The Dominion - Paris

France's Colonial History, Contemporary Conflicts

dru — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:14:37 +0000

A new wave of actions challenges escalating and violent deportation policies

In the early evening outside of Belleville metro in Paris, a crowd gathers for a demonstration demanding citizenship for France's hundreds of thousands of non-status immigrants, locally known as sans papiers (literally "without papers"). As protest chants echo through the Parisian streets, a sound-track to a powerful contemporary social movement is edged into history. Demonstrators embody a critical current of contemporary French politics in this ancient European city.

Protests throughout France have opposed waves of deportations confronting immigrant communities. In 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced an official government target of twenty-five thousand deportations for the year, igniting a storm of state-driven immigration raids across the country.

Intensity of popular opposition to the government-initiated crackdown has spiked in recent months, in response to violence and tragedy. A Chinese woman in the Belleville district of Paris died after plunging from a window as a police unit entered the apartment building; a Russian boy sustained head injuries after falling from a balcony while trying to escape immigration authorities; and a North African man fractured his leg after slipping from a window ledge in the French capital during a police raid.

Immigration is now a deadly issue in France-- in politics and in reality.

Political mobilization against the state-sponsored flood of deportations is spreading throughout the multiple districts or arrondissements of Paris, and throughout the country. French President Sarkozy stated recently that France is "exasperated by uncontrolled immigration." However any basic investigation illustrates that exasperation is limited to conservative sectors within a politically complex society. Many reject contemporary immigration policy.

Profound political networks have emerged in recent years to respond to the crisis of deportations facing the country, including Réseau Éducation Sans Frontières (RESF), a national network rooted within the French public school system, driven by students and teachers fighting for the regularization of non-status students and their families.

"Our focus is to protect families, also to ensure family unification in France, for all families in all situations, including families without papers," explains Armelle Gardien, a teacher at a French Lycée active within RESF. "As teachers it is critical to address the reality of students in our schools [who] have no papers, students and their families who are illegal in France, often living in terrible conditions, so we formed our network to fight for regularization."

Across Paris and throughout the country organizing committees of RESF have formed in schools and communities, sparking a wave of media attention internationally after the network announced plans to shelter sans papiers students in open opposition to government-backed deportation orders.

"Our battle is to fight against current immigration policy across France," says Gardien. "Also we are struggling from community to community, building support within each school for non-status students, attempting to build awareness on the realities facing sans papiers today in France."

Immigration battles in France

On the streets, in the schools and within the major political institutions of the country, political battles around immigration point to the critical importance of the issue. A growing number of street demonstrations have been occurring in Paris in recent months, often lead by sans papiers.

"I reject living a life of fear in France," says Karim Djebloun of 9ème Collectif des Sans-Papiers, at a demonstration in the Belleville district of Paris. Djebloun is a sans papiers originally from Algeria. "Each time entering the metro should I have to fear being captured by police simply because France has refused to grant me or my family French nationality?"

"I am not a criminal, I want to be treated as a full human being," Djebloun says amidst the chanting crowd in Paris. "I am demanding status for myself and all sans papiers in France, immediately."

"Today, I am attending this demonstration openly, speaking to the media because I refuse to live in fear," he continues. "It is only through a struggle on the streets that we can change government policy; all major political change in history began on the streets, even our struggle against the French in Algeria began on the streets."

In late 2007 the French government introduced a DNA testing program targeted at family members of immigrants applying for visas to the country.

Protests were organized across France in opposition to the DNA testing law that eventually passed with a slim majority in the French parliament. DNA testing for foreign nationals attempting to secure visas isn't compulsory under the new law. However, it is feared that visa applicants who don't submit to the test -- taken at their own expense -- will have their applications rejected by France.

Civil liberties groups across France and internationally – including Amnesty International -- condemned the new DNA testing law, an adaptation of existing practices already established in the US, Canada and other western European countries.

Across Africa, deportation policies adopted by successive French governments, which target non-status immigrants, often define political perception of modern day France.

