Government lies about the French riots

[Zingu]

Who revolted in Clichy under Bois?

Youth, pareillement that in May 68.

But this time it is not a question of youth coed, but of the most exploited youth, that which in addition to being proletarian daily faces massive and generalized racism.

This youth in rebellion is with the avant-garde of the class struggle in France, it wants that any exchange, it is the expression of total antagonism between the proletariat and capitalism.

The reactionaries try to choke that, they claim that the revolt does not have any bond with the "French company"

There is thus the weapon of racism, in order to divide to reign.

It is the argument of "the Islamization of France", like says it Philippe de Villiers who speaks about "" ethnique civil war", the key word, the cause of all the causes: the bankruptcy of a massive and uncontrolled immigration policy ".

Coldly combined with the ex National Front Jacques Bompard, they went to the Seine Saint-Denis to link and form a "national collective of the elected officials of the Republic against the voting rights from abroad"

The PEN considers him that: "through the agents and the symbols of the State, it is France itself which is attacked, by hordes which the laws known as antiracists should not any more prevent us from indicating like foreign"

Here is the fascistic policy: to divide the masses into distilling racism!

This racist propaganda is also associated the criminalisation of the "dangerous classes"

For the reactionaries it is a question of making believe that the revolt starts from a tradition of gangster to adapt a territory.

It is the unceasingly repeated word, the "territory of the bands", like said it Sarkozy said in Argenteuil, where a stone rain had accomodated it after its remarks on the "rabbles" and the "Karcher."

"the young people exclusively regard their city as their pertaining.

The police force, in their eyes, is only one rival band.

The only fact that it returns in the district seems them an aggression "(the sociologist Sebastien Peyrat in the media)

"There are individuals who consider that it is the occasion to mark a territory while fighting against the police force.

These territories of secession are autorégulent in violence "(Alain Bauer, criminologist and president of the national Observatory of the Delinquency)

This speech aims at "making fear", to give hegemony to the suburban middle class.

It is for that that there are initiatives like that of federation UMP of Seine-Saint-Denis, who launches a petition "Stop violence - the Seine-Saint-Denis claims calms it" diffused with 100.000 specimens.

It is for that that one finds the same speech at the extreme-left of the houses, that which benefits from the trade unions.

The left of the "PCF" and Arlette Laguiller agree: "the principal victims of these violences are the inhabitants of these suburbs" (Arlette Laguiller), "for lack of a political analysis (...) of the young people are sometimes reduced by it to unacceptable aggressions against peace, the safety and the goods of the paid population" (left of the "PCF" - the PRCF).

Arlette Laguiller does not hesitate to say that violence results from the "caïds": "violence with the daily newspaper in these districts is perhaps the fact of hooligans or traffickers.

But of do the hooligans, there always was of it, why find today the support of many the young people?

Why the explosions of violence involve do counters the police force much more small young people than these caïds of district? "

All these legalists say the same thing: "They are not the modest cars and the HLM of the workmen, reprocessed and the unemployed who should be set fire to, it is capitalism" (left "PCF" - the PRCF).

"the wave of revolt and violences which shakes today the popular suburbs and districts causes a major concern among the population" (LCR)

All that is only pretext to reject the fight.

The burnt cars are it in the zone where the young people consider that they can fight, without going in a zone where they could be made stop too easily.

Many cars were burnt in front of the prefectures like certain personal cars of persons in charge for the State (mayors PCF like UMP), of the police stations were attacked (in Aulnay, Antony, etc.) as well as agencies of the post office or a Renault dealer; on several occasions of the shots were drawn against the police force (as in Courneuve), of the journalists were taken with part and their cars set fire to, the shopping centre of Bobigny 2 "was vandalisé", etc.

To diffuse any rascist lies about this being a 'racial issue', its a revolutionary insurrection!

[Enragé]

the only ideology which seems to be behind this "revolutionary insurrection" at the moment is that of radical islam, not marxism.

[drain.you]

Well I hope it is class warfare and not racial. Racial hatred is the worst possible discrimination that I've come across. Class warfare is based in class conflict, class conflict cannot go unresolved, one day we shall have revolution, hopefully France will have it soon.

