The French State increases the repression of rebellious youth
Feautured image: The protesters attack police with fireworks during revolts last summer. Source: inews.co.uk
The French State increases repression of youth as an aftermath of the revolts which shook the French State last summer, on which we reported. Especially immigrant youth revolted all over the French State after the murder of Nahel Merzouk, who was a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent from the proletarian neighborhood of Nanterre in Paris. This was not the first time when such things happen – the police is constantly harassing masses of the proletarian neighborhoods, killing them and treating the proletarian youth as less than human, which was also seen in the response of the State to the revolts.
Afraid of the revolutionary potential of the youth, the French bourgeoisie seeks to crush the rebellion. One of the ways is the convicting of those who participated to the revolts. More than 3,600 were arrested and 1,300 have been convicted. The trials were extraordinarily fast, and in 95% of them there was a conviction, in average to 8 months in prison, despite the fact that most of the convicted are young and do not have previous criminal record. Already 750 have been sent to prison.
Another measure is to extend the repression to the families and loved ones of those who dare to rebel, especially among the poorest: for example, in August the prefect Val-d’Oise announced 29 expulsions of “rioter families” from social housing as collective and extrajudicial punishment. In addition, the prime minister Elisabeth Borne has announced that parents of ”delinquents” will have to go through ”parent responsibility courses” – as if proletarian parents are somehow worse or more irresponsible parents because their children dare to rise up against a State apparatus which systematically kills them. According to Borne, ”delinquents” will be placed in educational units under military command to teach them discipline. In the words of Macron, the French State is calling for ”order, order, order”, and wants to extend the ”returning of authority to every level, starting from the family”. This is how the French State, the birth place of the ideals of bourgeois democracy, is discarding these ideals and trying to extend its control even into the private lives of people without even hiding it. These are signs of how the bourgeois State is becoming more reactionary and militarized to remain the control over the masses.
French imperialism also exploits the peoples of the oppressed nations through immigration, and this is essential for it. But by doing this, the contradiction between oppressed nations and imperialism also appears within its borders, and the French workers come into contact with their brothers and sisters from these countries as well and forge tighter ties of solidarity. In an attempt to control the situation, Macron is introducing more reactionary immigration laws, for example by accelerating processes for deportation to create pressure for immigrants to submit to anything, and being ”more selective” in regards to immigration – that is, getting rid of those who create problems or are a ”burden” to the State, and taking in those who can be exploited to the maximum.
The increasing exploitation, repression and militarization show that the French bourgeoisie is not able to rule like before, and on the other hand, the masses in the banlieues revolt, showing that they do not want to live like before. All these repressive measures will do is increase the rebellion.
