Justice for Nahel – Justice for all: no peace without justice and action!

On June 27, 17-year-old Nahel was shot dead in cold blood during a police checkpoint in Nanterre. Once again in our country, a young man from a working-class neighborhood has lost his life. A family has been shattered. A life has been brutally interrupted.

First and foremost, the Union Départementale CGT des Bouches-du-Rhône extends its condolences to his mother, family and friends.

Once again, the police have killed. Nothing can justify a refusal to comply resulting in death. Some journalists, doing the bidding of those in power, are trying to sully his memory by turning him into a culprit.

We are all too familiar with the rhetoric aimed at trivializing police violence, demonizing working-class neighborhoods, young people, those who fight injustice, those who raise their heads and resist.

What young person can feel safe when racist rhetoric and acts are legitimized by those in power? Who can tolerate the establishment of state racism in our country, and the fact that some of our own people are thrown to the sword at the risk of their lives?

Today, all young people, especially those from working-class neighborhoods, know that they could have been in Nahel’s place, and that they could be in the future. 2023 is a murderous year: there have already been 14 murders for refusal to obey. The revolts rumbling through our country are a cry of anger to demand justice: there can be no peace without justice! The CGT 13 is clear: these revolts are legitimate, and the murder of our children with impunity in our country is over.

We demand immediate and decisive action:

+ The immediate suspension of the murderer and his accomplice, and their swift trial, with the investigation moved to another location,

+ The immediate lifting of curfews in certain communes and an immediate halt to repression, the use of the RAID and police violence,

+The repeal of the 2017 Cazeneuve law on “self-defense”, which constitutes a veritable license to kill,

+ The immediate resignation of Interior Minister Darmanin.