Creating a republican culture

Tony Curzon Price (London, oD): France Culture talked with Benjamin Stora, Professeur d'histoire du Maghreb à l'Inalco, in a fascinating radio show about the history of immigration policy in France since the 1880's, when Italian immigrants were slaughtered in anti-outsider protests in the South of France. In the course of some gripping anecdotes, Stora mentions how important political parties and trade unions were in "creating a republican culture". An otherwise naturally anti-immigrant labor movement was kept pro-foreigner in the 1930s because of the number of Spaniards, Italians and Poles in the trade unions, the Communist Party and the Socialist Federation. Following on from Vron Ware's post, this made we wonder what institutions we have left, today, that have a hope of sustaining the shared political culture that all party leaders are agreed we want and need. Not the parties themselves - now marketing machines rather than membership organisations - or the post-Thatcher trade unions. Isn't this a real opportunity for a constitutional movement and the direct initiatives that are gaining in popularity? Make these truly open and accessible networks, and they become the type of organisation and enterprise that have a chance of fostering the political and social values that can define us.