WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL CA #335 - 40 years already! The march for equality and against racism of 1983 and the mopeds of Convergence 84 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The march for equality and against racism in 1983 and the mopeds of
Convergence 84 had a political impact on an entire generation of young
people from immigrant backgrounds and, more generally, on the entire
anti-racist movement of that era. ---- Here we are going to take up a
large part of extracts from what we published during this period (1)
---- Today, out of 4 million foreigners, one million six hundred
thousand are young people. This shows the importance of the phenomenon
of "new generations".
Indeed, unlike their parents, the new generation can no longer (no
longer wants to) return to the country. Above all, they feel like
"inhabitants of France" (Cf. Notion of citizenship).
They are mostly under strong pressure to assimilate, doubled in its
effects by the social devaluation of their parents' culture. The latter
is reinforced by the modest condition of the parents, the breakdown of
the family, the clash of Eastern values with Western values. (Women's
Square).
On the other hand, they are the first to be hit by the economic "crisis".
The racist crimes, which periodically shake the North African community,
have been felt like a social death that affects them collectively one by
one. This social death is the result of causes linked to the very
functioning of this society.
It is in this difficult context that a certain number of young people -
from North African immigration - have decided to react over the last
three years by creating groups and associations in order to talk to us
about themselves and to intervene. in various areas of daily life. The
denunciation of racism which targets them (the young people murdered
number in the dozens), the need to assert their capacity to take charge
of themselves, to create, to innovate are at the origin of their
numerous initiatives. As for young people, whether they are North
African or Portuguese, they do not have at all the same behavior as
their father when it comes to work. They have a very clear tendency to
refuse the OS or maneuver situation. Their revolt is daily, diffuse but
the State criminalizes them. The French population very often associates
them with phenomena of insecurity and delinquency. They are often the
ones who resist, so they are determined not to be exploited like their
parents.
For many young women, work outside the home, even if it is hard and
poorly paid, can be a way to have other relationships, outside the
family circle, and to escape the condition experienced by their mother. .


 From 1976, the need for expression and autonomous organization
appeared, hence the creation of militant theater groups.
In 77/79, young people from immigrant backgrounds demanded the right to
live here, the fact of having a territory, whereas before their parents'
Arab Workers Movement predominated
In 79 and 80, there were expulsions. Demonstrations will multiply, young
people consider themselves humiliated and at war with the cops.
February 80 saw the assassination of Abdel Kader in Vitry in the Paris
region, killed by the guard of his city.
 From there, a reflection is carried out; the idea of organizing
concerts inside cities is starting to germinate. Young people, wanting
to clarify things in the face of bogus anti-racism, their idea is the
reappropriation of their territories by organizing themselves.
At the same time, there is the bulldozer affair in Vitry (intervention
of the PCF town hall, the cops, in a home of immigrant workers).
Then in April 80, "Rocks Against Police" was created, inspired by
concerts organized by young black people in Great Britain.
But, that same year, expulsions, repeated attacks against young people,
murders of young North Africans (Strasbourg, Marseille, Paris, etc.) hit
the North African community.
Young people from the cities meet, the Abdel Kader center opens in
Vitry; young people from the suburbs recognize themselves in the "Rocks
Against Police" approach, Lyon sees the creation of the "ZAAMA
D'BANLIEUE" group adhering to this approach.
"Rock Against Police" is the first major attempt to allow the
circulation of information and means of struggle between youth groups in
the cities, thanks to the organization of free concerts.
Lawyers from the Paris region accept the idea of setting up a collective
for an activist intervention, with a view to promoting a specific
European legal status for young people from immigrant backgrounds.
This organization of young people from the suburbs could have continued,
but 1981 changed everything. First, there was the hunger strike, led
from April 2 to 30 against the expulsions of young people, by pastor
Jean Costil, priest Christian Delorme and a young North African Hamid
Boukrouma. This approach effectively bypasses the organization of young
people in the cities.
While "Rock Against Police" highlighted a strategy of autonomy,
reappropriation of one's life, self-organization, the hunger strike
introduced a non-violent approach, supported by the media, left-wing
parties, humanists, unions, etc.
Then, the left coming to power liberalized the right of association for
immigrants. A number of youth associations were then born, but the
consequence, instead of more autonomy, was on the contrary more control,
those who moved found themselves invested with a mission, with a
responsibility...
Then the left accentuates the islanding; this increases the tension with
the police, and at the end of 81, there are the famous Minguettes rodeos
in the Lyon suburbs. The media present these cities as strongholds of
gangsters.
October and November 82, several young North Africans were murdered, in
the Paris and Lyon regions among others.
Following the lessons learned from the Kader affair, the young people
decide to follow up on the various racist and security murders.
Nanterre (in the Paris region) therefore gives rise to the struggles of
the Gutemberg city (birth of the newspaper G 125), video film,
occupations of premises with the fight for the rehousing of all the
families of the transit city, then another battle on judicial follow-up
is carried out.
In Lyon, families and young people are also mobilizing. After these
assassinations, the electoral campaign of March 83 began. Then appeared
the rise of security delirium, the rise of the National Front, the
insecurity/immigrants couple. Big disappointment for immigrants: the
security delirium is gaining momentum, and not only through the mouth of
Le Pen; left and right are mixed up in it.
In mid-83, the cops raided Minguettes, they searched residents' homes;
women are mistreated and the premises of the SOS Avenir Minguettes
association are ransacked. The public authorities want to impose a
police station inside this city.
 From then on, tensions rose, clashes took place, young people
photographed by the press were arrested. Then, following a hunger strike
movement supported by priest Christian Delorme, they were released.
Toumi Djaïdja president of SOS Avenir Minguettes will be injured by a
cop. A support committee is created; F. Mitterrand goes down to
Minguettes, towers will be demolished.

