Conflicto social

Manifestation à Téhéran consécutive à la mort en détention de Mahsa Amini, le 21 septembre 2022. — © AFP

MundoOriente Próximo,

Le soulèvement qui a suivi le meurtre de Mahsa Amini est, par bien des aspects, sans précédent et marque un véritable réveil de la société civile: il transcende les classes sociales, s’étend à tous les territoires et prend pour cible toute l’idéologie de la République islamique. S’il s’inscrit dans la continuité des mobilisations précédentes, il dépasse toutes ces dernières et synthétise tous les mécontentements sous-jacents depuis 1979.

Quelques semaines après le meurtre de Mahsa, les manifestations se sont généralisées à tout le territoire. Plus de 150 villes ont connu des protestations. Mahsa a été tuée à Téhéran, mais c’est dans toutes les régions que des portraits des ayatollahs et des généraux des Gardiens de la révolution ont été brûlés.…  Seguir leyendo »

Por fin decir la verdad

EuropaUnión Europea,

Francia parece haber salido del infierno. Desde hace unas noches, la calma ha vuelto. Ante el horror que nos embargó a todos, la tentación de pasar página sin hacernos más preguntas es grande. Esto volvería a hacer rimar alivio con renuncia.

Las comparecencias inmediatas y las severas sentencias dictadas por la justicia son ciertamente una primera respuesta, pero insuficiente frente a semejante historial. En seis días, más de 700 miembros de los cuerpos de seguridad y 30 bomberos resultaron heridos, más de 250 locales policiales fueron atacados, cerca de 12.000 vehículos, quemados y 2.500 edificios, incendiados o destrozados. Cientos de negocios han sido saqueados o destruidos.…  Seguir leyendo »

Los manifestantes huyen de la policía durante protestas el pasado 2 de julio en París.LUDOVIC MARIN (AFP)

EuropaUnión Europea,

La rabia (la colère) se adueña de nuevo de los barrios de Francia tras la muerte de Nahel, un joven de 17 años fallecido de un tiro en el pecho por un policía. La destrucción de comisarías, ayuntamientos, escuelas, comercios y —algo novedoso esta vez— el ataque a las fuerzas del orden con pirotecnia se repite cada noche desde hace seis días. Mientras, varias concentraciones tratan de canalizar la furia juvenil y una gran manifestación ha llegado a reunir a más de 800.000 personas en Nantèrre, ciudad donde vivía el joven con su madre.

La revuelta protagonizada por la juventud de origen postcolonial es un fenómeno social en el sentido durkhemiano del término.…  Seguir leyendo »

Des jeunes fuient devant la police lors d'affrontements à Nanterre, le 2 juillet 2023. — © LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

EuropaUnión Europea,

Masquer les blessures, c’est l’urgence. Réparer, reconstruire au plus vite ce qui a été endommagé ou détruit, et juger à la chaîne les écervelés qui ont mis, en cinq jours, des bouts de France à sac. Le pays est sonné. En même temps, tous deviennent juges, pour trouver dans l’immédiat des responsables, des causes, des fautes. Un côté dénonce la police, et sa gâchette légalement facile contre les désobéissants à peau bistre ou foncée; l’autre côté prend la défense des hommes casqués contre ces voyous «issus de l’immigration». Les uns voient venir le mal de la misère des «quartiers», les autres de ces quartiers de misère aux mains de gangs qui intoxiquent la France.…  Seguir leyendo »

Une voiture de police passe devant un véhicule qui a été incendié. Bondy, 3 juillet 2023. — © NACHO DOCE / REUTERS

Europa,

Après un épisode comme celui que vient de connaître la France, il est inévitable de voir fleurir les tribunes qui confondent à peu près tout et nient le réel au profit de postures idéologiques avantageuses. Aucun nectar n’est plus doux pour les esprits qui adorent donner des leçons aux forces de l’ordre et aux Etats. Certes, juger du haut d’une majestueuse incompétence sur les sujets de sécurité intérieure est devenu un sport international et l’Hexagone fait figure de cible idéale pour les plumes paresseuses et vindicatives, confortablement à l’abri derrière un écran, dans un bureau impeccablement étanche aux fractures du monde.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

«Señor ministro, he leído su libro sobre la juventud. En trescientas páginas ni una palabra sobre los problemas sexuales de los jóvenes». Quien habla es el estudiante Daniel Cohn-Bendit. El ministro acusado de esa imperdonable omisión se llama François Missoffe, es francés, dirige la cartera de Juventud y Deporte y acaba de publicar el informe 'Livre Blanc sur la jeunesse'. Ese reproche se produjo durante el acto de inauguración de la piscina del campus universitario de Nanterre frente a decenas de estudiantes indignados. Era el 8 de enero de 1968 y nadie podía imaginar que, tras ese anecdótico accidente, en los meses siguientes aumentarían y se radicalizarían las acciones de protesta contra las autoridades.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters in Paris following the death of 17-year-old Nahel, 29 June 2023. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

As of this week, a crowdfunding campaign set up by the French far right in support of the police officer who shot and killed Nahel M, a 17-year-old from Nanterre, has now surpassed €1.4m. Around the same time that Nahel’s killer’s fund passed the €1m mark, it was reported that at least 120 young people who had been arrested in the unrest unleashed by his death had already been sent to prison.

