"White N…s of America" – Pierre Vallières: A political critique
An image of Pierre Valières.
Written by William Ging Wee Dere
Why has Pierre Vallières’ book “White N…s of America” suddenly become a prominent topic of heated discussion? CBC’s Wendy Mesley got into trouble by saying the title of the book. The book was referred to in a grade 10 English history textbook which compared the struggles of the Québécois to that of the African-American struggles for civil rights and against racism. Then all the major Quebec political parties came to the defense of a University of Ottawa teacher who used the N-word in class. Quebec premier Legault said he needed to defend all Francophones and their right to free speech, even in words that may offend other communities.
A petition organized by BIPOC personnel at the U of O responded to Legault, “The use of the word "n" by a white professor shows ignorance about anti-Black racism and the racist history of the word. Simply put, the ban on the use of racist slurs, even in discussions of racism, is not a violation of academic freedom.”
So, what is wrong with this book?
The book did not garner much notice when it came out in 1968, except that it was written by a member of the Front de liberation du Québec (FLQ) while he was in an American jail. The 1960’s produced the “Quiet Revolution” in Quebec when the national bourgeoisie began asserting its economic, social and political power. They rightly, through the process of national awakening, instilled national pride in the Quebec Francophone population with the slogan, “Maîtres chez nous” (masters of our home).
The then premier, Jean Lesage, consolidated state power to build Quebec’s economic sovereignty. For example, led by the then Liberal René Lévesque, Hydro-Quebec was formed by nationalizing independent hydro companies to provide power for economic development, such as multi-national enterprises like Alcan in the Saguenay. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec was created to invest and stimulate Quebec businesses, like the media conglomerate Quebecor, owned by Karl Péladeau, ex-head of the Parti Québécois. Economic, political and social power were now firmly in the hands of the Quebec national bourgeoisie.
At the time of Vallières’ book, the Quebec nationalist left also began to awaken. It sought to do its own class analysis independently of the national bourgeois academics and scholars. The left looked towards the Third World and was inspired by the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles of Asia, Africa and Latin America. But nationalism, not internationalism, clouded the thinking of many. They saw the need to de-colonize Quebec from Anglo-American domination.
This line of reasoning led many to ignore the genuine anti-colonial struggles of the Northern Cree nation against the land grab of Hydro-Quebec for its James Bay hydro project. Where was the Quebec nationalist left? The Quebec left also stood still in 1969 when a Black student at Sir George Williams university occupied the computer center to protest the university’s support of a professor accused of racism. The Quebec left, like Vallières, appropriated the African American struggle against racism and for civil rights for the nationalist struggle in Quebec. Vallières and the Quebec nationalist left also appropriated the anti-colonial struggles of the Third World to apply to the de-colonization of the Quebec nation.
Vallières’ tract lays bare his political consciousness and the social norms of the time. His misogyny, visceral nationalism and colonial attitudes are clear. In the Forward, he speaks to “the men of Quebec – who are capable of consciousness, social responsibility, and revolutionary action.” The political clichés are in abundance, such as the world waiting to be transformed and men make history. However, there is no mention of the important role played by women and minorities.
Vallières showed his ignorance of history and the political reality of racism, by equating the struggles of African Americans with those of the Quebecois colonial settlers with this passage, “In Quebec the French Canadians are not subject to this irrational racism that has done so much wrong to the workers, white and black, of the United States. They can take no credit for that, since in Quebec there is no “black problem.” … the workers of Quebec are aware of their conditions as n…..s, exploited men, second-class citizens.” Vallières was obsessed with the N-word as he repeatedly used it to described white Québécois workers throughout the book.
One can make the argument that Vallières did not know the significance of the N-word as he was ignorant of its history and the history of American racism and slavery. This is more than enough reason to steer clear of his book, as Vallières confuses and obscures the need for class clarity in the struggle for emancipation of the Quebec working class.
No doubt, Vallières was influenced by the Marxist psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, from the French colony of Martinique. Vallières called Quebec workers N….s and the “wretched of the earth.” Fanon’s book, “Wretched of the Earth,” exposed the colonial oppression, exploitation and violent repression of the physical and cultural state of the colonized. Appropriation of the decolonial struggle seemed quite fitting for Quebec as many in the nationalist left waged the battle for “de-colonization.”
There was an alternative to this line of thinking as de-colonization politics became discredited in the 1970’s. Vallières was an associate of Charles Gagnon in the Front de liberation du Québec. Gagnon, who also spent time in prison, and Vallières split ideologically, after they left the FLQ. Vallières joined the Parti Québécois, while Gagnon turned towards internationalism and denounced “bourgeois nationalism.” Gagnon developed his Marxist-Leninist theory as applied to Quebec and wrote the book, “For a Proletarian Party.”
At that time the Canadian left was debating the role of the Canadian state, class struggle, class analysis and the relationship of Quebec to the rest of Canada. The New Marxist-Leninist phenomenon was spreading throughout the world and it ignited the spark in Quebec. The Canadian Communist League (M-L), later formed into the Workers Communist Party and Gagnon’s party, En Lutte!/In Struggle! came to the fore as Canada’s (primarily composed of Quebec members) contribution to international Marxism-Leninism.
On the Canadian state, the CCL(M-L) proclaimed that the principal contradiction in Canada was between the Canadian working class and the Canadian bourgeoisie. After some debate, In Struggle! also accepted this formulation, although it originally had US imperialism as a force tied to the Canadian bourgeoisie. Based on this construction, both organizations declared that Canada was an imperialist country in its own right.
Also based on class analysis, both organizations developed a similar position on Quebec. They postulated that Quebec was an oppressed nation fighting for the right to self-determination, up to and including secession. However, to maintain the unity of the Canadian and Quebec working class in their fight against the Canadian and Quebec bourgeoisie, the two organizations opposed separation.
With the M-L organizations dominating left politics in Quebec in the 1970’s, the nationalist left retreated along with its fight for “decolonization” of Quebec. The better reference for Quebec for this period in history would be Charles Gagnon’s “For the Proletarian Party” and not Vallières book. Right up to his death in 2005, Gagnon maintained his faith in international Marxist humanism and not bourgeois nationalism that is so evident in Quebec today.
Vallières’ book, even with the offensive title is a good deflection of the principal contradiction in Canada and Quebec. It is a mild diversion of the struggle of Quebec workers against an obscured exploiter and by conflating the struggle of the African American struggle for equal rights and against brutal racism. This can only leave the young student confused when it comes to Quebec, but isn’t this what history education is about?
William Ging Wee Dere is the author of the award-winning “Being Chinese in Canada, The Struggle for Identity, Redress and Belonging.” (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019). He was a political organizer and a leading activist in the 2-decade movement for redress of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act.
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