France. Racist attack in Trappes: The far right carried out the killing, but it was the entire bourgeoisie that provided it with the ideological weapons. Faced with the open violence of the cops and racists and the trap of democratic anti-racism, the working class can count only on itself!

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Racist attack in Trappes: The far right carried out the killing, but it was the entire bourgeoisie that provided it with the ideological weapons. Faced with the open violence of the cops and racists and the trap of democratic anti-racism, the working class can count only on itself!

On October 23, 2026, the neo-Nazi Kevin Tessier, while driving, opened fire in bursts on “Black” and “Arab” people, killing a 26-year-old man from Poissy, Pengo Bossio Wangi, and wounding five people, including a 12-year-old girl. There was no doubt whatsoever that this terrorist attack was racially motivated, as the suspect claimed he had explicitly targeted Black or North African people in order to “avenge the shopkeepers” following the day of rioting on October 17.

This is a sad reminder that, in “republican” France, any working-class person who doesn’t have the “right” skin color is living on borrowed time. If they are not shot down by a far-right that is unapologetically racist and whose very purpose is to terrorize—to the point of murder—the most exploited and discriminated-against segments of the working class, they may well be killed, under one circumstance or another, by the police forces of the bourgeois state, trained by the Republic to be racist toward immigrant workers—or those presumed to be such because of the color of their skin.

In fact, contrary to the prevailing media narrative, Kevin Tessier is not the sole person responsible for this terrorist attack. A reader of Mein Kampf, a likely voter for the National Rally (1), raised on delusional rhetoric about the “Great Replacement,” the invasion of France by “hordes of migrants” or “hordes of suburban thugs,” and the city of Trappes as a “den of Islamists” and “capital of jihad ” (2), this scum —who sees himself as the state’s enforcer and is guilty of this anti-proletarian crime—is merely a product of bourgeois society, whose congenital racism and deep-seated xenophobia primarily affect the immigrant proletariat.

While there is no doubt whatsoever that it was the National Rally (RN) leadership—first and foremost its current leaders, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, as well as the reactionary polemicist Éric Zemmour—who, through their rhetoric, emboldened the terrorist, the fact remains that, whatever the do-gooders of the bourgeois left may say, responsibility for this crime ultimately lies with the bourgeoisie and its state.

Whether it is the traditional media, which daily bombard their viewers, readers, and listeners with rhetoric that portrays immigrant workers—whether people of color or Muslims—as scapegoats, responsible for all the ills afflicting this capitalist society that lurches from one crisis to the next, each time building up the potential for the next one; or a political class that, whether out of conviction or cynical calculation, exploits the division between native working-class people and “foreign” working-class people—even when the latter, like the victim, are French citizens—to prevent the working class from rediscovering the path of its struggle and to divert its anger toward deadly dead ends; a state whose top officials described the October 17 riots as barbaric acts committed by “scum” (it being understood, of course, that in their minds, “scum” refers to a young person of African or North African descent living in the suburbs) (3), it is the entire bourgeoisie that, in the final analysis, is guilty of this racist attack.

Racism, far from being a “poison that divides our society,” as claimed by former Prime Minister and presidential candidate Édouard Philippe (who certainly knows a thing or two about racism, given that he once claimed that French colonization was not a crime ” (4)), is the binding force that holds bourgeois society together, linking it to the “good” “native” French proletariat in order to pit it against immigrant workers, who are supposedly freeloaders on welfare. By distinguishing between native and foreign workers, between white workers and workers of color, the bourgeoisie achieves a dual objective: on the one hand, it secures a terrorized workforce that can be exploited at will, with every struggle for rights subjected to the iron fist of “administrative detention ” (read: imprisonment) and deportation from the country; on the other, it allows for the sowing of division within the proletariat even as, as Marx says, “the growing unity of the workers” is the condition for their revolutionary consciousness (5).

Consequently, terrorizing the most exploited segment of the proletariat ensures that it will not be able to find the path to organized revolutionary struggle against this entire system of misery, oppression, and repression. The role of the far right—whether groups or lone wolves—and that of the police and the Republican Gendarmerie are not exactly the same; but they are complementary, given that it is the law enforcement agencies that lead the operations to hunt down immigrants, and that the tattooed, clean-shaven thugs are merely their objective auxiliaries, at their disposal as part of their campaign of state terrorism.

Beyond the simple observation that fascist thugs and police officers are often the same people, we must not forget that the police kill far more people than the far right. Malik Oussekine, Zyed Benna, Bouna Traoré, Adama Traoré, and Nahel Marzouk were not killed by those nostalgic for Hitler and Mussolini, but by the “law enforcement officers,” the “guardians of the peace,” who, in our beautiful homeland of human rights, naturally have no other function than to ensure peace and tranquility for decent people.

This shared responsibility of the bourgeois state and the far right for the racist murders targeting the working class is precisely what the left wing of the bourgeoisie seeks to conceal; it has not failed to exploit the tragedy—during the rallies held in tribute to the victims—to push its anti-fascist and republican deceptions onto the agenda. From the mayor of Trappes calling for “republican harmony ” (sic) (no doubt with those very same French people who identify far more readily with the murderer than with the victim) to La France Insoumise calling for a rally titled “The Republic Against Racism,” and including Marine Tondelier (Les Écologistes), who urges the right to unite in condemning racism (6), all claimed that the killer did not embody France, did not embody the Republic. The leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon—who is usually more insightful—even engaged in a pitiful attempt at electoral exploitation, claiming that in his “New France,” the crime of racism will be “systematically hunted down and punished” (7). By whom? By the very same police force that “systematically hunts down” any working-class person whose skin color is even slightly too dark?

