Revolt in Paris

The mainstream press has been telling Europeans that "riots" have broken out in the Parisian Suburbs (Banlieu) this week. In calling them "riots", the popular imagination likens them to fires and other sorts of largely uncontrollable disasters. It's as if the French are merely being faced with an outbreak of civil unrest, and that someone from the ranks of the government will most assuredly figure out how to weather the storm within the coming days.

These aren't "riots". This is social rebellion, directed at decades of French imperial rule, and ultra-capitalist and racist policymaking at home. After the "decolonization" process finished in Africa (oddly leaving the former colonies entirely dependent on the Banque de France for their monetary policymaking and at the whim of French military decision-making), the colonized were supposed to be offered life in France as a sort of reparation for the destruction that went along with the imperial era. This, predictably, has turned out to be nothing more than a bone that the French have thrown at their dependents to try to keep them quiet. The idea is this: give them cheap, shitty housing away from the beautiful Metropole of Paris, give them minimum wage paying work, and hope that they shut up.

Obviously, "they" haven't shut up. The largely immigrant population of the northern Banlieu has grown tired of being shut out. What's more, this is nothing new. Over the last decade or so, urban revolt has been a regular, if not common occurrence. Fires, car bombings, random acts of violence, and vandalism are all part of life in Paris' most neglected district.