The Decision to Impose Curfews and the Prefects
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
[Prime Minister] de Villepin has decided not to call in the army (“We’re
not at that point yet”), but intends to re-establish order by all means that
the police can offer: “at ever step we will take the necessary measures to
re-establish order very quickly throughout the nation.”
To do this he needs a curfew, so that the police should have the means necessary
to act like a military force and treat civilians like enemies.
The matter of whether or not to impose a curfew will be decided on a case
by case basis by the prefects.
What is a prefect? It is a high-level bureaucrat appointed by the president
of the Republic, who can dismissed and replaced whenever the President wants.
The prefect is not allowed to engage in politics nor can he leave his department.
Most often they have graduated from the National Administrators’ School. The
prefect is the highest level bureaucrat in each department: he is in charge
of applying the government’s decisions, maintaining public order, holding
elections, managing drivers permits, etc.
This means that the decision of whether or not to impose a curfew is decided
on by the State structure itself, not even by elected politicians in a “democratic”
system.
It is a decisive step towards fascism.
This shows that the proletarian class struggle has shaken the ruling class,
and that the bourgeoisie is no longer in a position to exercise its power
as before.
Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist Maoist) November 2005
Please note that the above text about the past week’s
riots in Clichy-Sous-Bois come from the website of the Communist Party
(Marxist-Leninist Maoist) in France and translated by yours truly. I have
a “fast and loose” translation philosophy, meaning that when there is a choice
between readability and the original phraseology i tend to favour the former,
provided that the meaning stays the same. The original document can be seen in French.
This originally came from my blog - Sketchy Thoughts
- and is one of a number of pieces i wrote or translated regarding the riots
that rocked France in October and November 2005. To see the a complete list
of such posts, i suggest you check out the 2005 Riots In France page on the Kersplebedeb
site.