‘One part of France no longer understands the other’

Nov 08, 2023

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ON 27 June 2023, a French policeman undertaking a routine traffic stop in the working-class Parisian suburb of Nanterre, executed Nahel Merzouq, a 17-year-old of Algerian-Moroccan background, at point-blank range.

This incident ignited a wave of protests and urban rioting in Paris and several other French cities with a ferocity unprecedented even by comparison with similar large-scale disturbances over the last 20 years or so (in 2005, 2009, and 2017), leaving the country teetering on the edge of a state of emergency.

The thrust of the protests was directed at unrestrained police brutality perpetrated against people of colour as well as those hailing from immigrant backgrounds in the suburbs, and the subsequent impunity seemingly enjoyed by the police.

Since the beginning of these disturbances and their subsequent quelling, hundreds of mainly young and disadvantaged people have been arrested, charged, and arraigned before the French courts.

The disturbances took place against a fraught political backdrop and continued unrest in France, with the yellow vests (“gilets jaunes”), trade unions, and progressive organisations protesting against sky-high living costs, pension reforms, and the unchecked application of neoliberal economic policies by President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

Adding further fuel to the flames of tension, in the wake of the unrest — during which wanton rioting and looting took place — Macron announced his intention to eliminate state financial aid for the families of those teenagers found to have participated in the disturbances.

This typically knee-jerk reaction, a cynical move designed to appease wider public opinion in a shocked France rather than address the embedded structural issues behind the latest episode of unrest, was applauded by populists and the far-right.

Meanwhile, Fabien Roussel, the general secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF), stated in an interview with the French media: “If you eliminate these subsidies and social assistance, you will simply add another tragedy to the suffering of the people.”

In light of these important developments, Vincent Boulet, who is responsible for the international section of the PCF, spoke to Navid Shomali, his counterpart from the Tudeh Party of Iran, for a piece published in the latter party’s journal Nameh Mardom (People’s Paper).

Navid Shomali: On the face of it, the roots of the current protests lie in race relations in France and police brutality towards ethnic communities. But are these the underlying reasons or does this wave of protests point to a deeper socioeconomic crisis in France? Has the French policy of assimilating migrants into French society failed?

Vincent Boulet: We don’t analyse revolts in terms of the “racial question.” We do not recognise any “race.” First and foremost, it’s an expression of anger at the violence committed by the police, which reflects both the consequences of the dismantling of policies aimed at working-class neighbourhoods in recent years, as well as pure acts of violence which are also suffered by the inhabitants of working-class neighbourhoods; what’s the point of burning down a sports centre or a library?

Which sections of society are involved in these protests? It’s an explosion of working-class neighbourhoods plagued by social inequality and discrimination, often with a high proportion of young people, even the very young, who see all social prospects slipping away. Added to this are opportunistic phenomena that have no connection whatsoever with social aspirations.

France has been experiencing more frequent and larger protests over the last decades. Is there an organic relationship between past and present social unrest, for example with the yellow vest movement?

It’s difficult to speak of an organic link between the protests themselves. There is likely to be a link between the yellow vests and part of the massive movement over pensions, particularly in small and medium-sized towns. But those involved in the revolts and violence of recent days have participated in neither.

But there is an organic link between the policies that provoked them: neoliberal capitalist policies that have destroyed public services in working-class neighbourhoods and destroyed any prospects for their inhabitants.

How did the mainstream French media report these protests, and how did this shape public opinion as the protests gained momentum?

The media barely mentions the social origins of these revolts and blame the failure of city policy, when the problem is that this city policy has been dismantled by Macron since 2017. But, more broadly, these revolts show the extent of the French crisis: one part of France no longer understands what the other part of the country is going through. Easy and false representations flourish and it is therefore easy for the bourgeoisie and the media to exploit them.

Can you say something about how Macron and his government have managed this crisis and with what effect?

The French crisis has reached an extreme level of gravity. The government responds, as with the yellow vests and the pension movement, with an authoritarian reaction. This is an important difference compared to the urban riots of 2005. Macron’s policy attacks the foundations of the French republic.

The republic is not understood here as the formal regime of the Bonapartist Fifth Republic, but as the aspiration of the French people to live in social progress according to the principles of popular sovereignty. The current period is extremely dangerous for the future of the country.

The far right in France has been getting stronger in recent years. How have they reacted towards the current situation? Are they fanning the flames of this clash against minority communities?

The far right seeks to place itself in a position to take advantage of the situation and reap the fruits of the French crisis. The authoritarianism of the government legitimises it. The French far right promotes ethnic nationalism and looks to recent events to provide evidence for its nauseating theories. It should be added that part of the conservative right seeks to emerge from its own crisis by resuming this type of discourse. The barriers between the right and the extreme right established after 1945 are giving way. This adds to the extreme danger of the situation.

How is the left in France responding to these protests and are left forces collaborating to address the current crisis?

I can provide two answers here. Since 2018, at the initiative of the PCF mayor of a highly populated commune [district] in the Paris region, the “Grigny appeal” has been launched, with other left-wing mayors, and even mayors who are not on the left. This appeal acknowledges the dramatic situation in working-class neighbourhoods and requires a political leap forward.

There is today a part of the left, in particular the political party La France Insoumise, which considers the situation to be revolutionary. It is a mistake. There are no democratic and social demands that emerge from the riots but the violent expression of an impasse, which takes on the appearance of nihilistic acts. The question is how to respond to this confused expression, but the causes of which are both discrimination and the social crisis experienced by working-class neighbourhoods.

How does the PCF interpret these protests? How do you expect events in France to develop in the next 12 months and in what ways will the PCF be able to influence them?

The PCF calls for taking initiatives to bring together the two parts of popular and working-class France which no longer understand each other but whose objective interests can converge. In other words, the question is that of uniting the working class around its common interests.

This is what the PCF calls “national reconciliation for republican equality” around a series of cardinal demands: employment and the future of work; equality for all and the reconstruction of public services; the questioning of the domination of capital over all aspects of our lives; the refoundation of the republic, based on new rights for citizens and workers; the role of France in favour of a Europe and a world of peace and co-operation. Nothing is decided — but time is running out.

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