France: the anger of working-class neighborhoods is legitimate

This unitary appeal was published on the Bondy Blog, Mediapart and Regards in solidarity with the working class neighbourhoods suffering increasing police violence.

During the night of April 19 to 20, several working-class neighbourhoods experienced nights of revolt.

The night before, a man almost lost his leg in Villeneuve-la-Garenne after a violent attempt at police arrest, and that is what set the powder on fire.

The populations living in lower-income neighbourhoods are on the front line in the face of the health crisis: they are among those who work in the “essential sectors “, those who allow our society not to collapse today.

However, social inequalities, already glaring, are reinforced by the management of the coronavirus and will explode with the economic and social crisis to come. This is already demonstrated, among other things, by the particularly high excess mortality in Seine-Saint-Denis since the start of the epidemic.

Racist discrimination, already unbearable, is reinforced by police impunity and violence and humiliation are increasing in working-class neighbourhoods. We can add to it the discriminatory curfew imposed on the inhabitants of these districts by the city of Nice. These glaring injustices are documented, no one can ignore them.

So we say it very clearly: we refuse to put back-to-back the revolts of the populations in the working-class districts and the serious and unacceptable violence exerted by the police.

We do not reverse the responsibilities and we say it just as clearly: these revolts are the expression of a legitimate anger because the police violence does not stop.

Inequalities and discrimination must be vigorously fought and abolished: with the populations of working-class neighbourhoods, we will take part in this just fight for equality, justice and dignity.

April 23, 2020

First signatory organizations:

  • ACORT, Assemblée citoyenne des originaires de Turquie
  • ATTAC, Association pour la taxation des transactions financières et l’action citoyenne
  • ATMF, Association des travailleurs maghrébins de France
  • Brigades de solidarité populaire Île-de-France
  • CCIF, Collectif contre l’islamophobie en France
  • Cedetim, Centre d’études et d’initiatives de solidarité international
  • CGT, Confédération générale du Travail
  • CGT de la Cité nationale de l’Histoire de l’immigration
  • Collectif de la Cabucelle, Marseille
  • Collectif du 5 novembre – Noailles en colère, Marseille
  • Collectif du 10 novembre contre l’islamophobie
  • Comité Adama
  • CNT-SO, Confédération nationale du Travail-Solidarité ouvrière
  • CRLDHT, Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l’homme en Tunisie
  • Ensemble !
  • FASTI, Fédération des Associations de solidarité avec toutes et tous les immigré·es
  • Fédération SUD education
  • Fédération SUD PTT
  • Fédération SUD-Rail
  • Féministes révolutionnaires
  • Femmes égalité
  • Femmes plurielles
  • FO Sauvegarde de l’enfance 93
  • FTCR, Fédération des Tunisiens pour une citoyenneté des deux rives
  • FUIQP, Front uni des immigrations et des quartiers populaires
  • JJR, Juives et juifs révolutionnaires
  • Marche des solidarities
  • Mémoires en marche, Marseille
  • Mouvement La révolution est en marche
  • Mwasi, Collectif Afroféministe
  • NPA, Nouveau parti anticapitaliste
  • Le Paria
  • PCOF, Parti communiste des ouvriers de France
  • PEPS, Pour une écologie populaire et sociale
  • SNPES-PJJ FSU, Syndicat national des personnels de l’éducation et du social PJJ de la FSU
  • SQPM, Syndicat des quartiers populaires de Marseille
  • UCL, Union communiste libertaire
  • Union locale villeneuvoise, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges
  • UJFP, Union juive française pour la paix
  • Union syndicale Solidaires
  • UTAC, Union des Tunisiens pour l’action citoyenne