On June 27th at around 8pm police stopped the car of Nahel M, a 17-year-old. Thanks to a video taken at the scene, we know the truth about what followed. One cop said “You are going to get shot in the head.” Another shouted out “Shoot him.” Nahel then attempted to escape and was shot at point blank range. This was a summary execution and had nothing to do with a refusal to comply as the mainstream media made out. A cop arriving at the scene later told a woman to “go back to Africa.”
This is the thirteenth murder carried out by the police since the start of the year. Only five cops out of the thirteen responsible have been indicted, the others were released without further prosecution. This shows the impunity that the French police have. It was strengthened by the 2017 law that allowed cops to use their weapons as they pleased.
The cop who killed Nahel knew that he could do what he liked. As a member of an institution that terrorises the populations in the banlieues (the suburbs of major towns where many ethnic minorities live) both day and night he believed he had carte blanche to shoot down young men. Witness the police unions who congratulated him for having killed Nahel.
The State murders go back a long way. We should remember the police killing of 6 Algerian and one French demonstrator on July 14, 1953 at Place de la Nation in Paris, the State lynchings of Algerian demonstrators in Paris on October 17th 1961, where up to 300 died and many police murders over the last forty years.
The Macron government immediately called for calm, whilst mobilising thousands of cops and gendarmes. On the night of Nahel’s murder, riots broke out in Nanterre and other banlieues, Mantes-la-Jolie, Boulogne-Billancourt, Clichy-sous-Bois, Colombes, Asnières, Montfermeil, and across France at Roubaix, Lille, and Bordeaux. The following day the unrest spread to Neuilly sur Marne, Clamart, Wattrelos, Bagnolet, Montreuil, Saint Denis, Dammarie les Lys, Toulouse, and Marseille. A march was organised for June 29th at Nanterre.
The Macron government was now panicking and stated that they were opening an investigation as to whether the cop had committed “voluntary manslaughter.” This did not deter many from attending the demonstration where 15,000 turned out. When this peaceful demonstration arrived at the Nanterre Préfecture (regional seat of government) the police fired tear gas at the crowd. This triggered further riots which spread through Paris and through many towns in France.
Angry youth set fire to local and national police stations, prefectures, and town halls. Supermarkets were looted. In the end 10 shopping malls, more than 200 supermarkets, 250 tobacco shops and 250 bank outlets were attacked or looted on one night.
Rioting has continued for six consecutive nights from the 27th of June. The Macron government mobilised 45,000 cops and gendarmes and armed vehicles and there have been more than 3,200 arrests.
On 1st July rioting spread to French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland. In Lausanne in Switzerland, a hundred youths gathered and attacked the police with Molotov cocktails. Unrest also broke out in the capital of Belgium, Brussels.
In order to head off the unrest, the cop was arrested, charged with murder, and placed in pre-trial detention. Whether this ends the unrest is unlikely.
What is happening in France reflects the wave of unrest in the USA after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020 and opens up a debate about the nature of the police. This increasingly militarised institution is deeply racist and many cops are members of far-right groups. As in the USA, the call for the abolition of the police is being raised.
The far-right are also using this insurgence to tout their own role as auxiliary defenders of the state, organising patrols and pumping out anti-immigrant rhetoric, describing the riots as the product of multi-culturalism and Islamisation of banlieue youth.
Coupled with the mass mobilisations around pension reforms and the banning of Earth Uprisings, the riots show the increasingly radicalised situation in France, where the possibilities of social revolution are becoming more acute. The Union Communiste Libertaire have taken the following immediate positions:
– assistance in the spreading of anti-repression and security practices amongst the demonstrators, whatever tactic they use in the streets
– assistance spreading safety and street-medic practices
– the bringing of ‘critical support’ to the revolt
– the denouncing of systematic racism and police brutality
– pushing for a self-organised political strike against police brutality and racism
– the building of bridges with the other parts of the population bringing the marginalised white working class (subject of the Yellow Vest uprising) together with the non-white working class youth of the ghetto (subject of this uprising)
– promoting collective self-defence against the fascists and the attacks from the cops
– advocacy of disarming the police and disbanding the most repressive daily units such anti-crime brigades and anti-riot quick brigades (units on bikes, used against social movements).
– in unitary texts, we try to work with other forces, by calling for the withdrawal of recent pro-cop reforms, calling for the dismissal of the Minister of Interior, creating institutional counter-powers to police racism, extending the issue to social and economic inequalities, and the lack of public services.
– given the state of the discussions within the left, we will maintain our own expression to offer a more radical point of view than just “reforming” the police
If the revolt is to be anything more than a momentary explosion of righteous anger, it will need to develop insurgent links, to broaden the uprising into organised revolutionary struggle – a class struggle against the entirety of the capitalist system of misery, oppression and exploitation. This will be a hard fight against not just the obvious agents of repression and their fascist side-kicks, but against those who wish to “democratise” the misery through gestures, meaningless reforms and attempts to use ‘spokespersons’ and community ‘leaders’, secular and religious, to ultimately defend the status quo.
