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After the drama of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine: anger, solidarity, rejection of amalgams

Sunday 18 October 2020, by NPA - Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste

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The NPA was horrified to hear of the beheading of a high school teacher in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Friday, 16 October. All our thoughts are with his family, friends, students and colleagues, and more broadly with all education personnel, obviously shaken by this atrocious crime.

The NPA condemns this despicable act. Whatever the conclusions of the investigation, nothing can justify such an assassination. We reiterate our unwavering commitment to freedom of expression and to the pedagogical freedom of teachers.

Since the tragedy, Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Michel Blanquer have been outbidding each other, making numerous declarations of love to teachers, for whom they have only contempt the rest of the time, and praising the essential role of schools, which they have not stopped destroying in recent years.

Moreover, it is difficult not to be indignant at the hypocrisy of a white man defending the freedom of expression of teachers when we know to what extent the hunt for recalcitrant teachers is organized in the National Education system, as in the case of the four teachers in Melle who were punished for having mobilized against the baccalaureat exam reform.

Moreover, the government is participating in the Islamophobic upsurge, establishing a link between the tragedy of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine and its parliamentary bill on "separatism", the logic of which is to further reinforce the amalgamation of Muslims, fundamentalists and terrorists.

Far from going against the outburst of Islamophobic hatred that we have been witnessing since last night, the authorities are contributing to it, reinforcing the fractures in which the haters, the deadly ideologies and religious fanaticism, enemies of workers and peoples, thrive.

Our solidarity is total with the relatives, friends and colleagues of Samuel Paty, and more generally with all the teaching staff, who have been affected by this assassination. The NPA will join initiatives to express mourning, anger and solidarity following this tragedy, while refusing any logic of national unity with the false friends of teachers and those who advocate a repressive headlong rush and increased stigmatization of Muslims.

Montreuil, 17 October 2020

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