Riots | antropologi.info

The poetics of revolt

Published on October 27, 2010 by cicilie Posted in Cicilie among the Parisians, Riots

A journalist just phoned and reminded me that the riots in the French suburbs started this day five years ago. [teaserbreak] The 27th of October 2005, two teenagers, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, were burnt to death in a transformer after having been pursued by the police for an identity control. I still remember the very strange TV appearance of the then interior minister Sarkozy, who just hours after their death could state with certainty a lot of things (no police had followed them, they had a criminal record…) without waiting for any inquiry. Then the burning, of cars, schools and public building, started and lasted for three weeks.

I had just cycled through the rain from the kindergarten, under an incredibly dark and low autumn sky, and I was very far away from revolt and poetry that the journalist on the phone wanted to know about. – Yesterday, someone asked about what’s going on in Malmö. In-between the intense and consuming writing of a methods chapter, the exploration of a therapeutic space in slam poetry and the ontological possibilities hidden within slam as ritual in its own right, a 2-years-old’s infectious enthusiasm of everything around us and the necessities of everyday life, I have a vague impression that something’s going on in Malmö, but I can happily admit that I’ve nothing to say about it. The poetics of revolt, on the other hand, one must always be able to say something about.

And I think a little bit about how much I appreciate that the French (and the Greeks) exist, and that they do what we all should be doing. “How can they make all this fuss about having to work until… [that the age of retirement is delayed from 60 to 62 is a journalistic, or political, simplification, but that is not the point here],” people say. It’s not only that, of course. Have we all forgotten how much money the banks got recently? And of course they are fed up with President “clear-with-high-pressure-cleaner” & “Ministry-of-National-Identity” Sarkozy. But neither that is my point here. The point is that they do it, and I like thinking about it as I watch the rain and gray sky and get ready to jump back into the anthropology of therapy and ritual. (And smile while I listen to

by Keny Arkana :-) )

Politics in the banlieues… encore

Published on May 31, 2006 by cicilie Posted in Cicilie among the Parisians, Politics, Riots

I couldn’t believe my ears when I head a sociologist saying on a seminar a while ago that the car burning and riot delinquency going on regularly in this country is apolitical. According to him, these riots had neither symbols nor slogans. I can agree that “fuck Sarko” isn’t the most creative slogan you can come up with, but it’s still sort of a slogan. And if the CRS riot police is not a symbol of a certain securitarian policy, well, then, what is? The same goes for the republican schools that were set fire to in the autumn. (I shall agree that it’s not that easy to find the symbolic content in the act of burning your neighbour’s car).
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And here we go again, in Montfermeil and neighbouring Clichy-sous-Bois. What exactly led to the riots this time is contested. The rightwing major claims it’s revenge against him testifying against a violent delinquent. On the other hand, many local youth and leftwing politicians put it down to a brutal police action (teargas and police custody) against a mother of a 14-year-old supposed thief. “She was even barefoot…,” as a local young man explained.

Montfermeil and it’s major made it to the headlines about a month ago, when he tried to put into action a legislation forbidding all 15-18 year olds to be together more than three in public spaces, in order to fight gang delinquency… The judiciary system stopped the major’s attempt, but it clearly says something about the political climate in this area.

Today the news on France 3 has documented the massive police presence at the moment in Montfermeil. There were helicopters lightening up the streets and the towerblocks, and there were loads and loads of CRS police. And Sarkozy has been there, as always surrounded by loads of tv cameras, which, as always, disseminates all over France how he gets into heated debates with the locals… (The last I heard is that the hottest socialist presidential candidate has jumped on the securitarian bandwagon, as well…).

To add to the complexity of the case: the severely burnt, but only surviving victim from the (presumed) police chase to the power transformer in Clichy-sous-Bois October last year, Muhittin Altun, was arrested during the riots yesterday, for having – according to the police – thrown a stone at the CRS. His lawyer denies this accusation and says the police only want to discredit the 18-year old, as it is today the reconstruction of the possible police chase in Clichy-sous-Bois should take place. Television news reminded us that they only a few weeks ago broadcasted an interview with Muhittin, where he once again expressed how utterly fed up he was with the constant stop-and-search and identity papers routine carried out by the police in the area.

Finally, I should add that most sociologists I’ve listened to do not depoliticise what’s happening in the banlieues in this way. The opposite is rather the case. (Only a few days ago Loïc Wacquant went (something like); the riots last autumn was in fact a bonne nouvelle for the French society, as it was a sign of refusal of a normalisation of insecurity…). Sociologists, and even some politicians (e.g. an interview I recently heard from the 80s with Mitterand talking about discrimination and all that…) have for 25 years had a very clear vision of what’s going on. However, it’s not this particular understanding of events that gains ground here, rather the opposite, it seems to me. There seems to be a real political battle going on, but unfortunately, I’m afraid that it’s not the scientifically informed interpretation that’s winning. Enough for now, the whole thing makes me a bit fed up…

Les cassurs – the “demonstration breaker” phenomenon

Published on March 30, 2006 by cicilie Posted in Cicilie among the Parisians, Distinctions, Politics, Riots