Nights of insurrection in France
On June 27th at around 8pm police stopped the car of Nahel M, a 17-year-old. Thanks to a video taken at the scene, we know the truth about what followed. One cop said “You are going to get shot in the head.” Another shouted out “Shoot him.” Nahel then attempted to escape and was shot at point blank range. This was a summary execution and had nothing to do with a refusal to comply as the mainstream media made out. A cop arriving at the scene later told a woman to “go back to Africa.”
This is the thirteenth murder carried out by the police since the start of the year. Only five cops out of the thirteen responsible have been indicted, the others were released without further prosecution. This shows the impunity that the French police have. It was strengthened by the 2017 law that allowed cops to use their weapons as they pleased.
The cop who killed Nahel knew that he could do what he liked. As a member of an institution that terrorises the populations in the banlieues (the suburbs of major towns where many ethnic minorities live) both day and night he believed he had carte blanche to shoot down young men. Witness the police unions who congratulated him for having killed Nahel.
The State murders go back a long way. We should remember the police killing of 6 Algerian and one French demonstrator on July 14, 1953 at Place de la Nation in Paris, the State lynchings of Algerian demonstrators in Paris on October 17th 1961, where up to 300 died and many police murders over the last forty years.
The Macron government immediately called for calm, whilst mobilising thousands of cops and gendarmes. On the night of Nahel’s murder, riots broke out in Nanterre and other banlieues, Mantes-la-Jolie, Boulogne-Billancourt, Clichy-sous-Bois, Colombes, Asnières, Montfermeil, and across France at Roubaix, Lille, and Bordeaux. The following day the unrest spread to Neuilly sur Marne, Clamart, Wattrelos, Bagnolet, Montreuil, Saint Denis, Dammarie les Lys, Toulouse, and Marseille. A march was organised for June 29th at Nanterre.
The Macron government was now panicking and stated that they were opening an investigation as to whether the cop had committed “voluntary manslaughter.” This did not deter many from attending the demonstration where 15,000 turned out. When this peaceful demonstration arrived at the Nanterre Préfecture (regional seat of government) the police fired tear gas at the crowd. This triggered further riots which spread through Paris and through many towns in France.
Angry youth set fire to local and national police stations, prefectures, and town halls. Supermarkets were looted. In the end 10 shopping malls, more than 200 supermarkets, 250 tobacco shops and 250 bank outlets were attacked or looted on one night.
Rioting has continued for six consecutive nights from the 27th of June. The Macron government mobilised 45,000 cops and gendarmes and armed vehicles and there have been more than 3,200 arrests.
On 1st July rioting spread to French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland. In Lausanne in Switzerland, a hundred youths gathered and attacked the police with Molotov cocktails. Unrest also broke out in the capital of Belgium, Brussels.
In order to head off the unrest, the cop was arrested, charged with murder, and placed in pre-trial detention. Whether this ends the unrest is unlikely.
What is happening in France reflects the wave of unrest in the USA after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020 and opens up a debate about the nature of the police. This increasingly militarised institution is deeply racist and many cops are members of far-right groups. As in the USA, the call for the abolition of the police is being raised.
The far-right are also using this insurgence to tout their own role as auxiliary defenders of the state, organising patrols and pumping out anti-immigrant rhetoric, describing the riots as the product of multi-culturalism and Islamisation of banlieue youth.
Coupled with the mass mobilisations around pension reforms and the banning of Earth Uprisings, the riots show the increasingly radicalised situation in France, where the possibilities of social revolution are becoming more acute. The Union Communiste Libertaire have taken the following immediate positions:
– assistance in the spreading of anti-repression and security practices amongst the demonstrators, whatever tactic they use in the streets
– assistance spreading safety and street-medic practices
– the bringing of ‘critical support’ to the revolt
– the denouncing of systematic racism and police brutality
– pushing for a self-organised political strike against police brutality and racism
– the building of bridges with the other parts of the population bringing the marginalised white working class (subject of the Yellow Vest uprising) together with the non-white working class youth of the ghetto (subject of this uprising)
– promoting collective self-defence against the fascists and the attacks from the cops
– advocacy of disarming the police and disbanding the most repressive daily units such anti-crime brigades and anti-riot quick brigades (units on bikes, used against social movements).
– in unitary texts, we try to work with other forces, by calling for the withdrawal of recent pro-cop reforms, calling for the dismissal of the Minister of Interior, creating institutional counter-powers to police racism, extending the issue to social and economic inequalities, and the lack of public services.
– given the state of the discussions within the left, we will maintain our own expression to offer a more radical point of view than just “reforming” the police
If the revolt is to be anything more than a momentary explosion of righteous anger, it will need to develop insurgent links, to broaden the uprising into organised revolutionary struggle – a class struggle against the entirety of the capitalist system of misery, oppression and exploitation. This will be a hard fight against not just the obvious agents of repression and their fascist side-kicks, but against those who wish to “democratise” the misery through gestures, meaningless reforms and attempts to use ‘spokespersons’ and community ‘leaders’, secular and religious, to ultimately defend the status quo.