[Zingu]

Originally posted by NewKindOfS[email protected] 5 2005, 12:43 AM
the only ideology which seems to be behind this "revolutionary insurrection" at the moment is that of radical islam, not marxism.
Thats exactly the image the government is trying to paint.

[Enragé]

could be. But i have seen no evidence that contradicts it.

[Ownthink]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2005, 07:49 PM
could be. But i have seen no evidence that contradicts it.
"Poverty

According to The Guardian, "the unrest has highlighted tensions between wealthy big cities and their grim ghettoised banlieues, home to immigrants from the Maghreb and West Africa who have never been fully integrated into French society and have become an underclass for whom hopelessness and discrimination are normal." The BBC described "discontent among many French youths of North African origin" and discrimination against immigrants, highlighting that "the pressure group SOS Racisme regularly highlights cases of employers discarding applicants with foreign names." [47]"

Two poor minorities were killed being chased by Fascists. Now the poor minorites of the surrounding areas are revolting. Religious? No. Sure, the men may have been Muslim, but this has nothing to do with religious fundamentalism.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Paris_suburb_riots

[drain.you]

Hopefully it is mainly due to class conflict but the fact the two that were killed (Let them rest in peace) were both of a minority ethnic group and a minority religious group in France, means that the riots have gained support from these minority groups aswell as the large working class population.

[Ownthink]

Too bad rioters doused a elderly disabled woman with petrol and set her on fire.

Fuckers. I'd like to murder those bastards.

I don't even think this is class war. Sure, it may be influenced by class and racial tensions in the area, but this is just a bunch of youth setting everything they can see on fire just to "protest" the accidental death of 2 young men. It's not revolution.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13457760,00.html

[drain.you]

Guessing you're aware you've posted that exact message elsewhere Comrade Ownthink?

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2005, 07:43 PM
the only ideology which seems to be behind this "revolutionary insurrection" at the moment is that of radical islam, not marxism.
We must stand with our oppressed comrades fighting the ruling class always. This doesn't mean advocating radical Islam, but it does mean advocating their struggle against oppression.

[violencia.Proletariat]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2005, 10:34 PM
Too bad rioters doused a elderly disabled woman with petrol and set her on fire.

Fuckers. I'd like to murder those bastards.

I don't even think this is class war. Sure, it may be influenced by class and racial tensions in the area, but this is just a bunch of youth setting everything they can see on fire just to "protest" the accidental death of 2 young men. It's not revolution.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13457760,00.html
i cant seem to find this claim on any other major media.

[kingbee]

Two poor minorities were killed being chased by Fascists

some neutral language there. are ALL police facists?

[The Grey Blur]

It's scarily identical to 'La Haine'....it's basically the exact same sequence of events, it's freaking me out...

[*PRC*Kensei]

Finnaly a little spark of revolution in europa :D i can only support the paris youngsters.

Viva la resistance, viva la revolution :ph34r:

[Ownthink]

Yes, I am aware I posted it elsewhere.

And yes, all Police serve to opress and suppress the the population. That's their fucking job. I guess the firing of tear gas into a mosque can be ignored, eh?

[Djehuti]

There is some articles at http://sketchythoughts.blogspot.com/ some of them translated from french.

And those of you who have not seen La Haine, download it now!

[Enragé]

Originally posted by nate+Nov 5 2005, 04:31 AM--> (nate @ Nov 5 2005, 04:31 AM)
[email protected] 4 2005, 10:34 PM
Too bad rioters doused a elderly disabled woman with petrol and set her on fire.

Fuckers. I'd like to murder those bastards.

I don't even think this is class war. Sure, it may be influenced by class and racial tensions in the area, but this is just a bunch of youth setting everything they can see on fire just to "protest" the accidental death of 2 young men. It's not revolution.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13457760,00.html
i cant seem to find this claim on any other major media. [/b]
it was on the news over here too (netherlands)

So far, the riots have been nothing more than the venting of frustration and anger against everything and everyone. The riots are not directed at those who it should be directed against. There is NO sign of any medium or large scale organisation behing the riots, nor any short term goal. So far, all it has been is mostly misdirected anger.