“The demonstrators shall be protected, and the casseurs shall be taken in for questioning,” Interior Minister Sarkozy said some days ago. It’s not the first time Sarkozy has expresses his binary vision of the youth in this country (“real and fake youth”). For a minister in charge of interior security, the world might be this simple, (though I remember how he during the November riots used the to two single cases of attacks on humans to discredit the whole three week and enormously widespread revolt). To me it seems like this broad casseur category hides at least three distinct, but perhaps related phenomena: There are the anarchists and left wing radicals who attack the police (and far right “fachos”, if present). Attacks on publicity boards (JCDecaux) and perhaps also on banks and multinationals (as is common in i.e. the UK) can probably also be connected to this category of casseurs – although in my opinion a distinction should always be kept in mind between attacks on property and on humans (including police officers).
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The next category of casseurs seems also to have some kind of political motivation, though less articulated. It was a funny situation on TV the other day: Two youths were asked why they were demonstrating. “We’re against the CPE, of course, ” the one replied quickly. “No,” the other goes plainly, “I’m here to fight the CRS [riot police].” It seems to me that this category of casseurs might be related to the November riots, against “Sarko” and probably also the CRS. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the incident sparking off the revolt was an identity control and a police chase ending in the (accidental) death of two young boys and the serious wounding of a third, – facts that were curiously misrepresented by the infamous “Sarko” himself. Such identity controls are a daily ordeal for certain French citizens.

The third category of casseurs is a phenomenon so unheard of that I can’t understand it in any other way than as alienation… There are groups of kids robbing demonstrators of their mobiles and other valuables…! In fact there was one trying to snap my camera as well on Tuesday. (I so much wished that I had the lens open so I had been ready to capture his surprise as he noticed that I had the camera attached in a string around my neck, and it wasn’t just to pick it. My reaction time will never make me a good photojournalist…).

This third category of casseurs is a very sad phenomenon indeed, particularly if the French demonstrations are seen – as I do – as a symbol of the strong participatory sense of citizenship in this country.

“The demonstrators shall be protected, and the casseurs shall be taken in for questioning,” Interior Minister Sarkozy said some days ago. It’s not the first time Sarkozy has expresses his binary vision of the youth in this country (“real and…

Mars – “mois chaud”

Published on March 25, 2006 by cicilie Posted in Cicilie among the Parisians, Fieldwork, Politics, Riots

It wasn’t the climate the newspaper Le Parisien was thinking of when they some weeks ago wrote that March would be a “hot” month. And indeed they were right…
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I must admit that I leave the demonstrations as soon as there are any sign of violence. (Luckily, there are some observers left – I came across these terrific photos on flickr today!) It’s partly due to the fact that my wretched skeleton isn’t fit for running and partly that the situation on the ground becomes completely unclear and confusing. Only after a few days of searching the net and following the news, do I get some understanding of what actually was happening. For instance, the happy atmosphere (“bon enfant” as they say here) last Thursday (16/03, when the lycée and university students were out in the streets against the CPE again), quickly changed when the procession suddenly was encouraged to divert and disperse…

I noticed many had started going in the opposite direction and others stood waiting. And then I scented the teargas and noticed that the riot police (CRS) had taken position in all the side streets. A guy who had obviously got the gas right in his face asked a CRS what was going on. The policeman just lifted his shoulders. (I wonder if they’ve been instructed not to talk to people when the situation is tense. I noticed the same reaction two days later at Place the la Nation, as well. The armoured CRS just utter one-syllabic words, if they utter anything at all.)

I still haven’t found an explanation for why the final part of the procession was met with an air full of teargas and riot police (apparently) blocking most ways out that Thursday. This chronology doesn’t completely fit with the official version, which says that the situation didn’t intensify before “casseurs” (“breakers”/rioters) at the very end of the procession started making trouble… So, yes, the situation on the ground is so confusing that it’s better to go home in time and start searching the net… ☺

The atmosphere changed even quicker at the demonstration two days later (18/03, when the unions joined the students, still against the CPE). The weather had been wonderful (full of pollen in the air, so I wasn’t ready to wait for the teargas this time…), and the crowd really huge (maybe as many as 350 000, which means a 5 km long avenue filled with people for 5 hours). At the moment I arrived at Nation I noticed a lot of people suddenly moving in one direction. I saw black smoke from a fire. A car? Not easy to tell at the moment. As I reluctantly moved in homeward direction, some men came running –had to be undercover policemen, I thought –, and further down the street I saw they had put a boy up against the wall. In fact, first I only saw his trainers, as there were so much police, with and without riot gear, covering him. I couldn’t make myself take any pictures when he was escorted to the police car right in front of me. But others were, so also at the second arrest I saw a while afterwards. This boy wore ski goggles (in case of teargas) and he was shouting something about La France. Strangely, one of the police officers present at arrest of the other boy muttered something about La France as well. (Unfortunately, I must admit that when the French are agitated their language turn almost incomprehensible to me.)