The first march for equal rights and against racism
Christian Delorme, fearing that the situation would degenerate, proposed
a non-violent march. He worked on the civil rights march in the USA, on
Martin Luther King. With the participation of CIMADE and Pastor Jean
Costil, and from existing committees supporting hunger strikes, the
march began on October 15, 1983 from Marseille. On October 29, the march
arrived in Lyon. It is starting to gain momentum in a France punctuated
by racist crimes. In November, another racist crime turned all eyes on
the marchers: The murder of Habib Grimzi, an Algerian thrown out of the
Paris-Bordeaux-Ventimiglia train by candidates for the Foreign Legion.
Over the kilometers and stages, the march, which the media designate as
that of the Arabs, gains momentum. When he arrived in Paris on December
3, several tens of thousands of people (from 80,000 to more than 100,000
depending on sources) marched. A delegation is received at the Élysée
which announces the creation of the resident card valid for 10 years for
regularizable foreigners.
This march marked a break with a flurry of dispersed actions. It took on
a prophetic character but the return was quite disappointing and harshly
experienced by the young people. The first impression was that some of
the young immigrants were manipulated by Delorme and Costil and what
they represent: an enlightened Christian left, responsible for calming
excessively conflictual situations by providing effective initiatives
from time to time. This helps to create an image of the good young
immigrant and therefore those who choose other forms of non-calm
expression have every chance of appearing even more unsuitable, and
therefore harmful. The second impression is the attitude towards
policies. Under the pretext of being friends with everyone, the marchers
systematically refused to address the causes, the role of the right or
the attitude of the left. But the march made it possible to open up the
isolated position of the young immigrants who, there, spoke for their
parents.

It was the various personalities who came to see them and not the
walkers who went to look for them. The Beur phenomenon brought out the
miserabilism side and broke a whole routine, a whole silence. The fact
that the church and a whole group of disinvested activists have launched
into the Arab marathon niche, to find a market where to sell their
salad, is due to the relative originality of this type of action in a
context devoid of major social movements where fear, daily silence,
ambient paranoia created the basis for racism in all its forms. The
place of girls in the march was very important: equality means equality
everywhere.
After the arrival of this march, young people realized the takeover of
power by certain politicians. The ruling socialists tried to separate
immigrant generations. There were the Talbot clashes, and the youth
collective from the Paris region, which was created after the march,
decided to go to the factory to show that we cannot separate immigrant
parents and their children. , intended mainly for the same work. Then
there was emptiness.
On March 23, 1984, the first gathering of mothers of victims of racism
took place in front of Place Vendôme -Ministry of Justice. But the
silence of the streets has regained ground, the media no longer making
headlines with the "Beurs", the political class giving in more and more
to security pressure.

The "Beur" movement, the "Assises de Lyon"
6 months after the march, young people from immigrant backgrounds have
just taken a new important step in becoming aware of the place they
claim in French society. For 3 days, 150 people representing 50
associations from around thirty cities gathered for National Conferences
in Vaulx-en-Velin and Villeurbanne, in the Lyon suburbs. At the center
of their discussions, their future in French society. And a key word:
autonomy; autonomy of discourse and autonomy of organization. From a
second commission, equal rights, where joint actions are recommended at
the national level, a whole series of proposals emerged: voting rights
and eligibility at all levels, unrestricted residence permit valid for
10 years and not computerization, right to decent housing and equality
before justice.
Between the refusal of the term "young immigrant", inappropriate for the
entire second generation born and having lived in France, and that of
"beur" which has become a somewhat hasty convenient means to designate
the movement culminating in December 83 with the arrival in Paris of the
marches for equality, the autonomy of immigrant youth is sought. To find
themselves, they also need to define themselves, hence the choice of the
term "young people with an immigrant background".
In the Rhône-Alpes region, around ten associations grouped together have
been working to refine their autonomy for several years. They showed a
certain prejudice against the march for equality and the "humanist"
speeches which would support them. They nevertheless joined the
movement, continuing to work for the autonomous expression of young
people from immigrant backgrounds.