So far, this “swift, firm and systematic judicial response” to the riots, as demanded by the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, has been the only real response by the government to the unrest that has swept across French cities.…  Seguir leyendo »

Une boutique détruite à Montreuil, après une nuit d'émeutes. 1er juillet 2023. — © JULIEN MATTIA / keystone-sda.ch

EuropaUnión Europea,

Où va la France? Demandai-je le 8 mai, dans Le Temps.Aujourd’hui, on le sait mieux. Vers l’explosion sociale, vers son inévitable répression policière puisque la fermeture des canaux démocratiques contraint la protestation à la violence émeutière, et vers l’instauration d’un régime paresseusement qualifié d’«illibéral» (c’est le sociologue du politique qui écrit, peu convaincu par cette notion valise qui pourtant fait florès).

Reprenons les faits. La France brûle. Pour un homme qui se faisait fort de l’apaiser et clignait de l’œil à la banlieue lors de sa première campagne électorale, le constat est amer. Il vient après le mouvement des Gilets jaunes et une succession de mouvements sociaux de grande intensité.…  Seguir leyendo »

Los bomberos apagan una barricada incendiada durante los disturbios en París.Europa Press/Contacto/Telmo Pinto (Europa Press/Contacto/Telmo Pint)

EuropaUnión Europea,

Nahel, de 17 años, es la decimoséptima persona muerta por disparos de un agente de policía francés por “negarse a obedecer” en los últimos 18 meses. Le dispararon a quemarropa y sin que aparentemente el agente que abrió fuego alegara defensa propia. Un vídeo de la escena se hizo inmediatamente viral en las redes sociales y en los medios de comunicación, desatando la indignación y la ira. Los responsables del gobierno, habitualmente rápidos en defender a las fuerzas del orden, condenaron inmediatamente un acto “inexcusable”. Y los tribunales dictaron inmediatamente prisión preventiva para el autor. Pero esto no ha bastado para restablecer la calma.…  Seguir leyendo »

Officers stand guard during riots in Lille, France, on Friday after the death of Nahel, a teenager killed by a French police officer in Nanterre during a traffic stop. (Nacho Doce/Reuters)

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

In the sprawling housing projects that ring many French cities, heavily populated by working-class minorities, the rage is rarely far from the surface. Often, for good reason, it is directed at the police.

That simmering fury erupted in waves of violence in suburbs and cities across France this week after police shot to death a 17-year-old named Nahel M., from a family of North African origin, in a town just west of Paris. Video of the incident, which went viral almost instantly, showed a policeman opening fire as the boy started to pull away from two motorcycle officers who had stopped his car.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters clash with police on Friday, following the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old teenager killed by a French police officer during a traffic stop, in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

On Tuesday morning in a suburb west of Paris, a 17-year old French driver of Algerian descent was shot dead at point-blank range by a police officer for failing to comply during a traffic stop.

The incident has sparked three nights of rioting across France, with some 40,000 police officers deploying overnight Thursday into Friday morning and hundreds of people arrested. The officer has been detained and charged with voluntary homicide.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that the killing of the boy, named as Nahel, was “inexplicable and inexcusable”. That it was inexcusable was beyond doubt, as was evident in the video of the tragedy.…  Seguir leyendo »

France Is on Fire

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

“I’m a fully-grown adult, but my mother still seems nervous whenever I leave the house”, Djigui, one of the thousands of protesters who took to the streets on Thursday afternoon in Nanterre, a working-class suburb of Paris, told me. “I can hear the crack in her voice when she checks to make sure I have my ID card or just says, ‘Watch out.’”

In Nanterre, on Tuesday, this concern turned out to be a matter of life and death. Nahel M., a 17-year-old male of Moroccan and Algerian descent, was fatally shot by a police officer at a traffic stop, setting off a countrywide revolt over police violence and racism.…  Seguir leyendo »

Un grupo de jóvenes observa los neumáticos incendiados que bloquean una calle en Burdeos, la noche del pasado jueves.PHILIPPE LOPEZ (AFP)

EuropaUnión Europea,

El asesinato de Nahel a manos de dos policías y el clima de rebelión que se está generalizando en los suburbios de casi todas las grandes urbes francesas ponen en evidencia, una vez más, la gravedad de la situación social e identitaria en Francia. Lo ocurrido es muy significativo de la creciente distancia entre el Estado y una parte importante de la población, sobre todo joven, en estos barrios de relegación social, del odio a flor de piel entre la incesante presencia policial y los ciudadanos excluidos, de la fragmentación social-identitaria, pese a las inversiones masivas desplegadas estos últimos años por el Estado.…  Seguir leyendo »

Emmanuel Macron walks through the Galerie des Bustes at the palace of Versailles in 2017. Photograph: Étienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

The Communist trade unions, the far left and a ragtag group of provocateurs had warned that they would do anything to disrupt King Charles’s three-day state visit to France. According to intelligence service reports leaked to Le Parisien, they were actively planning action in Versailles and Bordeaux during Charles and Camilla’s visit.

