Notre communiqué du 9 juillet traduit pour les 10 ans de #BlackLivesMatter (avant hier) No more police brutality and institutional racism!
Our last statement translated to mark 10 years of #BLM.

No more police brutality and institutional racism!
Disband the BRAV-M unit !

This Saturday, July 8, the annual march paying tribute to Adama Traoré and the victims of police brutality and racist crime, which is generally organized by the Comité Vérité et Justice pour Adama (Truth and Justice for Adama Committee), was held. But this year, the context was rather particular : a broad spectrum of organizations signed a joint call to join the march ; adding to that is the fact that the march took place less than two weeks after the murder of Nahel in Nanterre by a police officer, and less than a month after that of Alhoussein in Angoulême.

Instead of letting the mourning and anger be expressed through a peaceful, unitary march, the state decided to ban the rally that was to take place in Beaumont-sur-Oise, and to close all train stations providing access to it for the entire day. This can only be understood as yet another case of politically-motivated gag order, in a climate of ongoing tension fueled by the violent repression of revolts in working-class neighborhoods. Therefore, it was decided to make the march leave from Place de la République in order to allow as many people as possible to come and express their grief and anger.

This new meeting was also banned. The state's relentless pursuit of a peaceful rally denouncing racism and state violence opened the door to a new outburst of police brutality against the demonstrators. While the thousand-strong demonstration was proceeding peacefully, the police arrested 2 members of the Truth and Justice for Adama Committee, including Yssoufou, a brother of Adama and Assa Traoré, and Samir, a long-standing working-class neighborhoods activist. The many videos that can be found here and there testify to the undeniable arbitrariness and violence of these arrests.

Following his violent arrest, Yssoufou Traoré had to be rushed to hospital on a stretcher from the police station where he had been taken into custody. Although police custody has now been lifted, Youssouf is still in hospital. Once again, the BRAV-M unit is to blame for this unbearable violence. Need we remind you that the policeman who murdered Nahel was also a former member of the BRAV-M ? The BRAV-M is one of the most violent embodiments of the armed wing of institutional racism. We demand the immediate disbanding of this brigade and that serious measures be taken to ensure the control of its members. We recall the existence of a petition calling for this on the National Assembly website, which had already gotten over 260,000 signatures when it was arbitrarily discarded.

Meanwhile, police were seen quietly escorting far-right demonstrations, as in Paris on July 8 and Chambéry on July 7 and 8, for example ; at the same time, the President of the National Assembly, Macron-aligned Yaël Braun-Pivet, said she believed that "the police are carrying out their mission wonderfully". What mission ? These "double standards" show the consistency of the state's « peacekeeping » policy: it's all about maintaining the systems of domination that oppress the working classes, starting with racism. Will the demonstration in support of the killer policeman, scheduled to take place in Paris in a few days' time, be banned and repressed, or authorized and gently escorted ? The state has chosen sides—and it didn't pick ours.

In such a context, we should be highly worried about that "asylum and immigration" bill, and we are once again relaying the united call against the Darmanin law and « disposable immigration », and calling for rallies against racism and the Darmanin law (scheduled on July 14 at 2pm, Place de la Nation in Paris).

Although Yssoufou and Samir have now been released, the harassment keeps going. As stated in the joint press release issued this morning, we denounce the complaint lodged by the Paris police headquarters against Assa Traoré. We demand that the charges against Assa Traoré and all those who took part in the rally be dropped. Let us remind ourselves that this call for mobilization was widely supported by trade unions, associations and political organizations. The racist and misogynist persecution of Assa Traoré must stop !

At international level, the French state has been singled out for its police forces' handling of demonstrations and displays of racist violence, most notably by official institutions such as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)... The French state's only response to these findings and denunciations has been denial. We should expect nothing from the state but more class and racist violence, which we know will continue to escalate to murder. More than ever, we need to organize at the grassroots level. Popular unity in the face of racism and police brutality !

From now on, the responsibility lies with all of us. We won't let that happen. Let's massively respond to the call of the national coordination against police brutality scheduled on Saturday, July 15, at 3pm, Place de la République in Paris.

Union Communiste Libertaire, July 9, 2023.