By Sam Wainwright
PARIS — Ten thousand people marched through the streets here on September 22 to protest against the visit by the pope. People lined the streets as the demonstrators chanted "Kick out the pope and his clergy, not the immigrants" while waving banners and condom balloons.
A papal visit would have aroused protest on any occasion, but three interlinked factors lent extra urgency and anger this time. First, the conservative Chirac government has spent public money on the visit. This patronage of the Catholic Church flies in the face of France's revolutionary heritage which decisively asserted the separation of church and state.
This commitment to secularism has very deep roots in French society, as was demonstrated when more than 1 million people took to the streets of Paris in 1994 to protest government plans to give funding to private schools.
The Catholic Church and the right are using the visit of the pope to make a big deal over the conversion of King Clovis to Catholicism and his unification of France nearly 1500 years ago.
The right proclaim this as the beginning of the French nation. The implication is that "real" French people are white Catholics. This version of history is very useful to a government in the midst of trying to expel illegal immigrants, cut migrant intakes and deflect the blame for unemployment. It also fuels racist attitudes, and it is no accident that the National Front (FN) is at the forefront of pushing this history. The right's opponents maintain that it is the establishment of the secular republic in1788 that should be seen as France's real identity.
The pope's visit also comes in the context of a push to re-establish a conservative Catholic morality. Under electoral pressure from the FN, which continues to poll well (recently winning a number of local government elections), the "mainstream" right-wing parties keep adopting more and more conservative social policies.
Recently the government announced that it would no longer give hospitals funding to carry out abortions. This has given confidence to extreme anti-abortion groups, which have started carrying out physical attacks on hospitals and clinics that perform abortions. In the same vein, the right is now starting to discuss cutting unemployment benefits for married women.
It is not hard to see how this anti-woman crusade also fits into the program of cutting social spending so the money can be diverted to the pockets of the government's big business patrons. The right is seeking to make the most of the papal visit to promote this agenda.
In a symbolic reply, the demonstration gathered at Place de la Republique and marched to Place de la Bastille. The mobilisation brought together various far left groups, the Greens, ACT-UP, gay and lesbian groups, women's groups, sections of the Protestant church and groups that promote secular culture.