France: Our country is in mourning and angry (united appeal)
Our country is in mourning and anger. The murder of Nahel, killed by a police officer at point-blank range in Nanterre, has laid bare the effects of decades of discriminatory public and security policies targeting working-class neighborhoods and the youth who grow up there, particularly racialized and precarious people. The escalation of violence is a dead end and must stop. The essentially repressive conception of the police, and the legislative evolution of 2017 on the use of service weapons, aggravate what the population experiences and suffers in terms of discrimination and racist practices.
The tensions between the population and the police come from afar and are part of a history marked by injustice, prejudice, violence, discrimination, sexism... and systemic racism that runs through society as a whole and has not yet been eradicated.
The inhabitants of the neighbourhoods concerned, and especially women, often make up for the shortcomings in terms of public services alone. It is indeed the regression of these, the school, the places of sharing and culture, sports, the post, the administrations etc. and the decline in State support for associations, which have largely contributed to marginalizing these neighbourhoods and entire territories well beyond, particularly in the overseas territories.
The abandonment of these neighborhood populations is aggravated by the economic context of impoverishment, inflation, rising rents, energy prices and the reform of unemployment insurance. Social inequalities particularly affect children and single mothers. This is shown by the revolts that have shaken the working-class neighborhoods in recent days in reaction to the tragedy of Nanterre.
In addition to decades of excesses of a policy of maintaining order, security laws (global security law, separatism law ...) and exceptional measures, we have witnessed in recent days pressure from the government to set up expeditious justice. The imposition of systematic preventive detention with increasingly heavy sentences is not acceptable!
The urgency is not that of repression, which will only strengthen the extreme right and set back rights and freedoms once again.
Lasting appeasement is only possible if the government takes the necessary measures to respond to the urgency of the situation and the demands of the populations concerned.
The UN has repeatedly criticized security policies and institutional problems of racism in France, particularly in law enforcement.
It is discrimination that is a toxic poison that undermines the very idea of equality and sows despair.
The far-right is making it its bed to further divide society. We denounce the call for civil war against working-class neighborhoods and the characterization of people who come from them as "harmful" by police unions.
We condemn the constitution of a fundraiser in support of the policeman who killed Nahel at the initiative of a member of the extreme right and the absence of any action by the government, thus adding fuel to the fire.
Everything has to be rethought and built. We must start from new bases, create spaces for broad discussions and learn from the mistakes of public policies over decades, respecting the histories, backgrounds, cultures and singularities that feed our collective aspiration for equality. It is high time to listen and take into account the demands of the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods and in particular its youth!
The situation requires the government to assume its responsibilities and provide immediate responses to get out of the confrontation:
- Repeal of the 2017 law on the relaxation of the rules on the use of firearms by law enforcement agencies;
- an in-depth reform of the police, their intervention techniques and their armament;
- the replacement of the IGPN by a body independent of the police hierarchy and political power;
- the creation of a service dedicated to discrimination affecting young people within the administrative authority chaired by the Defender of Rights and the strengthening of the means to combat racism, including in the police.
Our trade unions, associations, collectives, committees and political parties are mobilized to maintain public and individual freedoms.
In the immediate future, we call to join all the rallies and marches around these demands, everywhere in the country from Wednesday, July 5, like the march organized by the Truth and Justice Committee for Adama on July 8 in Beaumont-sur-Oise, and that of the National Coordination against police violence on July 15.
We call for citizen marches on Saturday, July 8 throughout the France and overseas territories.
We will build together the follow-up of these mobilizations.
Signatories
Unions:
Confédération générale du travail (General Confederation of Labour); Confédération nationale des travailleurs-Solidarité Ouvrière (National Confederation of Workers-Workers' Solidarity); Fédération Syndicale Étudiante (Student Union Federation); Fédération syndicale unitaire (Unitary Union Federation); Solidaires Étudiant-e-s (Student Solidarity); Syndicat des Avocats de France (Union of France Lawyers); UNEF le syndicat étudiant (UNEF the student union); Union Syndicale Solidaires (Trade Union Solidarity); Union Étudiante (Student Union).
