France: police killing sparks mass fury

Spectre of Communism

Last week, a French policeman shot an unarmed French-Algerian teenager (Nahel M.) in the chest after a traffic stop. Before pulling the trigger, Nahel was told “I will lodge a bullet in your head”. A video of the brutal slaying was uploaded to social media, resulting in a massive outpouring of rage that swept the country.

Police violence in France is the worst in Western Europe, and this latest outrage occurs at a time when President Macron’s government is already weak and despised, fresh off the back of a powerful struggle against his unpopular pensions ‘reform’.

The tremendous tensions in French society are ready to brim over at any moment: all that is needed is for the workers’ movement and the left to connect the masses’ disparate struggles into a political programme to overthrow Macron, along with the rotten capitalist regime he represents.

Jules from Révolution, French section of the IMT, joins us once again to discuss the situation in the country, and perspectives going forward. You can read the French comrades’ latest statement on these developing events here: https://www.marxist.com/france-teenager-murdered-by-police-the-workers-movement-must-intervene.htm