This is not another may 68, this is not a revolution. All this is is the unheard trying to make themselves heard...and mostly in the wrong way (that is..by burning basicly their own shit). There is NO sign of any ideology being behind this, let alone any leftist ideology. This is NOT comparable to 68..at least not yet.

a riot is the language of the unheard
-MLK

[*PRC*Kensei]

Originally posted by NewKindOfSoldier+Nov 5 2005, 05:10 PM--> (NewKindOfSoldier @ Nov 5 2005, 05:10 PM)
Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2005, 04:31 AM

[email protected] 4 2005, 10:34 PM
Too bad rioters doused a elderly disabled woman with petrol and set her on fire.

Fuckers. I'd like to murder those bastards.

I don't even think this is class war. Sure, it may be influenced by class and racial tensions in the area, but this is just a bunch of youth setting everything they can see on fire just to "protest" the accidental death of 2 young men. It's not revolution.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13457760,00.html
i cant seem to find this claim on any other major media.
it was on the news over here too (netherlands)

So far, the riots have been nothing more than the venting of frustration and anger against everything and everyone. The riots are not directed at those who it should be directed against. There is NO sign of any medium or large scale organisation behing the riots, nor any short term goal. So far, all it has been is mostly misdirected anger.

This is not another may 68, this is not a revolution. All this is is the unheard trying to make themselves heard...and mostly in the wrong way (that is..by burning basicly their own shit). There is NO sign of any ideology being behind this, let alone any leftist ideology. This is NOT comparable to 68..at least not yet.

a riot is the language of the unheard
-MLK [/b]
But it's a step in the derection of a "revolutionary situation" we are all hoping for.
a spark of resistance, dosnt mather against what... and if it aint left it certainly aint right, you can see that clearly...

and france DOES have a bad social-net, unlike here in belgium... - thats something good about our society, something socialist where i'm proud of - and it IS somekind of class strugle... just small scale.

[Enragé]

good point.

however belgium isnt that great either
some parts of Liege for example...

[*PRC*Kensei]

well, in belgium you got Flanders & walloon.

Walloon is... less wealthy then flanders, but our social systhem tries to keep em up with eachother.
However belgium politic is a mess, no doubt about that.

Main problem with social security here is that it starts to cost a lot... "we have to work harder to keep it" it seems. And many people are against it. However i think this is something we must fight for to keep it.

i live not so far from liege... real "working poor" neighberhoods their yea... But cant be compared with paris in size. Liege is just an industrial city, it just has a proletatian attitude...

Belgium aint paradice, & the social security systhem isnt perfect, but it's the best in the world. :blush: we are lukky when it comes to that.

[PRC-UTE]

It's possible there's religious undertones to this, definitely some issues of identity, but the underlying tension isn't so much identity as class issues.

[bolshevik butcher]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2005, 12:43 AM
the only ideology which seems to be behind this "revolutionary insurrection" at the moment is that of radical islam, not marxism.
I've seen quite a few pictures of whtie people dinvolved as well. I don't want to sound reacist ehre, but i have seen a significant amount of them, and i dont think there is a huge population of white convert muslims in france.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 4 2005, 06:49 PM
could be. But i have seen no evidence that contradicts it.
I haven't seen any evidence for it, nor do you provide any.

Even French politicians, haven't been going on about Islamic fundamentalism much from what I've seen: the rioters are usually painted as criminal "gangs", not religious fanatics.

And what do the rioters - or better, rebels - have to say? I've seen only one article that addresses this, and I'd say it strengthens the "class war" interpretation.

It's worth posting in full IMO:
'We're not germs or louts. Sarkozy should've said sorry'

Alex Duval Smith in Aulnay-sous-Bois
Sunday November 6, 2005
The Observer

Night falls and the violence can begin. The blue light of a passing police van flashes across the sweat on 17-year-old HB's forehead. 'They're provoking us by driving around like that. We are not going to stop until Sarkozy resigns,' he says.