In May 2007, Sarkozy's visit to Mali sparked large protests and widespread local opposition due to new immigration policies in France that have tightened visa requirements, while eliminating an existing law that allowed migrant workers to apply for citizenship after ten years.

"We are indignant about this visit and we honestly think that the arrival of Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy in our country at this time is purely and simply a provocation," explained a Malian member of parliament at the time of Sarkozy's visit. Activists from the Association of Malians Expelled from France organized a sit-in outside Sarkozy's hotel in Bamako, Mali's capital, in protest of French immigration policy.

France: Immigration and colonial history

As a former colonial power throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia, contemporary migration to France can be traced to colonial history.

Diaspora communities throughout the country -- currently facing mass deportations -- find roots in southern nations across the globe struggling with the shadows of colonialism, a historical reality indisputably connected to the economic instability, civil conflict and war driving contemporary migration to France.

"France's current policies towards immigrants echo the colonial past," explains Atman Zerkaoui, from the Mouvement des Indigenes de la République. "In colonial times, in Algeria, we were expected to serve the French empire without question, as workers, as soldiers, while today recent laws passed by the French government basically allowing only professionals or the wealthy into France translates to the state reasserting a colonial ideology, in which people from the colonies exist to serve France, the French economy, while France sets the terms of our relationship unilaterally."

As France has moved in recent years to seal borders and stiffen immigration laws, legal moves have been made with regard to colonial history as well. In 2005, the French parliament passed a controversial law on the teaching of French colonial history in public schools, a law that critics argue attempts to erase from history France's numerous colonial crimes through North Africa, specifically in Algeria.

"School programs are to recognize in particular the positive role of the French presence overseas, especially in North Africa," reads the 2005 law, signed on the 60th anniversary of the 1945 Sétif massacre in Algeria, when French soldiers killed thousands of Algerians after celebrations in reaction to Nazi Germany's defeat turned into a massive Algerian independence rally.

"Roots of xenophobia today in France trace back to the Algerian war," explains David Common, CBC's Europe correspondent based in Paris. "Many people have written on this connection, as at the time of the Algerian war, France had a real shock, a loss of international prestige due to victory of the Algerian independence movement."

"Sarkozy has now said everything but sorry in regards to France's role in Algeria, in the former French colonies," continues David Common, "bringing forward instead the idea that the past is the past, without talking about healing, which is a similar position to Canada saying everything but sorry in regards to the history of residential schools for the First Nations."

Uprisings in the suburbs

Today, France stands at a crossroads of national identity, as history funnels into the contemporary debate on immigration, which in recent decades has redefined the nature of major urban centers in the country.

Deportation stands as only one state-backed difficulty within economically marginalized immigrant quarters across the precarious suburbs of Paris, epicenter of massive confrontations between state security forces and local residents that sparked international headlines in 2005.

"History is separated from the contemporary context, which is exactly what we are fighting to change," explains Sonia Barbacha of the Mouvement des Indigenes de la République. "We are struggling to break free of this colonial history that continues to persist until today."

"In Paris we are experiencing a colonial situation; the urban geography is very similar to the colonial situation in Algeria," says Barbacha. "There is essentially a white city center, while people from the former colonies surround the city center, living in the suburbs; it's a racist geography, which translates at times into social uprising as the world saw in 2005."

France remains a nation on edge. As political turmoil in recent years has defined French politics, from the popular explosions in the Paris suburbs driven by socially marginalized immigrant youth, to the growing grassroots rejection of massive deportations to former French colonies and serious prospects of a severe economic downturn, as a result of growing international economic turmoil, resulting in fewer economics opportunities in the country.

"Compound total social alienation with almost no economic opportunity-- you can begin to understand the situation in the suburbs," Common tells me over coffee in Paris. "Violence is compounded when young French police are sent into the suburbs, within the first few years of their service, arriving in a heavy handed fashion in already volatile suburbs and then the existing social violence, mainly due to poverty, feeds into violence against the police."

