classless Kulla

«This text, based on Emilio Quadrelli’s interviews in the Paris banlieues during and after the 2005 events, overthrows the whole spectrum of slurs against the racialised, pathologised racaille. The myth of an all-boy riot is trashed by female combatant leaders, and leftist commonplaces incur special scorn, above all those about the inarticulate cry for help of the ‘socially excluded’. (…)

There has been much talk of cars burned as if this had been the only target, but in reality the main targets were other things, the police and the police stations obviously, and a little bit was said about this, in part because when they started talking about criminal command [of the riots], which didn’t exist, talk of an attack on police stations could have supported that thesis. But it was not only the police who came under attack. Temporary work agencies and ‘state community centres’ were attacked and destroyed no less than the police stations. There was no trace of this in the press or on television, or, when it was mentioned, it was shown simply as a secondary effect…. the temp agencies and the community centres were not burned by chance, they were deliberately attacked no more and no less than the police stations. (…)

It’s true, statistics indicate that unemployment is concentrated in the banlieue, but this is a partial truth. In reality the banlieue is the place of the greatest concentration of unregulated work, so that the real paradox is that no-one works as hard as those who are officially unemployed.»

Grassroots political militants: Banlieusards and politics (libcom)

(Hat Tip: Oona)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2012 at 18:35 and is filed under Categorized, Lektüre