For five nights in a row, HB and his mates have been battling with riot police on the notorious Mille-Mille housing estate, buried deep in the high-rise suburbs that line the motorway to Charles de Gaulle airport. They have burnt cars, businesses and a school but, really, they want the head of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

'He should go and fuck himself,' says HB, who was born in France of Algerian parents. 'We are not germs. He said he wants to clean us up. He called us louts. He provoked us on television. He should have said sorry for showing us disrespect, but now it is too late.'

HB's views are clear. 'The only way to get the police here is to set fire to something. The fire brigade does not come here without the police, and the police are Sarkozy's men so they are the ones we want to see.'

All the dustbins were burnt long ago. 'Cars make good barricades and they burn nicely, and the cameras like them. How else are we going to get our message across to Sarkozy? It is not as if people like us can just turn up at his office.'

HB, who is at college training to be a chef, claims he likes his estate and the unity he feels between people with Caribbean parents, black Africans, a few people of standard French descent and first, second and third-generation Moroccans and Algerians who have made up the majority of Aulnay-sous-Bois's population for the past 30 years.

The eldest of five, his father came to France at the age of seven and has been employed ever since by the municipality. HB feels a 'tremendous togetherness' at Mille-Mille, but he does not feel 'French'.

Jobs? 'There are a few at the airport and at the Citroën plant, but it's not even worth trying if your name is Mohamed or Abdelaoui.'

A cannabis joint is passed around and HB admits the parallel economy reigns in 'Neuf-Trois' (93, the administrative number of the Seine-Saint-Denis département of which Aulnay is part). 'The police are hypocrites. Many of them - though not the riot police who've been bussed in from the sticks in the past few days - know us. They know there are hash deals and who is doing them. They also know something that Sarkozy has not understood: just because you live on a housing estate doesn't make you a criminal.'

When asked if he considers himself integrated in France, HB claims that is not his aspiration. 'I am not sure what the word means. I am part of Mille-Mille and Seine-Saint-Denis, but I am not part of Sarkozy's France, or even the France of our local mayor whom we never see. At the same time, I realise I am French, because when I visit my parents' village in Algeria that doesn't feel like home either.'
source (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1635375,00.html)

In other word, he's not a French patriot...but he's part of the working class in France. An excellent attitude IMO.

[PRC-UTE]

Good find. There's some good eyewitness reports on indymedia.

[rioters bloc]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2005, 11:43 AM
the only ideology which seems to be behind this "revolutionary insurrection" at the moment is that of radical islam, not marxism.
where do you get this from? just because the majority of rioters are muslim doesn't mean they're inspired by 'radical islam'. and why does their ideology have to be marxist for you to support them? personally, i applaud and support any oppressed group which rises up against their oppressors. in this case the state, in the form of police who teargas womyn's prayer rooms at mosques and call them *****es and whores as they leave (http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/11/827280.shtml).

this is just like the redfern riots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redfern_riots), and the macquarie fields riots (http://www.wombles.org.uk/news/article_2005_10_27_1001.php)
i'm sure i've said this is another thread before: police target people from lower socio-economic backgrounds --> people die as a result --> people from lower socio-economic backgrounds revolt

and i support that 100%

edit: screwed up links

[rioters bloc]

i'm sure some people have read this before, but for those who havent, this is an interesting read:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/11/327207.html

go teh indymedia

[fernando]

Im curious, were the two boys who got electrocuted fleeing from the police because they had commited a crime?

[rioters bloc]

apparently it was a crime to be where they were playing soccer without the 'proper papers'. and as some of them didn't have ID on them they ran.

[*PRC*Kensei]

they where innocent.

[drain.you]

Very true that police target people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and I believe also ethnic minority groups. Look at prison records in the US, theres a unproportional amount of African-Americans in prison.
Why, one of two possibilities:
1) African-Americans commit more crimes than other ehtnic groups RUBBISH
or
2) African-Americans are targetted by police and therefore convicted more often. ALOT MORE LIKELY

Yeah, I'm going off topic a little bit but its not like these riots in France are led by facists or anything, these are oppressed people and like rioters bloc said, we should support this kind of thing even if its theres not a direct link between their ideology and ours.

