2023-07-05 21:18:41
A contained anger. Since June 27, the day of the death of young Nahel, 17, killed by a policeman after refusing to comply in Nanterre, the suburbs have been set ablaze, riots have broken out in the four corners of France, stores have been looted, schools burned, public buildings ransacked. But so far, the anger of the suburbs and its discriminated inhabitants has not been transformed into political combat, nor social mobilization.
“There is no longer any will to demonstrate,” says Rokhaya Diallo, feminist and anti-racist activist. For what ? “I remember the demonstration by the Adama committee in 2020, which was historic, but which did not give rise to any political response”, explains the director. As a result, according to the latter, young people in the suburbs no longer believe in the “ability of the demonstration to introduce political consequences”. “Young people don’t demonstrate because in fact it’s useless. Assa Traoré has been demonstrating every year since 2016. Opposite, there is no reaction. We didn’t get along. It’s a bit sad but the classic mobilizations don’t really have political consequences. »
No French Black Lives Matter movement
To succeed in creating this famous protest movement, it would be necessary to gather a large support from the population. A very complicated mission according to Michel Wieviorka, sociologist. “Today’s debate is repression and police violence on the one hand, riot violence on the other. On these topics, the ability to build a broad movement is weak. There are no longer questions such as: ”Are the police racist and violent or, on the contrary, are the police doing their job?” in the public debate. There is no space for movement”, explains the researcher.
And why did the French not launch a great anti-racist movement like the Black Lives Matter born in the United States in 2020 after the death of George Floyd? “The big difference is that there, there is no doubt that there is a problem of racism quite deeply rooted in society. However, in France, it is a subject that is still being debated, ”said Rokhaya Diallo. “In France, we have a whole discourse of people who will tell you: ‘Listen, we have decolonized. We have abolished slavery. So, now that’s enough, don’t talk to us about racism any more'”, adds Dominique Soppo , president of SOS Racisme.
In 2020 and 2021, large anti-racist mobilizations were organized after the death of George Floyd, a black American killed by a white police officer. – Brian Feinzimer/Sipa USA/SIPA
“For me, the first difficulty faced with this absence of a mass movement is this denial of racism. It’s been a week that I answer many questions in the international media, I mention these questions of structural racism. There, the listening is rather attentive. The day before yesterday, I spoke on RTL about structural racism in France. As a result, I was cyberstalked and insulted all day. There is a clear refusal to hear any mention of French racism, ”underlines Rokhaya Diallo.
“Citizen marches” organized this Saturday
And then, the absence of the young people concerned by this violence during the organized marches prevents the movements from gaining height. “A union, for example, can obviously be sensitive to discrimination and racism. But I don’t see him taking the leadership of a movement, a social movement on suburban issues without the inhabitants of these neighborhoods. That’s not his role,” adds sociologist Michel Wieviorka. “It can only work if it comes from the main stakeholders who are exposed to this violence,” adds Rokhaya Diallo.
While waiting for the hope of a large-scale movement, like the large rallies for equality and against racism in 1983, called the “march of the Beurs”, 90 left-wing organizations are calling this Saturday for “citizen marches to express “mourning and anger” and denounce policies deemed “discriminatory” against working-class neighborhoods. Too late ? “No, I don’t think it’s too late to mobilize,” defends Dominique Soppo. “We were shaken up by this news, confesses Patrick Baudouin, president of the League for Human Rights (LDH), but it was predictable. We knew that it would only take an incident like the murder of young Nahel for the fire to ignite. After this tragedy, it would be very inaudible to go on a social demand march. Immediately, there was a claim of anger. »
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