The short of it is indeed that they have been neglected, and possibly these incidents will help to actually do something about it - although with this government I would not hold my breath.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

But "Failure of the left"???? Right wing parties coalitions have been in power in France for at least thirty five out of the last fifty years.

But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good story line; the most important point is: "blame it on these damn lefties". Good one, buddy.

Could you tell me where arabs/africans are well integrated, UK ? US ? India ? Australia ? Malyasia ? holland ? spain ? italy ? norway ? sueden ?

I remember very well the quantity of specialists (leftist mainly) who told us in the 80's that this population will fully be a part of the society like it was the case for italians/polish.. and around 1989, went back to the reality and they started to change their music.

Dealing with the reality is not an easy thing to do but there is no choice, they have to find there place in the society, i do not see lot of solution at this problem, perhaps a very strong positive action would be the less worth.

ps : If you do not want to see your car burned, just but a marocco flag on it.

(a)  Of course, the official statistics do not exist, and a concept of the Freedom of Information Act, apparently does not exist in France, or if it does, it does not reach to the official numbers of the immigrants or Muslims.

(b) in reality, it could be even higher.

2.  Imagine what happens when the Muslims become
(a) 20% of the population
(b) 25% of the population
(c) 30% of the population.

3.  If Turkey (Muslim country with 70 million people)  were part of the EU, with its population freely moving to France, would the young patriotic Turks join the Muslim Intifada in Paris?

4.  Why doesn't France offer land-for-peace solution to the "peaceful Muslim demonstrators and activists?"  Give them land and have them become self-governing, just like Palestinians.

5.  During the Great Depression in the USA, with very high unemployment, there were no drive by shootings, burning police stations, cars, schools, or shooting at the police.  

This is my take, and I think this will be controvertial, but I want it to be that way. Its not a question of the welfare state. Clearly the problem is deeper and more structural than that, and I think it goes to the very heart of the French notion of republicanism. IMO, the republican ideal is a very "modern" (in the technical sense) concept (indeed, perhaps a hyper-modern construct) in a post-modern world where the kind of unifying narrative and assumption of the fundamental similarity of people is no longer viable. Strangely, this is exactly how the neo-cons think too, and it is why they think you can invade a country and "remake" a culture, indeed a region, in an American image. Indeed, there is much about the French republican model that the American right would like - ie "color blind," all individuals are basically the same, they must conform to some kind of model of "Frenchness," etc. Its not for nothing that neo-cons are often called "Jacobins," as too are those who favor a centralized state-model in France.

I think the proof is in the pudding here. The French republican ideal is simply incapable of dealing with a multi-ethnic society, and as such, I think it has to be rethought to provide a more flexible, decentralized polity. (and I don't mean in terms of economics, I'm going deeper here) Actually, although Sarkozy is an opportunist and a thug, he actually has some ideas along these lines. From an outsider's perspective, Sarkozy actually talks some sense - in terms of his willingness to challenge "laicite" fundamentalism (which to American center-leftist, seems to be a ridiculously dogmatic policy) and to suggest affirmative action programs for Arabs and Africans.

As to the French left, I think you are being slightly unfair. As some above point out, the left has not really been in power much since WW II. And under Mitterand, there were some sensible moves to devolve power away from Paris and towards the regions. Likewise, as Jerome notes, when Jospin was PM, he made some common-sense policing reforms, devolving police responsibility to a local level, which Sarkozy has since repealed.

The French left's problem is that is deeply divided between social liberals (basically, people who pursue ideas like the American Democratic Party, although this analogy isn't great, or perhaps the British Liberal Democrats) and anti-capitalists, who reject capitalism out-and-out. While many of these folks are in the Communist Party and various Marxist-type offshoots, there are a fair contingent within the Socialist Party itself. Witness the split over the referendum. If I had to take a guess, I would say that the second contingent is much larger. Thus, it becomes very difficult for the French left to get into power, and is the main reason why Le Pen was able to get into the 2nd round in 2002 (because the left split so many different ways). IMO, the near future for the left is not auspicious, because so many within the "left" refuse to countenance compromise with capitalism. As such, I wouldn't be surprised to see Le Pen and Sarkozy get into the second round in '02. Basically, the left can't get a substantive and dramatic challenge to the status quo together because too many of its voters and adherents are too wedded to it - in other words, to being anti-capitalists in a world where anti-capitalism is bankrupt. (no pun intended) Or, at the very least, it has no realisitc opportunity of presenting a candidate who will win over the nation's voters as a whole.

Fundamentally, I think it is going to take Sarkozy winning in '07 before enough people wake up. Sarkozy's brilliance is that he presents himself as the man with no-nonsense solutions to what pretty much most folks in France recognize is something of a societal malaise. I think there are other folks who can/could offer such a strategy of "rupture" outside of the right, but the above circumstances make it very hard for such alternatives to emerge. Because non-right wing politicians simply don't have a constituency for a kind of politics that would attack traditional shibboleths.