Early next morning it was so quiet at Place de la Nation that I could hear a blackbird sing in top of one of the trees. And it would still take almost one and a half day before the news that the trade unionist Cyril Ferez was in a coma after being trampled underfoot by the CRS would break…

A television crew hung around at the centre of the roundabout, filming the flags and banners still left at the monument (The triumph of the Republic, I think it’s called). A couple of photographers were taking pictures of the damage, – which were nothing really, compared to what were to come at Les Invalides some days later. As I was waiting for the bus to take me into town, I watched the locals out walking their dog or just on a morning stroll, stopping chatting to each other in front of the burnt out car. To elderly women were talking by the shattered bus shelter: “It’s the casseurs. They always come at the end, and they haven’t got anything to do with the demonstration…” Neither of them mentioned the banlieues, (even though the two issues – the revolt in the banlieues (see earlier in this blog) and the student revolt against the CPE 4 months later – in many ways are related).

Who these casseurs might be seem to be of interest to many these days. And who were the ones who apparently caused quite a lot of damage when they occupied the prestigious EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales)?

I got off the bus nearby La Sorbonne and stopped by at the closed off Place de la Sorbonne on my way to the Sénat (for the first day in a week of seminars on discrimination). The façades in boulevard Saint Michel were – and still are, I think – full of graffiti and some of the shop windows (mainly clothes shops, there aren’t many libraries left in The Latin Quarter anymore…) were broken. It wasn’t yet 10 o’clock, but the new Parisian attraction was already drawing an audience.

And since then, the trouble has got worse…

It wasn’t the climate the newspaper Le Parisien was thinking of when they some weeks ago wrote that March would be a “hot” month. And indeed they were right…
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I must admit that I leave the demonstrations as soon as…

“It’s better to vote than to burn cars”

Published on January 6, 2006 by cicilie Posted in Cicilie among the Parisians, Politics, Riots

Two days ago President Jacques Chirac proclaimed the end of the state of emergency which has been in place in France for almost two months. At the same press conference, the president also announced that the law paragraph obliging teachers to “teach the positive effects of colonialism on the former French overseas territories” should be rewritten. The paragraph was implemented in February last year and has made it to the headlines once in a while since then. However, it wasn’t until after the November revolts that mainstream politicians, really started giving much attention to the controversial issue.
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“The paragraph divides the French,” Chirac said, “that’s why it should be rewritten.” Would it have been suggested rewritten if it wasn’t for the revolts? And would the notion of a divided French people have been so prominent if it wasn’t for the burning cars making headlines around the world and threatening the tourist industry? It’s no doubt the social fracture, which increasingly has been interpreted as a colonial fracture, has climbed even higher on the public agenda the last months. From the 27th of October and three weeks onwards, France experienced the biggest social revolt since the Second World War, rivalled only by May 1968. On short term, the revolt has had an effect on the president’s speeches, but the interesting research question now is what its long-term legacies will be.

Just before Christmas one of the big news headlines was “it’s better to vote than to burn cars”. A collective of celebrities originating from the banlieues – amongst them a footballer (Lilian Thuram), a rapper (Joey Starr, NTM), a director (Mathieu Kassovitz (link in English!)) and an actor (Jamel Debbouze) – organised a media happening in Clichy-sous-Bois (where the deaths of two boys sparked off the riots), in order to make the young banlieuesards register for an election card. (To have the right to vote, the French born before a certain reform need an election card, which they get by signing up at the town hall).

The next presidential election doesn’t take place before spring 2007, but with the previous one still fresh in memory it’s better to be well prepared. In the infamous 2002 presidential election, 37% of the 18-24 years old didn’t vote in the first round – the round that eliminated the socialist candidate (Lionel Jospin) and gave the French a choice between a candidate from the Right (Jacques Chirac) and the Extreme Right (Jean-Marie Le Pen). Or, between a crook and a fascist, as many put it. (If you google “crook” and “fascist” in French – hence escroc and facho – you get hundreds of sites from around election time, appealing for people to vote for the “crook, not the fascist!”). Many have already started to dread a possible repetition of that shameful affair. But this time, the stakes can be even higher; the choice might be between Sarkozy and Le Pen. (Which according to some radical commentators isn’t much of a choice.)

Back to Clichy-sous-Bois before Christmas: “If we don’t take care of politics, politics will take care of us,” the celebrity collective stated. The youngsters seem well aware of being taken care of by the authorities, but do they believe in the power of the voting ballot? According to newspaper reportages they didn’t welcome the stars very heartily: – To vote for whom? Who represents us? Why weren’t you here earlier, during the riots? One even accused the actor Jamel Debbouze of being “un Arabe de service” (which I think must be an equivalent of Malcolm X’s notion of house negro, the slave who protects the master and his suppressive system even more eagerly than the master does himself. Perhaps coincidentally, it was Debbouze who played the slightly retarded greengrocer assistant in the highly successful The Fabulous Amelie of Montmartre, a character which in fact was the only non-white in a film accused of white-washing France).

Whether it’s thanks to the stars, or just to the riots themselves, the last month it has been more people than usual signing up for election cards. If nothing else at least they can vote against “Sarko and Le Pen”, as quite a few has put it on their way to the townhall. But we’ll have to wait and see if it’s really better to vote than to burn cars.