Douce France
(Sweet France) - a film about the struggles of Arab and immigrant communities
in France
VHS / PAL / 52’ / 1992
by Mogniss H. Abdallah and Ken Fero
At the French regional elections in March '92, the far-right Front National won at least 30% of the votes in almost every banlieue (housing estates) where there have been uprisings in the last decade. In a local referendum in Hautmont in June, 88% of the people voted to support the racist policies of the Mayor against youth gathering in the town centre. Althougl unemployment is a national concern, people despise the young unemployed immigrants. Social discrimination mixes up with racism and brings hell to the banlieues. Fights take place between the police and the youth. Regularly youth are beaten up or killed.
In October 1990, Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon, exploded after;
young immigrant was killed by the police. The uprising shook French society and the death of another young Arab at the hands of the police on the 10th October this year has provoked the same violent reaction from the youth.
Since the late 70's, young immigrants have organised to fight back, especially the young beurs (a slang word for Arabs). The Arab community has confronted direct French racism since the French lost, politically speaking, the war in Algeria. The emerging militant "beur movement" achieved some successes in the 80's: the March for Equality, a network of local community associations and a growing cultural movement.
After a very brief love-affair between the political establishment and the beurs came the time of mistrust and suspicion. Following racist clashes in a Talbot car factory in 1984 the young Arabs refused the attempted split between acceptable beurs and unacceptable Arabs and made their stand clear "We are Arabs". Today, their parents have started to speak abou their own experience of racism in French society, such as the massacre o over 200 Algerians by police in Paris in October 1961. This combination of the militancy of the youth and the experience of the older generation has put Islam, and Arab culture, firmly on the agenda and is challenging the French model of the Republic; "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" - For whom?
