France: Our country is in mourning and angry (united appeal)

Original is available here

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.

However, nothing can be done without a different sharing of wealth, without fighting against social inequalities. Nothing can be done without the fight against poverty and precariousness, aggravated by climate change, rising rents and charges, and without strengthening public services and popular education. It is these projects that the government should tackle instead of carrying out regressive public policies that pave the way for the far right.

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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France: Joint statement following the demonstrations on Saturday, December 12: 60,000 protesters against liberticidal legislation in France, arbitrary arrests in Paris

Paris, December 13, 2020

Around 60 demonstrations against the proposed "Global Security" bill are still punctuating this weekend throughout France. At least 60,000 people marched on Saturday, December 12. More than 150 cities, from metropolises to smaller towns, have already seen at least one gathering since 28 November, thanks to the associ
ative, trade union and political fabric on which the democratic vitality of this country still rests. We welcome that.

tch(err) {} However, as we feared, the Paris demonstration, although duly declared by a collective of organisations and authorised by the police prefecture, turned into a mousetrap.

Many observers observed on Saturday 12 December in the capital unacceptable excesses linked to a brutal police and military deployment and infringing on the right to demonstrate: mass arrests, unfounded charges causing the procession to break up, detention without legitimate reason beyond the legal deadline, police custody notified to the channel on the basis of misguided criminal offences, refusal to contact the lawyer designated by the detainees ... Once again, both journalists and protesters were targeted. The executive branch has given its determination to stop any challenge.

In Lyon and Caen, similar practices were noted.

Let us make no mistake: the total number of arrests updated live on the Home Secretary's Twitter account too often conceals arbitrary procedures. Testimonies are pouring in and confirm this. The government narrative is based on artificially inflated figures. This manipulation has already been used on May 1, 2018 and during the Yellow Jacket movement.

The power seeks to discourage us, but it will not succeed!

Our organizations are seeing that the offensive against our fundamental freedoms continues. The three decrees of 2 December 2020 extending the possibilities of registering activists and their entourage to minors as well as their health or activities on social networks will be challenged in court. The so-called "Separatism" law represents another wedge against freedoms.

This is unheard of in France. We are slowly but surely sliding towards an authoritarian regime, an illiberal state, a police state. The less legitimate the policies of this government appear, the more it uses repression and stifling freedoms to impose them.



Initial signatory organizations:
Association du cinéma indépendant pour sa diffusion (Acid - Association for the Dissemination of Independent Film) - Association des cinéastes documentaristes (Addoc - Association of Documentary Filmmakers) - ATTAC – Black Robe Brigade - Collectif Kelaouiñ - Club de la presse Occitanie (Occitan Press Club) - Confédération générale du travail (General Confederation of Labour - CGT) - La Quadrature du Net (LQDN – Squaring the Net) - Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH - League for Human Rights) - Politis - Profession : pigiste - Reporters en colère (REC - Profession: Freelancer - Angry Reporters) - Scénaristes de Cinéma Associés (SCA - Associated Film Writers) - Société des personnels de l'Humanité - Société des réalisateurs de Films (SRF - Society of Human Personnel - Society of Film Directors) - Syndicat de la magistrature (Magistrate’s Union)- Syndicat national des journalistes (SNJ - National Union of Journalists) - Syndicat national des journalistes CGT (SNJ-CGT - National Union of Journalists-CGT) - Union syndicale Solidaires -

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France: Call of the National Student Coordination

Original in French available here
6 May 2018
We mobilized from 20 universities, gathered on the 5th and 6th of May at the Faculties on Strike at the University of Nanterre, and reiterate our determination to achieve the withdrawal of the ORE law [which increases selection processes for entrance processes from the current guaranteed entrance for anyone with a 10/20 from the Baccalaureate (BAC) exams], abandonment of the student plan and the roll back the of the government's whole antisocial policy. From the rail reform to the Asylum-Immigration Act, to the increase in the CSG [General Social Contribution - a compulsory payment which helps to fund France's pension system]and the reform of the BAC, Macron, the proud representative of the interests of employers, attacks us on all fronts.

