On Sunday, a thousand people protested against the government’s immigration law at the call of several groups in Paris on the 40th anniversary of the 1983 “march against racism,” RFI reported.
Forty years later, we are still marching for equal rights and justice, against racism and the Darmanin law.
The march went from Montparnasse to Place d’Italie, drawing a crowd of about 1,100 people, according to police. François Sauterey, co-president of Mrap (Movement against racism and friendship between peoples), declared:
“Forty years later, the problems are the same. Racism is still there. We are all here to protest against this lack of equality. It is absolutely necessary today that this Darmanin law is not a law which ends up excluding people who want to get here and who are already here.”
MP Eric Coquerel from the France Unbowed party demanded “the regularisation of undocumented workers, undocumented students, we must welcome them with dignity on our territory.” Sunday’s demonstration, organised jointly with the UCIJ (United against Disposable Immigration, for a welcoming migration policy), took place 40 years after the historic march “against racism and for equal rights” on December 3, 1983.
The French media dubbed it “Marche des Beurs” (Arabs in French slang), but the organisers rejected that name.
France’s upper house Senate passed a bill on November 14 aimed at controlling immigration, tightening the language and measures of the legislation in a way that makes it harder for the government to find a compromise in the lower house.
The text, which passed by a vote of 210 to 115 in favour, is now firmly bent on enforcement after its passage through the Senate.
