Mass Rebellion: Communist Revolution Will End Racist Police Terror here ♦ US Students Discuss French Rebellion here ♦ France to South Africa Stand Together here ♦
Communist Revolution, Not Reform, Will End Racist Police Terror
July 10—France exploded in revolt after racist police murdered 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Nahel, like most Nanterre youths, was of north African descent. For over a week, crowds marched in neighborhoods in and around Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lyon, and other cities. They attacked hundreds of police stations and government buildings. In places, they drove police out.
“We are here to support the revolt in memory of Nahel,” three youths said. “But also, because we’ve had to put up with police repression for too long.”
Nahel’s murder sparked rebellions in former French colonies from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean. Systematic racism in France is an ongoing legacy of imperialism. “Even if you were born in Paris, if your grandparents came from Algeria, you are still ‘Algerian,’” said an Algerian friend in the US.
The French government deployed 40,000 police to suppress the masses. It told educators to promote “peace.” It arrested thousands. But protests continue.
“We risk being attacked and arrested. But, in any case, as racialized people, we risk all that all the time, demonstrations or not,” said a Black 17-year-old Muslim marcher. “So we don’t give a damn about bans.”
She was in an annual July 8 march remembering Adama Traoré, led by his sister Assa Traoré. Cops murdered Adama seven years ago. This year the government banned a march in the working-class neighborhood of Beaumont-sur-Oise. It stopped trains from going there.
Organizers planned to go instead to the Place de la République in central Paris. That was also banned. But thousands marched anyway! They broke through police lines twice: first to get into the Place de la République and then to march.
“Marches and press releases are useless,” said a Paris organizer. “We’ve been doing it for years, and it hasn’t changed a thing – they’re still killing people.”
Marches are only useful to the extent that they let us feel our strength and create opportunities for communist organization.
Years of token “anti-racist” reforms have gotten us nowhere in France, the US, and South Africa. It’s time for revolution.
Capitalist Crisis Is Behind Racist Murder, Fascism, Unemployment and War
Workers around the world remember our brother George Floyd. US cops publicly executed this African American worker in 2020. Mass anger then, too, boiled over into multi-racial rebellions.
Racist police violence everywhere is part of rising fascism. The capitalist rulers are terrified of the masses they exploit to make their class rich. They try to divide us with racism. They use their cops to keep us living in fear.
Their capitalist system is in crisis. It can’t give us jobs, it can’t even feed or house us all. Worldwide, it’s increasingly at war. It needs young workers to fight and die for their profits.
In France, this provoked mass protests of the Yellow Vests in 2018 against economic inequality. This year, anti-worker pension reform brought millions into the streets for months.
Now, the French government’s fascist crackdown is shaking even some reformist left-wing union officials and politicians. They were condemning the anti-racist rebellions just a few weeks ago. “What’s happening is the banning of your freedoms, as a woman, as an ecologist, as a trade unionist,” one declared.
At the same time, French fascists are seizing the opportunity to attack the working class and build more racism.
Fascist capitalism can’t be reformed. We need to overthrow it and build communist society without rich or poor or exploitation. Without racism, police, war, or borders.
The rulers should be afraid of us! When workers unite, we can liberate our class. Younger and older, employed, and unemployed, women and men, in France and everywhere.
We can win. When we see that workers produce everything. That we don’t need bosses. That we can organize ourselves to produce and share everything we need, without money. That is communism.
Nahel worked in events management. He was training as an electrician. He could have been you or me. There is no “justice” that will bring him back. There is no “peace” for the masses as long as money rules.
Let our anger defeat fear! Our urgent task is to organize to bring down this racist system of capitalism and fight for the communist world we need. Let’s build the International Communist Workers’ Party!
US Students Discuss French Rebellion, Racism, and Communism
Comrades distributed the Red Flag leaflet about the anti-racist rebellion in France outside a high school in the United States. Some students brought it into their classroom.
The teacher started a discussion about social justice and police brutality. The students made a circle. The teacher read out loud statements including: “I have been stopped by the police” or “I’ve heard about the riots in France.” Students who agreed with a statement were asked to step forward in the circle.
Two students had heard about the French rebellions. After that day, everybody knew.
All the male students and one female student had been stopped by police.
When the teacher read “I believe racism can end” and “I believe that we can stop police brutality,” no one stepped forward. This opened a discussion about why is it that all students genuinely believe that we are destined to live in a society with racism.
“I believe we can end racism, but with one prerequisite,” the teacher shared. “It is clear that in order to end racism, we must end this capitalist system in which we live.”
The discussion was rich because it exposed how even our youth are realistic about living in this system. Of course, racism will always exist since capitalism continues to rule our lives. Therefore, we must envision a completely new society in which to live, and that is a communist society that our youth desperately need.
“It is obvious,” the teacher reflected, “that I must organize these students so that we can instill the hope of a communist future for all of us. Our discussions will continue to be rich.”
France to South Africa: Stand Together and Fight
The story of Nahel is really heart breaking. It reminded me of the late 16-year-old Nathaniel Julius, who had Down Syndrome. In 2020, during the coronavirus peak, he went to the shop here to get some biscuits. The police asked him some questions, which he couldn’t answer because he had Down Syndrome. They said he posed a threat and they shot and killed him!
It really shows that police are not trained to protect us but to be against us. How many times must the law treat us like our lives don’t really matter? All this behavior comes from the Capitalists.
If we can stand together and fight against the corruption and bullying that we endure each day from the “ones that are supposed to protect us,” we can win this fight. Let us stand as one, be united, and fight this capitalist system.
In a communist society we will live peacefully in a world full of love and warmth. But this cannot be overcome by an individual. We need everyone to stand as one. Let us stand up and fight for our FREEDOM.
Red salute!
—Another Comrade in South Africa