Associations:
350.org; Adelphi'Cité; Amnesty International France; Alternatiba; Alternatiba Paris; Les Amis de la Terre France (Friends of the Earth France); ANV-COP21; ATTAC France; Bagagérue; Conscience; Coudes à Coudes; DAL Droit au Logement (DAL Right to Housing); La Fabrique Décoloniale (The Decolonial Factory); Fédération des Associations de Solidarité avec Tou-te-s les Immigrés-e-s (Federation of Associations of Solidarity with All Immigrants); Fédération Nationale de la Libre Pensée (National Federation of Free Thought); Fédération nationale des maisons des potes (National Federation of Houses of Friends); Femmes Egalité; Fondation Copernic (Copernicus Foundation); Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigré·es (Information and Support Group for Immigrants); Greenpeace France; Jeune Garde Antifasciste (Young Anti-Fascist Guard); Ligue des droits de l’Homme (League of Human Rights); Memorial 98; Observatoire nationale de l’extrême-droite (National Observatory of the Far-Right); Organisation de Solidarité Trans (Trans Solidarity Organization); Planning familial; Réseau d’Actions contre l’Antisémitisme et tous les racismes (Action Network against Antisemitism and All Racism); REVES Jeunes (DREAMS Young); SOS Racisme.
Collectives:
Alliances et Convergences; Assemblée des Gilets Jaunes de Lyon & Environs (Assembly of the Yellow Vests of Lyon & Environs); Colère Légitime (Legitimate Anger); Collective civgTENON; Collectif des Écoles de Marseille (Collective of Marseille Schools); Collectif national pour les Droits des Femmes (National Collective for the Rights of Women); Collectif Nouvelle Vague (New Wave Collective); Collectif Vérité et Justice pour Safyatou, Salif et Ilan (Truth and Justice Collective for Safyatou, Salif and Ilan); Collective des mères isolées (Collective of single mothers); Comité des Soulèvements de la Terre Sud-Essonne (Committee of the Uprisings of the Earth South Essonne); Comité Local de Soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre Aude (Local Committee for the Support of the Uprising of the Earth Aude), Comité Soulèvement Bas-Vivarais (Bas-Vivarais Uprising Committee), Comité les Soulèvements de la Terre Lyon et environs (Committee the Uprisings of the Earth Lyon and surrounds); Comité local de soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre Villefranche (Local Committee for the Support of the Uprisings of the Earth Villefranche), Comité local de soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre Romans-sur-Isère (Local Committee for the Support of the Uprisings of the Earth Romans-sur-Isère); Comité nîmois de soutien aux Soulèvements de la Terre (Nîmes Committee for Support to the Uprisings of the Earth); Comité de soutien à Moussé Blé (Support Committee for Moussé Blé); Comité justice et vérité pour Mahamadou (Justice and Truth Committee for Mahamadou); Comité Les Lichens Ardéchois; Comité Vérité et Justice pour Adama (Truth and Justice Committee for Adama); Coordination des comités pour la défense des quartiers populaires (Coordination of committees for the defense of working-class neighborhoods); Democra'psy, Dernière Rénovation; En Gare; Justice pour Othmane; La Révolution est en marche (The Revolution is underway); Lla Terre se soulève en Corrèze (The Earth rises in Corrèze); Le Peuple Uni (The United People); Les Soulèvements de la Terre - comité Île-de-France (The Earth Uprisings - Île-de-France committee); Les Soulèvements de l'Entre2Mers (33); Lyon en lutte (Lyon in Struggle); Lyon Insurrection; Nîmes Révoltée (Nîmes revolted); Réseau GBM (GBM Network); Rejoignons-nous (Let's join); Collectif du 5 novembre - Noailles en colère (Marseille) (Collective of November 5 - Noailles angry (Marseille)); Syndicat des quartiers populaires de Marseille (Union of working-class neighborhoods of Marseille); Collectif Justice pour Claude Jean-Pierre; Youth for Climate IDF.
Political organizations:
ENSEMBLE! – Mouvement pour une Alternative de Gauche, Écologiste et Solidaire (TOGETHER! – Movement for a Left Alternative, Ecologist and Solidarity); Europe Ecologie Les Verts (Europe Ecologie Les Verts); La France insoumise (Rebellious France); Front Uni des Immigrations et des quartiers populaires (United Front of Immigrations and Popular Neighborhoods); Gauche Ecosocialiste (Ecosocialist Left); Génération.s; Nouveau parti anticapitaliste (New Anti-capitalist Party); Parti Communiste des Ouvriers de France (Communist Party of France Workers); Parti de Gauche (Left Party); Pour une Écologie Populaire et Sociale (For a Popular and Social Ecology); Parti Ouvrier Indépendant (Independent Workers' Party); Réseau Bastille (Bastille Network); Révolution Écologique pour le Vivant (Ecological Revolution for Life); Union communiste libertaire (Libertarian Communist Union).
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