Unfortunately, this despicable democratic, patriotic, and republican rhetoric resonates deeply with Black and Arab workers. Reporting on the rally held in Trappes, Médiapart wrote these telling lines: “Tricolor flags waving in the crowd, the ‘Marseillaise,’ slogans like ‘This is our home’ chanted here and there... If you blinked just a little too quickly, you might have misinterpreted the rally held on Friday, October 30, at Place des Merisiers in Trappes.” (8) Médiapart is trying to be humorous, but faced with such a lack of understanding, the revolutionary proletariat can only laugh bitterly. These same victims of a racist, anti-proletarian France—which constantly makes them feel that this country is not for them—claim to defend themselves by adopting the very same repugnant symbols—the tricolor flag, the national anthem, identity-based slogans—as those of their murderers. Whereas we should be opposing the “republican harmony” that cements the entire parliamentary spectrum and its various henchmen outside the chamber, we must oppose republican harmony—which binds together the entire parliamentary spectrum and its various allies outside the chamber—with a class struggle rooted in solidarity and internationalism. Instead, opportunism channels proletarian anti-racist reactions into the institutional and moral dead end of democratic antifascism and cynically claims to “protect” immigrant, people of color, or Muslim workers in this way. This is how the bourgeois leadership forces within the working-class movement—foremost among them La France Insoumise—continue to perpetuate chauvinist, legalist, electoralist, and civic-centered illusions. This is yet another confirmation that, to paraphrase Amadeo Bordiga, the worst product of racism is indeed “anti-racism”!

This terrorist attack is, alas, just one more episode in the war against the proletariat, particularly Black and Arab workers. Their defense against these deadly attacks cannot follow the paths of social harmony, humanitarian law, the rhetorical sparring of the parliamentary circus, or appeals to public opinion—all of which are dead ends. Any struggle against bourgeois anti-immigrant violence can draw its class strength only from unity with the national working class and from a genuinely class-based movement—that is, one that rejects the shackles of social compromises and democratic illusions. The French proletariat obviously bears primary responsibility for building this unity; they must realize that they are a single class and that, in the capitalist society that exploits them, they share the same interests as their immigrant comrades; they must break the chauvinism that is corroding their ranks.

• Let us oppose national harmony and cohesion with the united front of the proletariat

• Let us counter republican police repression and racist abuses by the far right with the independent organization of the working class, their class-based defense, their internationalist class solidarity, and thus, on this basis, their self-defense

(1) Investigators initially claimed to have found NR leaflets at the terrorist’s home, before acknowledging that these leaflets—which supported this party with explicitly fascist origins—had been made by the assassin himself. Whichever version is true, it is revealing: the killer was an outspoken supporter of the National Rally.

(2) These remarks, and many others, have been made by various far-right leaders over the years. A small selection of these repugnant remarks is available in the Médiapart article, “‘You target them, they kill’: The Left Calls for Action Against Hate Speech After the Trappes Attack,” dated October 24, 2026: https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/241026/vous-ciblez-ils-tuent-la-gauche-demande-des-actions-contre-les-discours-de-haine-apres-l-attentat-de-trapp

(3) Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon stated on Tuesday, October 20, on BFM-TV that “the main culprits are the troublemakers and the thugs.” See https://video.lefigaro.fr/ figaro/ violences-du-17-octobre-les-premiers-responsables-ce-sont-les-factieux-et-les-racailles-fustige-maud-bregeon-20261021 As for Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, he attempted to paint this detailed profile of the “looter”: “There’s a mix of everything—people of immigrant background, foreigners, but also people who are fully integrated, who are French,” see the October 25, 2026, editorial in Le Monde titled “Trappes Attack: From Racism to Terrorism, a Collective Responsibility”: https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2026/10/25/attentat-de-trappes-du-racisme-au-terrorisme-une-responsabilite-collective_6800082_3232.html

(4) “For Édouard Philippe, colonization is not a crime… Or when the right no longer reads historians,” Libération, December 10, 2025: https://www.liberation.fr/ politique/pour-edouard-philippe- la-colonisation-nest-pas-un-crime-ou-quand-la-droite-ne-lit-plus-les-historiens-20251210_FIENQ2S3N5ABTIM44UT2UH65FU/

(5) Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Section I, “The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat,” available online at: https://www.marxists.org/ archive/marx/ works/ 1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007

(6) “Racist attack in Trappes: ‘What more does it take to open people’s eyes?’ asked Mayor Ali Rabeh during the rally in honor of the victims, pointing to the National Rally’s responsibility,” Le Monde, October 30, 2026: https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2026/10/30/attentat-raciste-a-trappes-que-faut-il-de-plus-pour-ouvrir-les-yeux-a-lance-le-maire-ali-rabeh-lors-du-rassemblement-en-hommage-aux-victimes-pointant-la-responsabilite-du-rn_6803131_3224.html

(7) “Jean-Luc Mélenchon Speaks at the Tribute to the Victims of the Racist Attack in Trappes,” Le Média TV, October 27, 2026: https://www.facebook.com/ LeMediaOfficiel/ videos/jean-luc-m%C3%A9lenchon-prend-la-parole-lors-de-lhommage-aux-victimes-de-lattentatra/29246826941623308/

(8) “‘Open Your Eyes!’: In Trappes, a dense crowd came together to stand against racism,” Médiapart, October 31, 2026: https://www.mediapart.fr/ journal/france/311026/ ouvrez-les-yeux-trappes- une-foule-compacte-est- venue-faire-corps-contre-le-racisme

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