WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #344 - Anti-racism, Salika Amara: "Women are at the forefront of the fight against police crimes" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

An activist from the start, Salika Amara participated in the 1983
marches alongside the newspaper "Sans-Frontières". Founder in 1976 of
the Kahina troupe, a theater troupe for immigrant women, she is still
involved today in Créteil in 94 where she was a teacher for several
years. She returns for Alternative Libertaire on her experience of these
years of struggles, the place of women and the assessment she draws from
them. ---- Hello Salika, can you introduce yourself to the readers of
Libertarian Alternative?
After the events of May 68, I began to campaign within the transit
center where I lived in Stains (93), to set up a youth center for girls.
In 1974, I founded the first theater troupe of women from immigrant
backgrounds to give visibility to an entire generation, denounce our
living conditions, those of our parents and some of our constraints such
as forced marriage and lift the veil on certain taboos.

We did two shows: So that our mothers' tears become a legend and Famille
Bendjelloun. With former members of the MTA[1]I co-founded the newspaper
Sans frontières in 1979. And, in 1981, we created ANGI[2]of which I was
president from 1981 to 2003.

15 days later I co-founded Radio Beur where I am treasurer. In 1983,
with Sans Frontière and Radio Beur, we co-founded the Parisian
collective in support of the March.

After 2003 I devoted myself mainly to writing, but in 2005, following
the suburban revolts, I took up my pilgrim's staff and co-founded the
association FFR (Filles et Fils de la République) in Créteil where I
live and I restart the Kahina et Cie troupe with a show entitled
Responsible but not guilty followed by others: Be beautiful again and
you are you! and The Republic is Us... too!

During the Covid period we are also opening a social and solidarity café
El Kawa des Seigneurs aimed at the elderly public (chibani·as), a
Buzz'art art gallery and Radio Kawa. At the end of January 2023, with
the former actors of the Marches we co-founded the National Coordination
for the 40th anniversary of the Marches.

How did you end up participating in the 1983 march? And what assessment
do you draw from it today?

For us, it was normal that we found ourselves among these young marchers
who were neither activists nor intellectuals and who were going to talk
about police abuses, racism and equal rights. The summer of 83 was
deadly: more than 40 victims, the youngest of whom was 9 years old,
Tawfik Ouanès.

In addition, it was an innovative project and our heirs in the fight to
claim our citizenship and put down the myth of the return of our parents
and indirectly ourselves. We could only walk with them.

After the euphoria of the March and the immense hope it aroused, there
was disenchantment. After the SOS racism machine set up via the State
and the enthusiasm of the entire political class, artists, the media,
with indecent financing of this structure, all our associations were
asphyxiated and sent back to these neighborhoods indefinitely. Greeks
the autonomous movement resulting from immigration that we tried to put
in place.

It was inconceivable that 20 years after the Algerian War, young "Arabs"
wanted to set up an autonomous movement. SOS has recovered the (moral)
fight against racism, abandoning systemic racism.

The years following the march saw a flurry of struggles to which the
state and political parties responded with various responses. How did
this happen?

SOS contributed greatly to this recovery, being the sole representative
to the public authorities and the media. So despite the excitement, it
was very difficult to be heard.

A multitude of associations were created after the March of 83 to
compensate for the lack of the State in the neighborhoods.

Several other Marches took place (Convergence 84, Civil Rights March,
etc.) autonomous movements tried to emerge, including the MIB
(Immigration and Suburbs Movement), by making "punching" interventions.
, fighting against double punishment.

But to date, despite all the attempts of everyone (Civil Rights
Collective, Motivated, Indigènes de la République, FUIQP, Force
Citoyenne Populaire, etc.), a general movement of immigration struggles
has not been able to see the day: barely created, barely latent. In
addition, "rising" figures are taken over by political parties, most of
them formatted in their image and representing only themselves.

What can you say about the place of women in these struggles, yesterday
and today?

The difference in the women's struggles of yesterday is that the
activists did not pose as women but as activists first. We did not
essentialize our struggles to our gender but to the fight carried out
and alongside the activists even if indirectly feminist struggles are
present. Other feminist struggles are carried out but most often by
immigrant women, most of the time with a university background, but not
by girls from immigrant backgrounds who did not recognize themselves in
their fight.

In fact, they avoided migration issues.

Note that most of the time it is women who are often presidents of
associations, or even leaders of numerous collectives; most of the time
it is they, mothers, sisters, who, most often, stand up to defend, some
a father, some a brother... murdered. There is no shortage of names and
even today it is they who are at the forefront... Note also that
political parties often take more women (are they seen as more
integrable?) than men, creating a male/female divide that does not speak
its name. They owe this integration to our struggles.

Each generation creates its own history and today's will make its own
even if it follows in the footsteps of the elders. They are our heirs
because we cannot move forward without knowing the past. The thread of
the story is not cut.

What do you think of the situation today in light of these past struggles?

The release of racist speech has led to the population of working-class
neighborhoods being made scapegoats for social and economic
difficulties. In the past our struggles were truly collective without
prejudging the future, today, the struggles are more individualistic,
and many activists succeed in joining parties, getting elected, becoming
ministers for a privileged handful.

In addition, a whole lexical field exists, evolving over the years to
name the other: foreigner, Arab, Franco-Muslim, etc. Without hearing
that the majority of them are French. The immigration struggles,
including the March of 83, are not taught and several generations have
amnesia thinking that "their elders razed the walls" or only considering
SOS racism as the sole representative of these struggles.

Forty years after the 1983 March, certain problems have persisted and
even become commonplace, including racist crimes; uninhibited
Islamophobia, separatism law, Darmanin law... in a deafening silence
from our intellectuals, artists claiming to be left-wing. This questions
their capacity for reflection and resistance in the face of the
injustices that working-class neighborhoods have suffered for decades.
Furthermore, the entry of the RN into Parliament, at the gates of power,
leaves us no choice: never give up.

Comments collected by Nicolas Pasadena (UCL Anti-Racist Commission)

To validate

[1]Arab Workers Movement

[2]Association of the New Immigrant Generation implemented innovative
approaches with an ART'O art gallery in the middle of the city, cultural
interventions in prisons, a reception and accommodation center for young
North African girls who have run away due to forced marriages.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Salika-Amara-Les-femmes-sont-a-l-avant-garde-des-luttes-contre-les-crimes
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