reality of his death: an accident in a scuffle with a “skinhead” in a situation of his own making. But his death serves the Establishment as much as their ideological kin on the extreme Left, and the Right will be under intensified siege from above and below. The legend of Méric’s death will increase exponentially to epic proportions, like that of Peach.

Notes