For two weeks, despite the holidays and the arrival of the mid-year exams, thousands of students, in the street and in general assembly, pursue with determination their strike movement. Everywhere, convergence is intensifying with employees, railway workers, hospital workers and high school students, with a view to ending the ongoing pro-employer project. This particularly scares the government because it is this strategy that will allow us to win against a government that seeks to break our social gains for the benefit of a minority.

Faced with the growth of the youth and employee movement, the government is trying to break the student movement by all means, as a stakeholder in interprofessional mobilization. As if the intervention of the CRS in Nancy, Censier or Clignancourt, was not enough, Minister Vidal plays on the anguish provoked by the exams to try to break the strike. Final exams are replaced by online mid-year exams, homework assignments, or relocated to stop mobilization and avoid blockages. The government and the university presidents argue that they standing in defence of the value of the diplomas and the future of the students to justify the holding of the mid-year-exams. But if the strike movement continues in the universities, it is precisely because of the desire of students to defend their conditions of study, save their future working conditions, and to ensure continued access to a degree for all.

In view of the national situation, we reaffirm our determination to continue our mobilization against the ORE law and will not allow the exams to interfere with our commitment. That's why we invite all the teaching-research academics, BIATSS (Librarians, Engineers, Administrators, Technicians, Service and Health staff) and students to take all the forms of action that seem most relevant to them. (10 améliorable (50% pass mark), partial boycott, automatic pass, etc.)

In the event that the examinations are held, we call for the holding of general assemblies at the beginning of the mid-year examinations, as done at Paris-1, to allow students to meet and decide collectively, regarding the holding or not of the examinations. These General Assemblies should thus decide on the score to be applied for all (resulting from the cancellation of the examination). They will also be a means for disrupted universities to maintain collective frameworks for discussion and decision-making as part of the strike.

We applaud and support the choice of the staff gathered in the CNU (National Council of Universities) to go on strike until the withdrawal of the law and to call for the retention of notes.

Anger at this government is expressed in many sectors: in hospitals, the SNCF, the private sector and the universities, among others. This is the response of our social camp against the all-out attacks of employers. The scale of demonstrations in early May has shown, one year after the election of Macron, that young people and employees are determined to inflict a defeat. Thus, we call to amplify the strike and the blockages underway in the universities and to descend massively in the street. We call on students to make May 9, a day of a railway strike, a national date for mobilization and local action coordinated nationally. Already, the trade unions of Education and the National Coordination of the Universities call to mobilize on May 16th, we call the students and high school students to make this date a day of strikes. We will also join the May 22 strike called by the public service, the day of publication of the first results of Parcoursup [the new website which will publish student admission into university].

In the coming weeks, many sectors will take to the streets, especially on May 14 and 15, respectively for the railway and hospital workers. We call on students, where possible, to support these strikes and join them. However, we deplore the scattering of sectoral mobilization dates that push the isolation of our respective struggles. In the face of a government that is attacking us all the time, we are stronger when we take to the streets together, at the same time. That is why we are calling on employees and high school students to join us on May 16 and 22, with the aim of spreading the renewable strike in as many sectors as possible. It is by the total blockage of the economy that this government can be bent.

In order to expand the movement, we seek to actively connect with other sectors in struggle. Thus, we will take part in the general assemblies of railway workers, the gatherings in support of the hospital workers and we will address the striking high school students who will meet for a new National School Coordination, May 26th and 27th in Paris.

We demand:
- the repeal of the ORE law, the abandonment of the Parcoursup system and the maintenance of compensation and catch-up system [a process for determining whether a student who failed to attain a passing average for a unit (due to missing a piece of assessment) can still have the unit count towards their degree].
- a massive investment by the State to meet the needs of the universities, in order to guarantee free, critical and open education for all.
- stop the prosecution of mobilized students, stop police interventions on universities.
-the CNE affirms its unwavering support to all the sectors in struggle and their demands against the anti-social measures of the Macron government: against the cuts to public services, the general precariousness of the world of work and all the racist and xenophobic laws

We warn about the rise of reactionary acts and ideologies and condemn the attacks of fascist militia in the universities, as well as the blocking of the migrants on the border by groups the of extreme right.

