Primitive Revolt in the French Suburbs. An Essay on the Riots of Autumn 2005

The riots of autumn 2005 present elements of continuity & innovation. The actions of the rioters (burning of cars, pillage, destruction of public buildings) & the sequence of facts (incidents with the police, the death of an inhabitant, silent marches) have registered into the continuity of the riots that have occurred in France for 25 years, generating an intense emotion which causes incidents & confrontations between young people & police force. In a regular way, these riots become events in a political sense: debates & expressed emotions put questions regarding the suburbs in the center of public, political & scientific attention, followed by political & ideological discussion & confrontations, carried by political leaders & intellectuals that have little bond with urbanity, its subjects & its problems. An essay on the riots of autumn 2005 in the French suburbs, largely based on press releases that, according to the author, have to be seen in a political perspective, based on a relationship between dominant society & its disdained lower classes, & in a rational one, as it concerns rational acts, a cry for help regarding experienced injustice. In all cases, phenomena of racism, discrimination & ethnicity within social relations are at the heart of riots. O. van Zijl