A Week in Paris: Drum and Bass on a Boat and the Rising Tide of Conservativism

Politics:

On the 16th of May 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy became the President of France, snatching victory from the leader of the socialist party, Ségolène Royal, on a slimmer margin than expected. Of course, I arrived in Paris well after this election, on the 14th of July 2008. The 14th of July also happens to be Bastille day, the French celebration which was started by Napoleon in order to commemorate the same day in 1789 when the revolutionaries stormed the Bastille fortress-prison, freeing political prisoners. Too exhausted to join the festivities, I nonetheless went to sleep to the sound of fireworks and snatches of cheering on the wind. It is interesting to try and understand this recent shift to the right in a country that can be arguably said to be the birthplace of concepts such as human rights and majority rule. After just over a year of Sarkozy's presidency, almost every Parisian I spoke with expressed concern about the rising tide of conservativism in France. When asking people what was going on in French politics currently,I would receive as an answer a click of the tongues and a shake of the head with a wry expression and small sigh of 'Sarkozy'. The streets of the political Bastille area were spattered with black and white posters attacking Sarkozy as a racist and panderer to big business. The feeling was of frustrated impotence, mixed with resignation, because the next election is not until 2011. Of course, Sarkozy has alot of support too: hence the election results. But, whether coincidence or just an indication of the demographic in which I was perousing, concerns over growing conservative attitudes under Sarkozy came to dominate the discussions I had with people from Paris.

So what is it that people are worried about?

In the last week of the election, Segolene Royal's attacks on Sarkozy included warnings that Sarkozy's hard line on law and order would provoke violence such as we witnessed with the riots in 2005. These riots were essentially an expression of frustration and isolation from French society on the part of recent immigrant groups in the outskirts of Paris. I was in France in 2002, when Jean Marie Le Penn (France's Pauline Hanson) was becoming increasingly popular. Le Penn exposed the potential for harnessing far right voters, rather than walking the middle line. Le Penn also contributed to the feelings of isolation of recent immigrants, by causing them to become the focus of political dialogue without having the opportunity to contribute to that dialogue. This seems to be a fairly regular pattern in most countries: people tend to scapegoat immigrants and refugees in hugely public discussions with no real input from immigrants or refugees themselves.

Anyway, the upshot is that Sarkozy has been lauded by the right and disparaged by the left for mobilizing Le Penn's right wing voters even more powerfully than Le Penn did, because of the backlash against the 2005 riots. Royal's attack is a direct reference to the risks of electing a conservative with a hard line approach to immigration in a country that is a bit of a tinderbox when it comes to immigration.

Here is a story I found on Sarkozy relating to his stance on immigration. This comes from a review of Sarkozy's book 'Sarkozy's Testimony: The Conscience of a French Conservative Testimony: France in the Twenty-first Century' which is very favourable to Sarkozy, citing Sarkozy as an example for American conservatives to follow.

....."As interior minister in '02, he (Sarkozy) visited the refugee center in Northern France known as Sangatte. Initiallly conceived with space for 200 people, Sangatte was welcoming 3,000 refugees a day at the time he made his trip there.

"Three thousand pairs of eyes focused on me," Sarkozy recalled, "Given that all of them had suffered-and paid unscrupulous traffickers dearly-simple humanity made it imperative to keep them." However, it was also "critical to shut off the suction pump:" Once the refugees were processed, Sarkozy closed Sangatte, demonstrating that the issues of dealing with those in the country and border security could be dealt with separately.":

I am not sure how shutting Sangatte demonstrated anything but a denial of the fact that refugees will not stop coming to France, and now they will have nowhere to be processed. It is all very confusing.

Anyway, leaving off Sarkozy's policies on Immigration, the rest of his policies are a strange blend of conservativism and statism, a juggling act of being a pro American, free market conservative in a country that has a strong state presence and history of state intervention. Unlike other conservatives, he stays quiet on issues such as abortion. Like pretty much every other conservative, the emphasis is on economic management, and sustaining growth. He has already begun cutting corporate taxes and taxes to the middle class and restricting unions in order to align the French economy with neoliberal ideas about economic organisation. However, he still backs protectionism when it comes to important national industries (also not unusual: this whole selective approach pretty much characterises the western world). This scenario sounds very familiar really: immigration and economic management were the hot topics of the Howard era. I find myself asking the same questions: walking around the beautiful and impeccable streets of Paris, using the metro, enjoying the wealth of centuries of colonialism and dedication to the arts, I find it difficult to understand why economic growth is at the forefront of policy. All I know is that if I lived in Morrocco, and a three hour boat ride was all that separated me from giving this to my children, I would do it in an instant.

