On the left, a “convergence of struggles” between working-class neighborhoods and social and environmental causes is beginning to materialize after the death of Nahel M., killed by a police officer in Nanterre during a traffic stop. After a week of urban riots in several cities across the country, some 90 organizations, including trade unions (CGT, Solidaires), political parties (La France Insoumise, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste), associations (Human Rights League, Amnesty) and neighborhood collectives, have signed a joint text to express “mourning” and “anger” and denounce “decades of discriminatory and securitarian public policies.”
Céline Verzeletti, confederal secretary of the CGT union, said it was a question of speaking out against “the right and the extreme right,” and making demands that go beyond “the government’s security responses.” The CGT is one of the five organizations behind the text, alongside Attac, SOS-Racisme, FSU and Solidaires. The document makes no mention of urban riots, vandals or looters, but rather of “revolts” that have their roots in the “abandonment of the populations” of working-class neighborhoods, penalized by “social inequalities” and “inflation.”
You have 77.34% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
