There is just no escaping the absolute inadequacy of statism and nationalism for resolving questions of social justice. Here the Anarchist tradition has an old proposal that looks much more promising.
For the past few days, Paris has been engulfed in mass unrest, as people all over the country demonstrate against the murder of Nahel Merzouk by the French police. This callous act of racist brutality shocked French society, which is now rising up against its criminal police force and the violence it carries out with complete impunity. Here we publish a statement from the Francophone Anarchist Federation, who are fighting for truth and justice alongside their compatriots in the streets.
On Tuesday 27 June 2023, at around 8am in Nanterre, the police shot dead a 17-year-old kid during a "traffic stop". With his gun pointed at Nahel, one cop said "You're going to get a bullet in the head", the other cop said "Shoot him", and a few seconds later, as he was in no danger whatsoever, the policeman coldly shot him at point-blank range. It was a summary execution.
We offer our full support and condolences to his family and friends.
This police killing was neither a blunder nor an isolated case. In 2022 alone, 13 people were killed while "refusing to comply". The police kill and the justice system is complicit. The suburbs are veritable laboratories for state violence and outright racism, where people live under the constant watch of the police, who indulge in the worst acts with complete impunity.
Throughout the day, Nahel was smeared with hatred, contempt and lies. The police unions congratulated the cop on his shooting, while the far-right and the state fabricated a criminal record for Nahel and went so far as to say that the only people responsible for his death were his parents, who had "failed to educate him". A cop arriving at the scene of the murder even said to a woman, "Go back to Africa", after they had just killed a kid.
More than ever, support the popular uprisings! Abolishing the police is a necessity!
We call on you to join all the rallies of support and spontaneous demonstrations against racism and police crime!
Let's demand justice and truth for Nahel.
-Fédération anarchiste
There is just no escaping the absolute inadequacy of statism and nationalism for resolving questions of social justice. Here the Anarchist tradition has an old proposal that looks much more promising.
In 2020, a record number of around 100,000 people6 lived in occupations in Belo Horizonte alone and the state of Minas Gerais had the second largest housing deficit in the country, with 500,000 homeless families.
Every genocide in history has had its foreign backers and profiteers. Prince Andrew, BP and the Tories of the APPGA should rightfully be seen no differently than the fascist sympathisers, industrialists and aristocrats that supported the Nazis.
Resistance also occurs in a form that is not at all confrontational, or in a very passive way. This is for example by pretending not to hear calls or orders, or pretending not to see officers present. Prison life is, in places, like a cat and mouse hide and seek.
"... The electricity and water supply line has been disrupted since last Saturday due to artillery shelling, and the maintenance crew has been prevented by the Rapid Support militia and the army militia.
Putin's regime is so repugnant that, on balance, any movement toward change is welcome. But one must realise that many of the possible scenarios are even darker than they are now. And some kind of anarchist scenario would be hypothetically possible only by our efforts. In such cases, the partisan response is to say: “Nobody but us”.