With every election in every country, the fact that society has leaned to the left or the right in it's search for change is as significant as the policies of the party or candidate who is elected. Maybe France is still too patriarchal for a female president. Maybe the left is still too disorganised. I cant say for sure why society has made this shift after being there for one week. However, I cant really say for sure why Australia made the shift to the left last year when it did either: and I have lived there all my life. I'll just have to keep observing.


Rhythms:

After exploring Montmartre, the 4th arrondisement and the left bank in search of areas populated by less conservative young people and therefore more experimental electronic music, I finally tracked down Bastille, an area in the eleventh (i think). After a ratty looking guy with goggles on his neck decorated with the phrase 'party time' sold me a zine, I knew I was in the right place. This guy, 'Ben' turned out to be the perfect person to ask. Before coming to Paris, I knew that it was the capital of electro: the home of record labels like Boysnoize and Edbanger, birthplace of Justice, Mr Oizo, Modeselektor, etc etc. I intended to go check out Rex but was a little tired of the showyness of the mainstream scene by the time saturday came around and couldnt be bothered dealing with another person who wore sunglasses at night. After hitting the town in what seemed to be the wrong places for a few days, I had made some enquiries about alternative electronic music in Paris and was told sardonically: 'Go to Berlin', which wasn't exactly heartening.

It wasn't totally accurate either: after asking around at some record stores I met a helpful drum and bass dj called Charlie, who pointed me in the direction of a two night drum and bass party at a fairly well known venue called Le Bartofar which was an old boat floating on the seine. We went on friday the 18th of July. The lineup included a few local drum and bass and dub djs downstairs, and a couple of trance djs upstairs on the main deck. The venue was very cool: the drum and bass was in the belly of the boat, black and round and swaying (weird to dance on a swaying floor), the trance was on the deck and there was another bar on the upper deck. I love parties that have many levels and alleys, little nooks and crannies where you discover another room: this venue was one of those. The soundsystem on the upper deck was not good quality so i can't say for sure whether the music was good. Anyway, the drum and bass dj (dj Ammo?? Levy+MC?? not sure) who was playing when I arrived was excellent: blending a healthy mix of grime, dubstep, breaks and drum and bass and mixing it all up but making it work without being jarring or lacking in flow. An MC from london showed up: this guy called General T, who was really popular but seemed to make a career out of talking really fast. It was cool, but the lyrics (smokin ganga etc) were a bit cliched and I found myself thinking that this guy looked really tired. Apparently he featured in the Ali G movie which explains all the 'Bo Selekta'. Anyway the upshot was that the gig was pretty good but as I discovered, the people there weren't all that friendly but not too bad: not as good a crowd as drum and bass usually draws at any rate. So not too special.

And once again, here is where politics and Rhythms intertwine.

At the party I fell into conversation with a Parisian called Greg. Over the intermittent thunder of the bass (our generation will all be deaf by thirty) he managed to express his concern over the direction of French politics, a concern echoed by many of the young people I met during the week I was there. 'I play the Jambe drums with friends' he explained, and had done so for around eight years, 'We play in a forest'. I asked him where this forest was (in Paris??) and why he played in a forest rather than in Paris. He explained to me with some consternation that they used to play the drums in a group along the banks of the Seine. Over the last year, however, Police had increasingly moved them along, until they became tired of it and started travelling to this forest just outside the east of Paris where they could play without risk of hassle. Greg explained to me that while there are illegal parties in Paris operating, they are at risk of being shut down. Like other conservative political climates, the unregulated music scene is one of the casualties. Like london, big clubs and popular scenes like Rex and Fabric tend to have a monopoly in terms of the law. Of course, the party I went to was not an illegal: it was a good thing that drum and bass and other less popular scenes exist in popular venues because it is accessible. It did create a less open atmosphere however, or that may just be Paris (I know its a stereotype but Paris is quite conservative in ways). According to Greg, many people and the best djs in Paris migrate south for the summer: it may be worth checking it out again in the winter, I may be more impressed.