This is a rather supeficial analogy. Especially in terms of 1960s America. There were hundreds of urban riots in the United States in the late 1960s. OK, so the Watts Riots only lasted 4 days. But thats kind of beside the point. Also, both Watts and LA in 1992 were far more destructive in terms of lives lost, property damage, injuries, etc..

Ben P

Metropolitan France is roughly 10% non-white yet has zero non-white Assembly members. The US is about 30% non-white and one sixth of House members are non-white. That's not some the result of luck or enlightened white voters, it's policy. Back in the sixties the Voting Rights Act forced states to create district maps that would make it easier for non-whites to get elected. The Senate, where by definition you cannot have such policies, tends to have only a negligible number of non whites, particularly if you exclude Hawaii which is overwhelmingly non white. The US Army is chock full of senior non-white officers. Again it is a result of a policy to counter the insiduous effects of racism by forcing the Army leadership to achieve that goal. US elite universities tend to have roughly 15% black and hispanic student bodies because of affirmative action. US companies try to have at least a token number of senior non-white execs because they have been pressured to do so - and token numbers are a hell of a lot better than none. The list goes on. Urban police departments have gone from lily white to having a heavy non-white presence under pressure from the local minority communities.  The elites decisions have come partly out of a genuine sense of justice, but also because of well organized and active non-white pressure groups. Furthermore discrimination tends to be highlighted in countless academic studies, in good part by relying on government collected information about racial disparities.

The French on the other hand refuse any affirmative action as an affront to the egalitarian race-blind ideals of the Republic. Attempts by racial minorities to organize themselves are stigmatized as 'communatarianism' - a mortal sin against Republican values. Same goes for ideas that maybe, just maybe, it would be useful for society to study discrimination in a rigorous manner are futile since collecting statistics differentiated by race is illegal. That of course also makes enforcement of anti-discrimination laws much harder. Only individual cases can be brought when you can't, for example, analyse statistics about allocation of housing or private sector hiring practices.

In effect the French have decided that society should solve the problem of racism with a blindfold and both hands tied behind its back, with just the mouth uttering platitudes about how racism must be eliminated, sounding like American libertarians who somehow argue that because in an ideal society racial categories wouldn't apply, we should act as if we lived in that utopia, rather than in the real world. Now I know that you guys don't like anything that smacks of being 'Anglo-Saxon', so just listen to the American right talking about how all this stuff is contrary to basic American values and that it is really some evil socialist import brought in by those wishy-washy Europeanized American lefties.

My local rag LA DEPECHE in the South of France barely mentions the "riots" and no one in my village seems to care about it. It'a bit as if it happened in China.  Paris isn't the nombril du monde, eh?

In fact I learned of them (no French TV in this house) through the US media on the net.

A few points though based on personal experience.

I lived in LA during the Rodney King riots. And I feel like Crocodile Dundee telling the French: you call this a riot? HA! THAT'S (pulling out an enormous knife) a riot!

You had to be in LA I suppose, but honestly that comparison in laughable. When the Champs-Elysees are deserted except for patrolling soldiers, wake me up, OK?

Two, I was in France in 1968, in Fontainebleau (Dad was in the service; went to the international lycée there); I was 14. Now that's what I call riots. The country closed down for what? a month? I missed two weeks of my favorite comics, maybe three.  De Gaulle fled to Baden-Baden if I recall correctly.

Maybe the French just like blowing up things now and again; that would show that the gens bronzés are assimilating the native customs, no?

Ah ca ira ca ira....

Working class kids otoh often come - of -age, forge their bonds at the assembly lines of autoplants, in coal mines and steel mills, on football fields, in pubs and in street gangs. Gerhard Schröder, Danny Cohn Bendit and Joschka Fischer are examples of the latter. They all share a militant front fighter narrative.

The folks mentioned above are largely envied by poor chaps like i.e. Merz, the beloved darling of the CDU/CSU youngsters. Merz really, really suffers from his boring, unadventurous past, from his lack of 'street credibility'. In his desperation he even tried to make up some stories. Here are two of them:

• Merz claimed that at 17 - 18 he was member of a 'rocker' gang and that he had terrorized his fellow village people with the loud noice of his motorbike which had no muffler.

• Merz also claimed that as a student at Bonn university he had once thrown a garbage bin through the window of a left wing pub where SPD MPs usually got together to have a pint of beer.

One day I will tell you the story of that pennyless  taxi driver and how he sneaked in with his 'Putzkolonne' to have some free drinks at a Weinprobe (degustation of wines) at the Cafe Südstern right next to the Frankfurt slaughterhouses.

"The USA appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty." Simon Bolivar, Caracas, 1819