I heard reports from 'officials' in France a while ago claiming the police were actually on call to a seperate incident and weren't chasing these people, but I doubt that is true.

[rioters bloc]

definitely. ethnic minority groups tend to be of lower socio-economic backgrounds as well, proving once again that race and class as well as gender and sexuality can not be separated.

in 2001 indigenous australians were 21 times more likely to be incarcerated than non-indigenous australians. and the numbers are only increasing.

in 1998 a report done on aboriginal deaths in custody found that 2/3 of aboriginal deaths in jail happened while they were under police custody and hadn't even undergone sentencing yet. they also found that they were 27 times more likely to be taken under police custody.

fucking fucking bigotry.

[drain.you]

Grrr. Makes me angry when capitalists argue that ethnic minorities do more crime because they are poor. Why are they poor in the first place? Because capitalist socieites suppress ethnic minorities into crap jobs and because police focus on ethnic minorities more than anyone else. *has a fit*
Damn the system.

[Enragé]

"Makes me angry when capitalists argue that ethnic minorities do more crime because they are poor."

its true. People commit more crimes if they are poor, its common sense. Get rid of poverty, inequality...and you'll get rid of the majority of crimes committed

[Enragé]

Originally posted by rioters bloc+Nov 6 2005, 06:45 AM--> (rioters bloc @ Nov 6 2005, 06:45 AM)
[email protected] 5 2005, 11:43 AM
the only ideology which seems to be behind this "revolutionary insurrection" at the moment is that of radical islam, not marxism.
where do you get this from? just because the majority of rioters are muslim doesn't mean they're inspired by 'radical islam'. and why does their ideology have to be marxist for you to support them? personally, i applaud and support any oppressed group which rises up against their oppressors. in this case the state, in the form of police who teargas womyn's prayer rooms at mosques and call them *****es and whores as they leave (http://www.indymedia.org/en/2005/11/827280.shtml).

this is just like the redfern riots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redfern_riots), and the macquarie fields riots (http://www.wombles.org.uk/news/article_2005_10_27_1001.php)
i'm sure i've said this is another thread before: police target people from lower socio-economic backgrounds --> people die as a result --> people from lower socio-economic backgrounds revolt

and i support that 100%

edit: screwed up links [/b]
i stand corrected.

I wrote that at an early stage since knowing about the riots, it is clear that its not true. However, no marxist attitude exists either as far as i know.

but
i stand corrected


And im not saying it has to be marxist, its just that the author of this topic claims its class war ok.

[Master Che]

Originally posted by rioters [email protected] 6 2005, 01:35 PM
apparently it was a crime to be where they were playing soccer without the 'proper papers'. and as some of them didn't have ID on them they ran.
WTF? That has got to be the most retarded reason to kill someone that i've heard in my life.

[Enragé]

Originally posted by URSB_Revolution+Nov 6 2005, 05:04 PM--> (URSB_Revolution @ Nov 6 2005, 05:04 PM)
rioters [email protected] 6 2005, 01:35 PM
apparently it was a crime to be where they were playing soccer without the 'proper papers'. and as some of them didn't have ID on them they ran.
WTF? That has got to be the most retarded reason to kill someone that i've heard in my life. [/b]
well over here (netherlands) you have to have an ID on you at all times, and in some places they can ask for it at any time.

I believe thats going to happen in the UK as well.

its bloody fascism.

[farshidbr]

These riots seem to be pretty organized. I think that there must be some kind of a leader or at least a leading group behind this. I think that the people who are behind this do not want to be knows cause they fear the law. Would it not be better if the people who are behind this riots show themselves in the media?
Or do you think that there really are no leaders behind this?

[Correa]

That is the 64 thousand dollar question we all await to be answered. :mellow:

[Djehuti]

I very much doubt there are any leaders directing the riots. Riots are often most coordinated and efficient when there is no leaders directing it. Directed riots is often clumsy, slow and confused. You can't really direct a riots, thats the thing with it. And not on this large scale. Sure there are groups coordinating their attacks et cetera, but there aint no riot generals hanging over some map of france placing out red and black wedges and stars where there is friendly and enemy troops moving or standing. There might be small groups participating in the riots that have directions on what to do, but not the riot as whole.

