Comments on: Examinations are of no value whatsoever

By: Jim Monaghan

Jim Monaghan — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 15:36:06 +0000

“he children of French-ruled Africa being taught about nos ancêtres les gaulois (’Our ancestors the Gauls’) in the colonial schools ??”
Could I add the supression on non French languages in teh hexagon.
“Meilleur cracher sur terre que parler Breton” or something near it. 50% plus of french citizens did not speak french in the mid 18th century. Alled with supressing the languages went supressing what was considered non french vis a vis culture. I argued with a french teacher who insisted that all the french languages were dialects including Breton and Alsacian, what nonsense.France still does not satisfy EU laws on minority languages.
While many/most/some nationas or national groups dpo a degree of invention of tradition that doe snot mean that their cultures are non existent. All cultures interpenetrate to a greater or lesser extent. Eg Irish set dancing probably derives in part at leat from the french quadrille. On arriving in Ireland it fused and wa sgiven a different spin.
To me Internatioinalism is not about lowest common denominator but about diversity, cherishing all human culture.
Supression leads to rebellion and sometimes to the horrendous mistakes of some Bretons. But refusing to admit to this oppression can lead to the reverse mistakes. EG look at the big mistake in Nicaragua where the Spanish policies of the revolution drove the Miskitos into the arma of reaction.
The awakening of supressed peoples was one of the gains of the Russian revolution. You couild say that the reaction set in with the rivival of Russian nationalism.
Oh the Spanish Republic made its biggest mistake when they refused to grant Moroccan independence because they did not want to frighten the French. This grant would have weakened Franco in his rear (no pun intended)
I would see satisfying national demands not necessarily leading to full independem]nce but to many levels of autonomy. Better that than the artificiality of the Belgian state where there is no french in Falnders or flemish in Wallonia. Here the Flemings regard it as pay back for 180 years of french domination. sad but true

By: Sean Baite

Sean Baite — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:03:43 +0000

No need for excuses Donagh. An interesting post all the same.
Might add that the article’s author may well have a point on that ‘pan-Celtic’ bumph - here applied to history. I often come across it here in France applied to music - this ridiculous concept of ‘Celtic Music’ - which, if it ever existed, a few centuries before Jaysus - no-one ever wrote down/recorded it/transmitted it. Except to Enya.
Also - regarding the Breton collaborators heading to Ireland after the war. One of their number was a sculptor : apparently there’s a statue of Christy Ring in his home town of Cloyne in Cork which was done by a Breton sculptor with a collaborationist past. Someone better informed will have to tell us if he was attached to this group or not.
Oh and:
I was just going for how ‘official national histories’ are used to create a cultural hegemony and erases other histories within the country.
Sounds a lot like the project implemented by French ‘Jacobinism’ in France (with success) and through French Imperialism (as Jim rightly states) throughout their empire. What was more ‘Jacobin’ than the children of French-ruled Africa being taught about nos ancêtres les gaulois (’Our ancestors the Gauls’) in the colonial schools ??
Shit - back to more bloody Celts…

By: Donagh

Donagh — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:33:20 +0000

To be honest, the Breton thing was an add on and shouldn’t have been included in the post. I went searching for an image that seemed appropriate and found the one above which was attached to the Breton article.

Is tiredness an excuse? Probably not, but the article is an indication of the selective micro-history that should never be used to illustrate broader historical points. In the article in fairness the writer does say that the wider Breton nationalist distanced themselves from this group and yes, it doesn’t contextualise it by mentioning those Bretons that resisted. I was just going for how ‘official national histories’ are used to create a cultural hegemony and erases other histories within the country.

By: Sean Baite

Sean Baite — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:30:03 +0000

I find that Exam Paper unbelievable. Have they gone over to being some sort of ‘Vocational Training’ place in the anticipation that the 1916 Walking Tour will be employing hundreds of people by the time this class get their degree ??

Not too sure where you’re leading in the rest of the post. That given enough exposure to the Christian Brothers school of historiography we will all end up Nazi stormtroopers?? (only with some sort of cute triskel somewhere on the uniform). Or that we should all crack out our ‘Down With the Nation State’ t-shirts.

Am also disappointed to see you descending to something I’ve heard far too much of here in ‘Jacobin’ France - bashing Breton nationalism due to the actions of a handful of nutters from within that camp during the last war. Let’s gloss over any Bretons/Breton nationalists that actually attempted to resist during the Occupation. Let’s also gloss over the rather large elephant in the ’salon’ of ‘Jacobin’ France where it wasn’t just a few nutters but virtually the whole pre-war state apparatus that did the dirty work of the Nazis.

Finally have to laugh in desperation at the slogan on that 30s Breton nationalist publication : ‘The Irish saved their country by spilling their blood for it’ Yep. Indeed.

By: Jim Monaghan

Jim Monaghan — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:35:01 +0000

Sections of practically every European nations fought alongside the Nazis.The Dutch had the strongest contingent in the Waffen SS outside Germany proper.Some did it because they were fascists and some because they were idiots. A few Bretons did so. In my opinioon it does not invalidate the Breton struggle. French Imperialism was as nasty as it comes in Indochina and elsewhere.
I feel that there is somewhat of an agenda here (in the quotes) to identify Irish Republicanism with fascism because of teh deeply mistaken policy of a section of the IRA.
Most oppressed nations and peoples have a tendency to believe that the enemny of my enemny is not all that bad. Even on the left you have those who because they oppose (rightly) American Imperialism see every opponent of America through rose tim=]nted glasses.
For what it is worth I see WW2 as a multifacited war, to a large degree a combination of a few wars. Inter-Imperialist, wars of national liberation (remember many Indians and Burmese fought alongside the Japanese, including the father of a current Burmese political prisoner), defence of teh gains of the October Revolution, and a struggle sfor national liberation of the invaded nations of Europe.
History in schools tends to be rote learning of whatever are the current orthodoxies.
Can I recommend 2 books one by Milovan Djlias (Titos right hand person) called “Wartime”. The other on WW2 by Ernest Mandel.