History etches deep impressions onto the contemporary French political reality, a history, which like the present, is a battlefield defined by opposing sides of a profound conflict which is best understood in colonial terms.

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Parisian Riots, Take Two

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 03:22:22 +0000

This time, it's elite French students who are rejecting government plans

all photos: Marco Chown Oved

PARIS, FRANCE--It's been less than a month since a state of emergency was called during November's riots. There's trouble in Paris again.

For several consecutive nights, French youth have been gathering in the streets, fighting with police, destroying property and setting fires.

But this time the problem comes not from the impoverished suburban minorities, whom French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy recently called "Rascals," but from the cream of French society: students of the prestigious Sorbonne University.

"In November, we saw suburban youth, frustrated by the fact that they couldn't find a job and seemed to have no future, burning cars in the streets. Now, we see the same sentiments being expressed by university students," said Robert Gaignon, a union representative with the Fédération Syndicale Unitaire (FSU).

The issue this time around is the introduction of the CPE, a new category of employment reserved for those under 26 and promising far fewer guarantees than those accorded to other workers in France's protectionist job market.

The CPE, legislation introduced and hurried through government by France's unelected Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin who was appointed by the President Jacques Chirac, has been met with strong resistance from unions and students alike. Both complain that the CPE provides an easy way for employers to fire young workers during the first two years of employment. This approach differs greatly from the protection offered to France's other workers.

The government justifies the CPE by explaining that it will make it easier for youth to find a job: Employers will not have to worry about being stuck with student workers for the long term, and will thus be less reluctant to hire new workers, the government claims. The students and unions counter that the contract will create a situation of disposable workers, where employers will simply get rid of cheap young employees every two years instead of giving them a raise and taking them on permanently.

"It's governmental permission to exploit the youth, and then throw them away when you're done," Gaignon explained.

The opposition first displayed its force in demonstrations held on March 7 drawing an estimated one million people throughout the country, with 200,000 marching in Paris, as reported by the FSU.

Since then, things have escalated quickly. On March 10, 45 of France's 84 universities were either occupied, or blockaded by striking students.

The marked escalation to violence occurred when the National Police, dressed in riot gear, stormed the administrative offices of the Sorbonne at 3 a.m. on March 11. The office had been occupied by a group of students since the previous afternoon.

The French press showed little sympathy for police in the eviction, which they described as brutally asymmetrical, pitting hundreds of riot police using tear gas indoors against a group of several hundred students sitting on the floor.

De Villepin stood firm during his March 12 television appearance, stating that, "The law, as passed, stands." While he mentioned that he might consider some additional assurances, the CPE itself was not up for negotiation.

When students showed up for class on Monday morning, they found the Sorbonne, along with several other major Parisian universities, closed and blockaded by lines of riot police barring entry. This created a standoff that has gone on day and night, ever since.

Groups of students have gathered outside of the Sorbonne and Jussieu, another major Parisian university, with violent results. Tear gas and mace have been deployed frequently by police, while the city has been forced to remove the metal grilles around the trees lining the streets in the Latin Quarter after they were used to construct barricades and smash store windows.

"It makes no sense. They won't let us find work, and now they won't let us study!" exclaimed Daniel Bureau, a Sorbonne student among the crowd on March 14. "They've forced thousands of angry students into the streets with nothing to do but fight," he added.

Scenes like this are being repeated across France, with large demonstrations occurring in Toulouse, Lille, Lyon and Marseilles.

"It won't stop tonight, or tomorrow. It's not only here, it's everywhere across France. Since they won't let us go to school, we'll fight them in the streets till they listen!" Bureau threatened.

Many faculties and unions stand behind the student protesters. The faculty of the Sorbonne held their own demonstration on March 15, followed by mass student protests across the country--which again turned violent--during the day on March 16.

"The opponents of the CPE grow ever more numerous," read the headline of Le Parisien on March 17, the day before a crowd of 500,000 people demonstrated in Paris, only a week and a half after the last mass demonstrations. This time, however, hundreds remained after the end of the march, burning three cars and smashing store windows before the gendarmes dispersed the crowd with several volleys of tear gas.