[Sabocat]

There have been a series of articles on the WSWS.org site regarding the situation. Here is today's commentary.

French government and opposition back intensified repression
By Stephane Hugues
7 November 2005


The anger and frustration of the most oppressed sections of youth that erupted in the form of violent clashes with police in the Paris area last week has now spread to the whole of France. The riots erupted a week ago after police chased youth into an electricity transformer station in Clichy-sous-Bois where two of the youth were electrocuted to death and a third was very seriously injured.

This incident acted as a spark igniting a veritable tinder box of social tensions that have been building up over many years through the neo-liberal policies of successive Left and Right governments. Youth in Clichy-sous-Bois reacted immediately against the police by setting fire to buildings and cars in their neighborhoods. In the following days, youth in surrounding suburbs joined in. Within four or five days, the protests had spread to the entire Paris area and to a number of oppressed suburbs on other areas of the country.

One of the most common manifestations of the confrontations with police has been the burning of cars. In the nights of the previous week, Wednesday saw 150 cars burnt; Thursday: 500 with 80 arrests; Friday 900 cars with more than 200 arrests.

However, last Saturday night, nearly 1,300 cars went up in flames, not to mention numerous public buildings and commercial centers, while police arrested more than 260 youth.

The French press is now reporting incidents in virtually every area of the country. Of the 1,300 cars, more than 540 were set on fire in the provinces. This included Haut-Normandie, 6 cars, Nord-Pas de Calais, 80, Aquitaine, 36, Centre, 33, Pays-de-la-Loire, 38, Bretagne, 30, Lorraine, 25 cars and 5 buses, France-Compté, 20, Rhone Alpes, 10, Midi-Pyrénées, 50, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, 24.

As with the recent riots in Birmingham, England, and Århus, Denmark, and a year ago in Amsterdam, Holland, there has been a systematic campaign both in the French and foreign press to portray the spontaneous outbursts of these oppressed sections of youth as being exclusively a question of immigrants. References to black and Arab youth often with hints of links to terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda have abounded. However, youth of Arab, African and Caribbean origin in France are mainly second- or more likely third-generation immigrants and for all intents and purposes are French.

Furthermore, none of the press refers to the fact that the groups of youth in revolt also comprise not only Arab and black youth but also many poor white youth who share the same oppressed conditions of unemployment and police repression. It is not the youth that are racist, but French employers and the French state that systematically discriminate against Arab and black youth as well as against white youth living in the same depressed suburbs.

That the current revolt takes the backward form of burning and smashing cars and property in these youths’ own neighborhoods expresses the deep frustration and lack of perspective among these most vulnerable layers of the working class.

The Socialist Party (PS) and the French Communist Party (PCF) bear the principal responsibility for the complete alienation of these layers of the youth from society. Not only did past “Governments of the Left” introduce the neo-liberal policies now being continued and intensified by the present government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and his deputy Nicolas Sarkozy, but, as the elected municipal officials in these suburbs, they have overseen the destruction of all the social services in these towns, leaving entire sections of workers and youth to their fate.

There are serious indications that the revolt of the youth in Clichy-sous-Bois was largely aggravated and provoked by the brutal intervention of the paramilitary CRS (Republican Security Companies), gendarmes and police two nights after the deaths of the two youths, Zyad Benna and Bouna Traore (see “Eyewitness to Paris riots charges police with deliberate provocation”).

Sarkozy, the interior minister and head of the police, has spent the last years beefing up police repression and has made a series of provocative visits to poor and oppressed quarters, engaging in hostile confrontations with youth in front of television cameras. Sarkozy has thus openly embraced the politics of anti-immigrant demagogy in an attempt to steal votes and members for his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party away from Jean-Marie Le Pen’s fascist National Front (FN) and Philippe De Villier’s extreme right-wing Movement for France (MPF).

