Paris: Withdraw the troops from the suburbs! The failure of violence

The violent events in Île de France (Paris) have now lasted more than one week, spreading little by little to other provincial cities.  The inflammatory declarations and war of words regarding the youth and other gestures by the politicians, as well as the parading of battalions of armed police don't seem to achieve anything more than putting more fuel on the fire.

The politicians and the media at their service have a completely erroneous and manipulative view.  For them the only solution to the unrest between the youth and the police is to repress and to punish with more and more violence, to supposedly re-establish order.

We affirm that this type of response has failed.  It is a retrograde and fascist vision that operates silently.  The present events prove it well.  Repressive answers don't solve the problem of social and economic violence in which a big part of the population lives.

One cannot solve social violence with more violence.

These Gentlemen should recognize their failure with humility and should resign.  They have failed because they attack the symptoms instead of attacking the cause; they attack the consequences and not the reasons.

We affirm that the root of the problem is the model of society in which we live, that is based on a culture of violence that institutionalizes competition, ferocious individualism and the domination of the strongest to the detriment of the weakest.

How far are they going to go?  3.5 million People living under the poverty line, 3 million people badly housed, close to 25,000 homeless young people, job insecurity, miserable salaries and unemployment are the forms of brutal violence to which we are submitted daily.  People cannot take it anymore!

Delinquency is one mode of social explosion provoked by an unjust and repressive political, economic and judicial system giving privilege to a handful of people that appropriate wealth and power of the nation to the detriment of the majority.

So, our priority is to change this political and economic system that today brings the country and society to breaking point.  For us, violence is not part of human nature.  We don't want to live in a fascist society but must construct a society where human values are the priority.

Therefore, we ask for the immediate withdrawal of all police troops from the suburbs, the liberation of all the youth arrested and the resignation of Mr. Sarkozy, Interior Minister whose inability has been demonstrated.

Alain Ducq.
President of the HP, France