In the end, their threats were taken seriously. Besides, the 4,000 policemen and women dedicated to the royal event could be of urgent use elsewhere. To the relief of the masters of protocol and the diplomats, and of an overwhelming majority of the French people – who would have been mortified if their guests of honour had been inconvenienced in any way – President Emmanuel Macron decided to spare the king the very French drama playing out in our streets.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

As a native of France who has lived in America for many years, I never fail to be shocked at the sight of older workers packing groceries at the supermarket. It suggests to me a deplorable lack of social supports that could allow aged people to enjoy a dignified retirement.

While it’s true that some people choose to work past retirement, most of us in this country, at some point or the other, have seen elderly people hard at work in occupations that people many years younger would find taxing.

And yet, many Americans somehow seem to be puzzled by the recent protests over retirement benefits that are roiling the country of my birth.…  Seguir leyendo »

Striking workers at a demonstration on Wednesday. Eric Gaillard/Reuters

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

“This government just does not listen to us”, said Renald, a 50-year-old electrical mechanic at the Port of Marseille, as his co-workers assembled a barricade this week on the route leading to a fuel depot. “There’s a deep anger here”.

That anger is unlikely to have been assuaged by President Emmanuel Macron’s televised interview on Wednesday. Breaking his near silence on the pension overhaul that has plunged France into strikes and protests, he defended the legislation as an economic necessity. A no-confidence vote that he narrowly survived in the National Assembly on Monday has clearly done little to instill penitence. Against the people — a majority of whom oppose the overhaul, which would raise the retirement age by two years, to 64 — the president is doubling down.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea, ,

An American visitor to Paris emailed me after her stroll Thursday night: “I was walking home from dinner in rue du Cirque when I saw the cars on fire. At Rue Royale, they were hurling tear gas. To get to my hotel in the Rue des Capucines, the street was on fire from both ends! Is Paris burning? In my street YES!! Now in my room I can smell smoke”.

France is burning — Paris particularly, the city that is already gearing up to host next year’s Summer Olympics. And the nation’s hitherto Teflon president appears caught in the middle of a host of competing political currents and the nation’s fiscal realities.…  Seguir leyendo »

Why Inclusion Matters for Myanmar’s Resistance

MundoAsia,

“You’ve messed with the wrong generation”.

In the days after Myanmar’s military staged a coup in February 2021, sparking mass protests across the country, this became a regular refrain for those opposing the military takeover, appearing on banners, placards and social media posts. Younger people – Generation Z and millennials – were the main driving force behind popular opposition to the power grab, not only on the streets but also within the Civil Disobedience Movement and online. They orchestrated boycotts of military-linked goods, launched fundraising drives for anti-coup activities, and organized “social punishment” campaigns aimed at pressuring individuals to cut ties with the regime.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protestas contra el gobierno de Dina Boluarte en Lima (Perú) el 19 de enero de 2023. Shutterstock / Joseph Moreno M

MundoAmérica, ,

Durante los últimos días, Perú ha observado la profundización de las tensiones sociales debido a la obstinada postura del gobierno de Dina Boluarte frente a las demandas de la ciudadanía.

Si bien parecía que la nación había logrado superar la oleada de tensiones sociales que enfrentaron diferentes países latinoamericanos en los últimos años, los eventos actuales en Perú después del fallido autogolpe de Estado por parte de Pedro Castillo reflejan que el país no es inmune a tales tumultos.

Las principales demandas de los manifestantes no son diferentes a las de Chile, Ecuador o Colombia en años recientes. Demandas por una representación mucho más amplia y participativa.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, , ,

“Dad, my sentence is death”, Mohammad Mehdi Karami informed his father in a phone call from prison last month. Then, last Saturday, the 21-year-old karate champion was executed by the Iranian regime. Karami, an Iranian Kurd, was hanged on the same day as Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, a volunteer children’s coach who was just 20. Both were accused of killing a member of the Basij paramilitary force. In the phone call, the younger Karami reportedly told his father he was tortured into making a false confession. All 16 accused in that case have denied the charges.

Their deaths add to the growing number of young protesters killed since Iranians took to the streets almost four months ago in women-led demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.…  Seguir leyendo »