World press:

Mini-May 1968?

Race riots have the French press dancing on the hot coals of social injustice. Serene Assir reviews

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Given the magnitude and unprecedented nature of the nationwide crisis that France is undergoing, it follows that the press across French- speaking countries has dedicated hundreds of up-to-the-minute reports, opinion pieces and investigative articles on the issue. Newspapers from across the global political spectrum have all become immersed in a debate which touches on subjects such as colonialism and integration, Intifada and the Republic, Islamism and Islamophobia, delinquency and political expression.

Most heated has been the debate in France on the causes of the riots, and on the French authorities' reactions. Many publications reflect a process of soul-searching that is currently underway in France, a country which usually takes prides in the theoretically mutually-dependent nature of concepts of the Republic and integration.

French broadsheet Le Monde published an interview this week with historian and political analyst Emmanuel Todd, in which he explains his view that the fact that the marginalised youths of Arab origin are protesting so violently against their situation in effect strengthens the concept of the Republic. "None of this would have happened," he says, "if the children of immigrants had not already internalised some of the most fundamental values in French society, such as freedom and equality."

Other writers focus their journalistic efforts on the polemic surrounding the stance taken by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, aka Sarko. Chief Editor Laurent Joffrin of Le Nouvel Observateur blames Sarkozy directly for the fact that the violence is still ongoing, after he was widely reported to have referred to the youths as "scum". His stance, Joffrin writes, is comparable to "walking around the ammunition store with a torch. In some cases words can be as lethal as weapons, or as Molotov cocktails". He is particularly critical of Sarkozy's position because he has failed to address the majority of members of the immigrant community.

Viewing the matter from a socio- economic perspective, Joffrin also writes that "the heart of the matter is the tragic failure of the Republic in the suburbs, that everyone whether on the Right or the Left is responsible for." Poverty and massive unemployment, he says, are the main culprits.

Columnist Jacques Juillard, also of Le Nouvel Observateu r, writes that in fact the values of liberty and solidarity have been long overshadowed in France by a culture of "money and consumerism", which are at the heart of "the spiritual misery of this society". Opting against taking for granted the successful implementation of France's fundamental political values and criticising his fellow countrymen of "hypocrisy", he writes: "The truth is that our suburbs reflect the stark mirror image of the inequalities and the material injustice that exist in our society."

Libération, meanwhile, featured a report by Didier Arnaud and Gilles Wallon, in which several people of Arab origin who chose to move out of the suburbs in order to escape the problems relating to unemployment and marginalisation are interviewed. The report highlights the location as the problem, rather than the migrants themselves. For the migrants interviewed, integration became easy as soon as they had moved away from the centres of poverty. Meanwhile, the report also highlights the identification of the migrants with the suburbs they grew up in, which, in many ways, is their true place of origin.

Across the Atlantic, the Canadian press did not stop short at raising the tone of its reports on the subject. A headline in the Quebecois Le Droit described the suburbs as "enflamed". The paper published a report by Françoise Gaynecoetche, in which she describes how she grew up in one of the French suburbs and the miserable conditions in which most people there actually live. "Let's hope that the old saying -- 'In France everything finishes with a song' -- will apply," she says.

It was in the independent Moroccan and Algerian press, however, that the closest look was taken at the backdrop of the situation, and that most attention was paid to the rapid escalation of events. Algerian independent Le Watan ran a report by Nadja Bouzeghrane, in which she described a Paris rally last weekend which condemned colonial systems and discrimination, and called for the establishment of fully equal rights.

The Maroc Hebdo International, on the other hand, published a headline which read: "When Paris burns". The story focussed on two youths killed after being chased by police and on the uproar caused by the use of tear gas against a mosque.

As for the Levantine press, in classic Lebanese style La Revue du Liban ran an article titled "Mini May '68 in France?" and described scenes across the French suburbs as reminiscent of "urban guerrilla" warfare.