Notre tract Justice pour les quartiers populaires ! est traduit : Justice for working-class neighbourhoods!
Find our first press release with annotations to help you understand the French context on blackrosefed.org/ucl-statement…

#HusticePourNahel #DissolutionBravM #JusticeForNahel #DefundThePolice #MassIncarceration #StopKillingUs

Justice for working-class neighbourhoods !

Following the murder of young Nahel by 2 police officers, similar to what happened in 2005 with the death of Zied and Bouna, young people from working-class districts rioted for a whole week.

The intensity of the revolt is a proportional response to this latest killing—one among so many others over the course of the past 20 years. Two weeks before Nahel died, a young man of 19 was shot dead by the police in Angoulême for refusing to comply. His name was Alhoussein. Following the death of Nahel, a 27-year-old man died in Marseille on the night of July 1 to 2, probably from a riot gun fire.

True to itself, the only solution the state provides is a security-oriented, stigmatizing, racist and colonial response.

It is a security-oriented response in that, all in the name of "maintaining public order", the state goes as far as sending the army into the streets: the GIGN, the Gendarmerie's armored cars, the BRI and the RAID units... The police are having a field day in working-class neighbourhoods, without any form of restraint.

Videos of violent arrests, shootings and beatings can already be found all over the social networks. Curfews have been imposed in some cities, social networks are being monitored and censored, and public transport has ground to a halt—as a result, workers from these neighborhoods must find their own way home.

The answer given is also stigmatizing and racist in that the state didn't leave any room for dialogue, instead committing to blaming the parents, stigmatizing the "rioters" who are being portrayed as an uncontrollable, bestial, savage mob that can't be reasoned with : this is all very typical colonial rhetoric. The same can be said of the press release issued by the Alliance Police and UNSA Police police unions, in which they are calling for a full-on ethnicity-based civil war. The communiqué uses words such as "pests", "war", "savage hordes", so as to completely dehumanize them (fortunately, their confederations spoke out against that press release).

The murder of Nahel is either set aside or largely analyzed through the lens of racist logics and condemnation of revolt : the IGPN boasts about having a different interpretation of the words uttered by the police officers on the video, even though it has been viewed by millions. Additionally, according to the media, Nahel's mother isn't convincing enough in the role of the bereaved mother.

Nahel is said to be a repeat offender, and we've been hearing everywhere that he is no "angel". What's even more shocking—if that is even possible—is that the fund in support of the policeman's family has topped the million euro mark. The message behind it is clear : kill a 17-year-old and you'll become a millionaire.

It also comes down to legal repression. The courts have been packed for the past few days. Young people unaware of their rights are appearing in court one after the other, depriving their families of any sleep. Politicians are demanding heavy sentences in line with the Moretti circular, and the courts are exceptionally opening on Sundays to try as many people as possible.

Finally, fascist groups, as in Angers, Chambéry and Lyon, went out to exercise their own twisted vision of "justice", armed with iron bars, benefiting from with the state's total complacency. With the "riot" phase coming to an end, we cannot let the anger die down or remain isolated.

For what has changed since 2005 ? Residents know about racism and are fed up it, they're fed up with violence, discrimination and suffering humiliation at the hands of the police, of course, but also humiliation before the law, humiliation in everyday life: in social services, at school, at work, with the support of exacerbated stigmatization of immigration and Muslims from the media, politicians... The words used, such as "decivilization", at the highest levels of the state, encourage institutional racism. Adding to this is the Séparatisme Act and the license to kill given to the police in 2017. On the social front, inflation is throttling the residents, and since 2017 the only solution the Macron government offered young people from these
neighborhoods is uberization, with racist discrimination optimizing financial precariousness and making people more likely to be subject to it. They are doomed by social misery and all its human consequences : precariousness, unemployment, low wages, the degradation and disappearance of public services, and more
generally that of any sort of collective solidarity. These revolts in the neighborhoods must raise awareness of the responsibility of the state and politicians in reproducing a racist society. While the murder of Nahel by that police officer was primarily an individual act of racism, let's not forget that it was largely permitted by the way our institutions operate.

We call for an open-ended campaign to demand justice for working-class districts, and invite people to either join the protests or organize one.
- We demand justice and truth for all families who lost a loved one to the police, as well as police disarmament and, and, as an immediate measure, the removal of the 2017 article from the Sécurité Globale law. We demand that these crimes be classified as racist crimes.
- We denounce the police for what they are: a racist, colonial institution that is slipping ever further into a fascist drift, one that only exists to ensure class control. In view of the events of the past weeks and months, the first step should be the disbanding of both the BRAV-M and BAC units— something that should have been done years ago.
- We demand the abolition of the Séparatisme law, the regularization of undocumented immigrants, and the end of systemic discrimination and racial hate speech.
- We demand the release of those arrested and amnesty for those convicted for charges connected to the events that took place over the course of the past week.
- We demand to share the national wealth in order to fund the massive redeployment of all public services (housing services, health services, schools, transport, etc.) and the subsequent hiring (under non-precarious conditions) of the residents living in these districts.
- We demand popular control over the prices of basic necessities. The bourgeoisie made more than enough money off working-class neighbourhoods.

Union Communiste Libertaire, July 5, 2023.