We are calling for a next National Student Coordination on May 19th and 20th at Toulouse 2 Le Mirail University. We are particularly interested in universities that have not yet participated in the CNE so that they send delegations to help develop the coordination of the student movement at the national level.

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France: The UNEF condemns police violence at Paris-Nanterre University

CW Police violence

By Angela Lopez
Originally published by Union Nationale des Étudiants de France
(National Union of Students of France - UNEF)
10 April 2018

For several weeks, students and staff at Paris Nanterre University have been mobilized against the so-called Student Orientation and Success Act. In this direction, yesterday morning, the students made the choice as a mode of action to block a number of campus buildings. Following this came a general meeting where the students were able to debate the direction to be given to the movement and the next steps to be taken in protests against the reform of the Students Plan. In response to this, an administrative closure of all the buildings was ordered by the president of the university and denied to allow students to access their course buildings.

The president of Paris-Nanterre University decides to use force against students.

Faced with the mobilization of the students, the president of the University Paris Nanterre made the decision to respond with force and to send onto the campus companies of the CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité - Republican Security Companies). Once on site, the only purpose of the CRS was to dislodge by force the students who were in the social and human sciences buildings. These are students who have been gassed, hit and worse. Many of them have been wounded, one of them seriously. Added to this is the arrest of seven students, even though they did not put up any resistance, among whom is Victor Mendez, a UNEF activist.

It is unacceptable that the response of a university to students' claims to be able to mobilize is a response of force, the police have no place in our universities!

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Angela Lopez is president of l'UNEF in France's Department 31

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Police Attack Occupy Melbourne

This is the first footage I took on my phone at the Occupy Melbourne Protest. The police are starting to push the protest from the intersection of Swanston and Burke Streets. They would keep pushing until we reached Trades Hall. I will be putting some more footage up from the day soon.

Earlier in the day police had violently attacked the camp in city square a making large number of arrests. The eviction has been justified on the basis of the legality, or lack, of camping in public spaces.

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Police attack Joy Mining picket

Lisbeth Latham

MOSS VALE — Police forcibly removed people from a picket line at the Joy Mining heavy machinery manufacturing plant on April 27 to allow the removal of the plant's hydraulics workshop equipment. The picket was established last week by supporters of the workers who were locked out for three months on April 17 after injunctions were taken out by Joy Mining against the Australian Workers Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and Electrical Trades Union.

Until April 27, the police had allowed the union and then the picketers to prevent vehicle access to the plant. It now appears that Joy Mining intends to shift all the machinery off site, and that the police will try to ensure this happens.

The removal of equipment from the site and reports from the AMWU that Joy Mining's parent company, Harnischfeger Industries, has filed for bankruptcy in the United States raises doubts about the workers' continued employment.

The picketers are determined to stop any further equipment being removed and are urging others to join them on the picket line on Vale Road (just off Suttor Road) in Moss Vale. For more information, contact the Wollongong Resistance Centre on (02) 4226 2010.

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Police beat teenagers

By Lisbeth Latham

PERTH — Police are trying to defuse community concern following television news footage of the Tactical Response Group (TRG) kicking and beating people at a birthday party on May 10.

The party, attended by 150 people, was raided after complaints from neighbours about the noise. At 1am, 20 TRG officers arrived in full riot gear. They kicked in the front door and chased party-goers through the house. Footage showed five police standing over a youth on the ground, kicking him and beating him with batons.

In mid-March, police threatened to use Section 54a of the Police Act — which allows for mass arrests — to stop all unruly parties.

An internal investigation has been launched into whether excessive force was used on May 10. However, Superintendent Lamb is reported in the West Australian as saying, "there [was] a bit of swinging but lots of the blows [were] to the limbs, which are quite legal. Overall, I think the police acted quite okay." Premier Richard Court has also defended the police: "I have seen the footage and if someone was throwing bricks at me, I couldn't guarantee what I would do with my legs."

Neighbours' fear for their safety was used as a justification for police brutality. These fears were not based on any actual threat but rather on the belief that the party could get out of hand and lead to violence.

The overwhelmingly negative portrayal of young people and their parties by Perth's media has fuelled such fears. It is ironic that the TV cameras which captured the police violence on May 10 had converged on the party to obtain more footage of "unruly youth".

From Green Left Weekly #318

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