Audio Activism

Check out this Wikipedia entry called 2005 civil unrest in France. What a large amazing amount of info! There are even tables of info like the day, number of cars burned, arrests, extent of riots, and sources. Amazing!

Yesterday I read a translation of a french news story on the blog Sketchy Thoughts about french bloggers being arrested in connection with the Paris riots. Today Guerilla Science links to a story on Boston.com from the AP that says two french teens “were to be placed under investigation, a step short of formal charges, for inciting harm to people and property over the Internet..”.

During the rioting, bloggers have posted appeals for calm alongside insults targeting police, threats of more violence and warnings that the unrest will feed support for France’s anti-immigration extreme right.

One of the blogs was called “sarkodead” — a reference to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who inflamed passions when he called troublemakers “scum.” Both “sarkodead” and “hardcore” were hosted by Skyblog, a branch of the popular Skyrock radio station.

The blogs were taken off line this weekend, and the radio station cooperated with police, judicial officials said.

The story is by Associated Press Writer, Pierre-Antoine Souchard. Here are all the links on Google news to other media sites carrying this story. I’m facinated by how long it takes a story to travel from French language media to English language media. Just how does this happen? Are reporters who write French and English writing multiple versions and then submitting them to news wires like the AP?

But back to the story… This appears to be a serious form of political harassment by the French police. If you belive the rioting in Paris is a form of class warfare you understand that these bloggers may be insurgents. I’m not suggesting that there is any justification for violence. But I do feel a sense of solidarity with those that are fighting a racist, classist, and unjust government. Hopefully we’ll get more information and see who these bloggers are, what they actually did, and why they are being investigated. May they have strength and resolve.

Here is some news coverage and thoughts about the riots going on in the suburbs of Paris from sources I trust.

From Free Speech Radio News:
Paris Still Burning
All night rioting in mostly immigrant towns around Paris left at least 300 cars burned. Last night was the worst violence in the past week’s clashed between youth and police, while Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was involved in talks between police and immigrant group representatives. France’s right-wing government is now facing a major crisis after the week of urban violence. Riots sparked off by the deaths of two teenagers have opened up divisions in the government’s ranks and is reminding the country of decades of neglect of low-income housing projects, which often house families of immigrant origin. FSRN Tony Cross has more from Paris.

(Section about the riots starts 11min 31sec into this mp3.)
FSRN 11/03/2005 MP3

From a friend who is fluent in French:
I read le monde. It’s like the NY Times. So I don’t how much bias I get. French newspapers tend to be more critical of their governments. Apparently Sarkozy the [French] Minister of Interior is just fanning the fire instead of doing something constructive.

This stuff has been brewing for years and the current french economic and political climate is not helping. There’s nothing more volatile as high unemployment and Giuliani-like view of criminal justice/desire to do everything like les Americains. They always present french racism & xenophobia + fear of all things muslim.

Some guy recommended the movie “la haine” to get a sense of youth disaffection in the suburbs. It’s by the french Spike Lee. [Mathieu Kassovitz] The French administration is not very liberal so who knows what may happen next. Those kids just have had enough of police brutality, everyday institutionalized racism, and poverty. They have nothing to lose. I don’t think they are gangs or hoodlums as Sarkozy wants everyone to believe…