'We know who's first in line to benefit': why France's working-class districts are wary of September 10th protest
A major nationwide protest to “block everything” is due to take place across France on September 10th. However, the reaction of working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhoods to it remains a weak point of the protest movement. What often stops residents of these areas joining in such struggles is their own difficult living conditions, a fear that any backlash will hit them the hardest, and their wariness of a Left that shows little interest in “jointly constructing” a protest movement with them. Laura Wojcik reports on the views of residents and activists from working class districts in the Paris region and Marseille.
“We“We're not stooges, fill-ins, or window dressing,” says Almamy Kanouté, who lives in the Groux neighbourhood of Fresnes in the southern suburbs of Paris. He is a campaigner with the Comité Adama – which works for justice after the death of Adama Traoré in police custody in 2016 - and the local representative body the Assemblée des quartiers. As an activist who fights against injustice, Almamy Kanouté says he is “ready to block everything” for the planned September 10th protest in France. But he does not want people from working-class districts who take part just to be confined to the role of “good followers, good soldiers” who “simply follow the struggle”.