Sarkozy initially came under attack from the Socialist Party and even members of his own party for having provoked the revolt of the youth by his law-and-order campaign of repression. However, as the full extent of the growing revolt has become apparent, there has been a closing of ranks not only within his own party—notably including Sarkozy’s arch-rival Prime Minister de Villepin and President Jacques Chirac—but also on the part of the Socialist Party.

After making a few perfunctory remarks criticising Sarkozy, Jean-Marc Ayrault, president of the Socialist Group in the National Assembly and Mayor of Nantes, said, “We live in a state under the rule of law—burning a car is not an inconsequential act and should be severely punished.” Ex-Socialist Party minister and presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Khan stated, “The number of police in the suburbs has gone down, the groups of police assigned to particular housing estates have been disbanded, efforts at prevention have been canceled and this is the result: more violence than we have ever known.”

The government has ordered the hated CRS into the suburbs, which accounts for the sharp rise in arrests this weekend. On Saturday, the government used seven helicopters to film and target youth for the intervention of the CRS. A number of UMP deputies as well as some chiefs of police have called for the army to be brought in.

Sunday night, President Chirac, emerging from a Council of Security of the Interior meeting declared that “the priority is the reestablishment of security and public order.” Prime Minister de Villepin, coming from the same meeting, said he would announce new measures Monday and vowed that the government “would speed up the trials and sentencing” of the youth in custody. Already, at least 20 youth were sentenced to terms of up to one year in prison last week.

In the course of last week, the French press cited both UMP and opposition politicians who distanced themselves somewhat from Sarkozy and emphasised that in addition to police interventions, some attention must be paid to the social roots of these riots. Now, only 11 days after the death of the two youth in Clichy-sous-Bois, such sentiments have largely vanished, and the government, with the support of the opposition, is preparing full-scale repression of the riots.

Link (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/fran-n07.shtml)

[Severian]

Financial Times (http://http://news.ft.com/cms/s/6c3e51ac-508a-11da-bbd7-0000779e2340.html) - link will probably expire in a day or two, the FT doesn't make its articles available for free for long.


Revolt of youth without religious motivation
By Roula Khalaf and Martin Arnold
Published: November 8 2005 19:36 | Last updated: November 8 2005 19:36

Despite attempts by some French government officials to play up the Muslim background of many of the youth rioting during the past two weeks, community leaders and analysts say the troubles should not be confused with a crisis of religious identity.

“These events and these actions did not come out of mosques,“ says Lhaj Thami Breze, chairman of the Union of French Islamic Organisations, a group that has links with the Muslim Brotherhood, the international Islamist movement.
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“It’s a revolt of youth, of young men, an anti-police and anti-society movement, in a very French tradition of anarchism,“ argues Olivier Roy, French expert on Islamist groups. “It’s an expression of a youth sub-culture, not tied to Islam. And not all the rioters are Muslims.”
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On Sunday, the UFIO issued a fatwa, or religious edict, forbidding “any Muslim seeking divine grace and satisfaction to participate in any action that blindly hits private or public property or could constitute an attack on someone’s life.”
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“We’re not able to reach those who are setting the fires but we’re trying to prevent others from taking part,“ said Mr Breze.
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Mr Breze even defends Mr Sarkozy’s controversial description of the rioters, saying they can indeed be described as “scum“.

So not only are the rioters not "Islamists", but the actual Islamic fundamentalists are opposed to them, calling for calm but unable to "reach" the rioters, and siding with the French state.

[metalero]

Even tough this can be actually a rebellion of exploited inmigrants, it can help spread awareness and conscience to other layers of the proletariat, and it can even lead to revolutionary situations. The roots of racism and exploitation come from French colonialism, and led to the actual material contradictions increased by the capitalist system.
This somehow reminds me of "el caracazo" in Venezuela back in 1989, when violent protests and rioting that began in shanty towns spread to the capital and other towns across the country. The riots — the worst in Venezuelan history — resulted in over 400 deaths, mostly at the hands of security forces. This was the begining of new era in Venezuela, were the exploited masses reacted with anger against neoliberal policies, but also against the false promises of buorguoise rule. Soon, a young bolivarian officer named Hugo Chavez showed-up...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracazo#Lead-up