Sixty-eight per cent of the French population is now against the CPE, according to a survey published in Le Monde.

"This is not an isolated event. The Villepin/Sarkozy government is set on making its liberal reforms, regardless of what the people think. Chirac was only elected because he was up against [the extreme right-wing] Le Pen in the last election, but he has used the victory to rule with an iron fist. After the first year, there were regional elections that [his party] the UMP lost badly; then there was the European constitution which failed to win popular support; now, after his appointed PM de Villepin sneaks the CPE through the senate, people are rising up. They're tired of telling him that his policies aren't welcome with a ballot box," Gaignon explained.

For the French government, things continue to worsen. Its popularity has dropped 15 per cent in the last two months, according to the Le Monde, with 46 per cent of those surveyed agreeing that it is "too authoritarian."

After November's three weeks of rioting attuned the world's newspaper readers to government indifference, March's student revolt may be worse than a public relations nightmare: the press here are already making comparisons to May 1968, when 10 million workers and students effectively shut down the state for several weeks.

This spring's events mark the first time that the unions have backed a popular student movement since 1968. But this time around, the alliance between workers and students is not fuelled by ideology, but by "précarité" - the insecurity fuelled by increasing unemployment. And this affinity can be extended to a third group: the disillusioned suburban youth, primarily immigrants and first-generation French citizens.

The unions are behind the students "for one simple reason," Gaignon said. "If you introduce an underclass of workers into the job market without the same guarantees given to everyone else, that weakens the working class as a whole."

For their part, a coalition of unions is threatening a general strike slated for March 23; a strike which could cripple the country's economy.

"Their battle is ours," Gaignon stated matter-of-factly.

The government seems to have inadvertently made things worse for themselves. Through their actions, two traditionally disparate groups--the immigrant and français-de-souche youth--have found common ground: the stark reality of facing a hopeless future without employment or adequate income.

"In November, I couldn't believe that people would burn down a school for any reason, but now, faced with my own systematic discrimination, I'm starting to understand," said Bureau.

While the results of this latest round of violence are yet to be seen--they may simply fizzle out as the November riots did--the palpable discontent found in France's youth today will require far-reaching changes before there is any true calm.

Youth are hitting the streets to do battle with police once again, but Marco Chown Oved finds that this time, it's a different crowd

Protest Burn Out

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 19:39:10 +0000

Riots around Paris Continue

In areas where cars are being set alight, incomes are 75% below the national average. photo: Marco Chown Oved

As the smog slowly burns off in the morning heat, life in the Parisian suburb of Sevran attempts to go on as if nothing is happening.

People walk to work, or carry their groceries home, but all vehicle transport has come to a near stand-still. The rapid commuter trains are hours late or non existent; the wide boulevards are packed with bumper to bumper traffic.

These "disturbances" – as they have been dubbed by public officials – are the result of the burnt-out vehicles that litter the streets. They are everywhere, smouldering in the early light, silent, but announcing their presence with the pungent smell of burnt rubber.

Every day for the last week the residents of Sevran, along with dozens of other towns in the district of Seine Saint-Denis, have awoken to find these derelict car carcases after gangs of youth set them ablaze during the night.

"Its like the hurricanes," a young woman, who declined to give her name, commented. She stood outside the train station where passers-by have gathered around the skeletal remains of a bus.

"My American friend called from Florida to ask if I was alright!" she added with a laugh.

"Its incredible! Not the violence so much as the cost of it all," said Ms. Gois, who stopped to join the growing crowd by the bus.

Stopping to gawk, many people pull out their cell phones to take a picture and send it to friends. If one can overlook the similarity it bears to the remains of suicide bombings in Israel, the twisted and blackened bus is truly grotesque, but somehow beautiful.

One man, Mr Cheng, was filming and snapping photos at the same time.