Today that the Beur fever has left the front pages of the newspapers,
and the suburbs have returned to their daily lives, it is this search
for autonomy of discourse and organization which appears to be the most
promising among young people from immigrant backgrounds. . One of the
futures which, for associations, involves the appropriation of all their
rights and the reappropriation of their words.
Six months after the march, the movement, the core of this support
collective had banged its fist on the table and had separated itself
from a national coordination that was too concentrated for its taste by
the traditional French left and far left associations. .
Two trends diverge on seemingly classic themes: should young people from
immigrant backgrounds turn in on themselves to consolidate their
identity as immigrants or Franco-Arabs? Or should they form a united
front with all the forces capable of opposing the Le Pen wave. Should
the Arabs multiply all-out initiatives that go against traditional
political groups and institutions, or should they above all aim to
constitute a classic lobby and play on the Arab vote?

Convergence 84
A year after the march for equality, 55 moped riders, starting from the
"five corners of France" crossed all the main cities with the aim of
meeting young people from the ZUP so that they could express themselves
and take initiatives. Their only slogan is "equality for all".... No
more precise national demand...
Let us remember that Convergence 84 is only the initiative of a type of
young people from immigrant backgrounds (part of the Parisian collective
formed after the 83 march). Decided outside the Lyon meeting; it was
unable to acquire legitimacy vis-à-vis the movement as a whole. It
leaves the choice of themes and methods of action to the various local
groups, which disorients a lot of anti-racist professionals. But it
disorients in the same way young immigrants who, beyond their desire to
organize, did not know how; which allowed local anti-racists to speak
out in a good number of cities, therefore going against the
self-organization project recommended by Convergence, since
self-organization can only be conceived on the basis of struggles. real
local areas including the struggles to re-appropriate their culture.

When he arrived in Paris on December 1, 1984, there were between 30,000
and 50,000 of us depending on the sources. Convergence 84 was not an
initiative like any other. She attempted to test a strategy adapted to a
difficult situation and which corresponds to the desire to bring about
the emergence in public opinion of a social and political movement for
equality, independent and involving all communities. Hence the project
to join this approach with French people of origin facing the same life
difficulties as young people from immigrant backgrounds. Here again, the
approach being too theoretical, there was no real opening. It is clear
that the initiative was experienced differently by public opinion. Some
saw it as just another edition of the "march" (the annual gathering of
Arabs!). Others have not yet understood the meaning and content of the
approach. Convergence had set itself objectives which sometimes proved
contradictory and impossible to achieve immediately:
Mobilization of communities which are usually withdrawn from the
political debate in France, objective of creating a map of France of
demands, link with the first generation of immigrant workers...
By designating in the public square the negative role of the discourse
and practices of traditional anti-racism, the end of Convergence and its
speech read upon arrival in Paris on December 1st could appear as a
negation of the aspirations she carried. Convergence 84 was a failure in
terms of its outlets.
Upon his arrival in Paris, the traditional anti-racism carried by the
ruling Socialist Party took a scathing revenge. This is how we saw the
little hand of SOS Racisme arrive with its label "Touche pas à mon
pote". On October 15, 1984, SOS Racisme was founded in circles close to
the Socialist Party. Its creation came a year after the March of 1983.
The movement was initially open to all political origins, but several
personalities from the PS, themselves from the Trotskyist movements
(Julien Dray, Harlem Désir) and other left-wing movements little by
little take charge of the association.
The sale of "little hands" will attract and seduce a lot of people:

All politicians who claim to be anti-racist, from certain individuals
from the right to the PS, to the far left Trotskyist (LCR) and
libertarian (Union of Libertarian Communist Workers)
A part of the high school and student youth who recognized themselves in
the word: POTE.
Some young people from immigrant backgrounds who failed to create a
dynamic in relation to their daily experience or who found themselves
without prospects in various isolated groups.
Anti-racists, sincere in their ideas, who find an unexpected outlet in
the circumstances of this time.
The movement of young people from immigrant backgrounds will gradually
disappear despite some significant upheavals (3rd march in 1985,
"fertile memory" association, citizen's card, States General of
Immigration, etc.)
Denis - OCL Reims

Note
(1) CA 31, 33, 41, 42, 45 of the old series (1981- June 1990) and the
book released in December 1986 "Etats des Lieux... et la politique bordello"

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