Conflicto social

Un policía se abre paso entre los furgones y el fuego provocado por los ultras.Samuel Sanchez

El activismo insurreccional con ribetes predemocráticos que asedió las sedes del PSOE en España y en particular en la calle de Ferraz de Madrid no es hijo de un malestar social o de una tensión política alimentada por la negociación de una amnistía. Es al revés: la negociación de una ley de amnistía por parte del PSOE con Puigdemont es el pretexto último y óptimo para que la escenificación de una calle al borde del estallido social traslade el mensaje de que España está hundiéndose en una crisis institucional insoportable. Vox es el agitador callejero y sin complejos de unas movilizaciones que buscan contagiar la sensación de caos con un culpable directo, “el dictador” Sánchez, como rezaba una de las pancartas de la noche del martes de la ultraderecha.…  Seguir leyendo »

A man opposing the government of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo faces the police during a demonstration to demand his resignation in Lima, on November 5, 2022.

In December, Peruvian soldiers opened fire on anti-government protesters in Ayacucho, killing 10. They were among at least 49 demonstrators—largely Indigenous, rural, and unarmed—killed by Peru’s security services in the tumultuous months following former President Pedro Castillo’s impeachment and arrest last year.

The crackdowns overseen by President Dina Boluarte have drawn international condemnation. An investigation by Human Rights Watch identified cases of “extrajudicial or arbitrary killings” and other “egregious abuses”. A report by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the “disproportionate, indiscriminate, and lethal use of force”. But Peru’s government downplayed the allegations, and it appears unlikely to hold anyone accountable.…  Seguir leyendo »

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

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

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)

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

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

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 »

«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

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

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)

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)

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

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

“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)

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

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 »

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

“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 »

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

“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 »