"It's my car. But it's going to be hard to convince the insurance company of that. There's nothing left to identify it" he said of his car that now looked more like a pile of scrap metal.

photo: Marco Chown Oved

Besides the low hum of conversation, there is very little noise. This is not the chaotic scene one would expect mere hours after a riot that destroyed, in this reporter's personal count, six cars, a bus, three transport trucks, and a private theatre school in one night.

That can now be added to the official estimate of the more than 500 burnt vehicles in Siene Saint Denis that the police report. This comes after 9 nights of fires in dumpsters, in buildings and in vehicles. There have even been reports of Molotov cocktails thrown at police.

The spark that ignited this nightly chaos is the deaths of two teenagers by electrocution. Stopped for questioning by police the night of October 27th, the two boys fled into what has been identified by the media as a transformer station, pursued by police. The boys were killed after hopping the fence and coming into contact with a structure within.

The police, predictably, have been tight lipped about the incident. First, they denied any involvement whatsoever, and now they admit to having contact with the youths the same night of the incident.

Now these same police have descended into the affected areas in unprecedented numbers. Officials claim 3000 national police have been deployed in Seine Saint-Denis, but the newspaper Liberation is sceptical, stating in an editorial that there must be many more.

Despite their numbers, any effect they have had has been marginal. Each successive night claims more cars than the last.

"The cops do nothing. They come and stand around. They won't even intervene if they see a fire being set" said Walid Al-Sheikh, a witness of the previous night's violence.

"They're afraid. The kids are faster than them and know the streets better" he added.

This hesitation – the government didn't officially comment until the third day of rioting – is endemic to the depressed areas affected. The police have long stayed away, leaving the suburbs to gangs and criminals.

These suburbs – called banlieus – that ring Paris were built in the 60s and 70s to house the influx of immigrants that ballooned after the independence of former French colonies. Hastily constructed, the concrete high rises and crowded tenements sharply contrast the classical architecture just the other side of the periphery – the road that rings Paris proper.

The periphery is more than a physical barrier, separating economically and racially disparate populations. It's a symbolic barrier too: a sort of French Mason-Dixon line that demarcates the geography of desirability.

Jane Kramer, writing in the New Yorker, explains that these banlieus were originally envisioned as transition neighbourhoods for the newly arrived people – who were in large part of North African origin. Yet more than thirty years later many residents remain in their transitional lodging, transforming these weigh-points into racially and economically depressed prisons.

photo: Marco Chown Oved

Now these first arrivals have produced a second generation of French-born black and Arab residents. This is the demographic that is being blamed for the fires, violence and property destruction that now enters its second week.

Kramer adds that these youths don't share the optimism the older generation had upon arrival; they only see the systematic discrimination that has prevented them from integrating into mainstream French life.

Despite the many special programs the government has implemented in these zones, unemployment stands at 19.6 percent - double the national average - and at more than 30 percent among 21- to 29- year-olds, according to official figures. Even more stark is the fact that here, incomes are 75 percent below the national average.

"Its disgusting, what we're doing to ourselves" said Abdul Mohammed outside his home flanked by half a dozen burnt out cars.

Pointing to one of the wrecks, he explains that, "it belongs to my neighbour. Because it was an old car, he had no insurance. Now, he has no car at all."

"The people here cannot afford to take from each other. If these kids are mad at the police, why aren't they burning police cars?" Mohammed asked.

The disturbances have, without a doubt, caught the attention of the French authorities – and, to their consternation, the attention of the world press as well. But without a clear grievance, any sort of articulated communication to the media, or political representation, the rioters have squandered any opportunity they might have had to start meaningful reforms.

Sympathy for them wears thin. First the police and the French government, and now the media and a growing proportion of the public have rejected the legitimacy of the root causes of this unrest. Their rhetoric is almost universally centered on the restoration of order and the apprehension of those responsible for the destruction.

Al-Sheikh predicts an ugly end. "The army will come. They may shoot, yes. But if that's what it takes to end this madness, then it's worth it."