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France

Gaza’s Call To The World: Unveiling The Silent Message Of The Red Triangle

Did you know an international conference was held in France on November 9 under the title ‘International Humanitarian Conference for Gaza’s Civilian Population’? According to the French foreign ministry website, the conference “involved states, main donors, international organizations and NGOs active in Gaza” to promote “compliance with international humanitarian law, the protection of civilians and humanitarian staff, and the strengthening of humanitarian access.” If you did not know, we do not blame you. The conference, after all, was meant to distract from the Israeli genocide in Gaza by giving the impression that Western governments still have the political power to control or, at least, influence the future of Gaza.

To Palestine: Lessons From Overthrowing The French In Algeria

Sixty-six years ago, in the midst of a raging war, the renowned French-Algerian writer Albert Camus delivered his most perilous political speech. On the surface, his speech called for a civil truce in Algeria, but beneath the surface, it subtly rejected Arab nationalist aspirations. In its essence, Camus expressed a humanist commitment to shared possibilities in a land shared by colonizers and the colonized. Amidst calls for armed resistance, Camus, a member of the Pieds-Noirs, the French-Algerian community, positioned himself as an outsider to the colonizer/colonized dichotomy. He aimed to be a mediator, above all, who despised indiscriminate violence and sought dialogue, and a truce, among the French and the Arabs of Algeria.

‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 35: Tanks Besiege Gaza City Hospitals

The Gaza Ministry of Health said that Israeli army tanks were surrounding the al-Rantisi and al-Nasr hospitals in Gaza City on Friday, as medical centers across the besieged Gaza Strip were subjected to an escalation of Israeli bombardment in the past 24 hours. “Thousands of patients, medical staff, and displaced people are trapped inside hospitals, without water and food, and are at risk of death at any moment. The world should be ashamed of itself for not doing anything in the face of massacres, and targeting and besieging hospitals,” Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra wrote. Al-Jazeera meanwhile reported that Israeli forces had carried out strikes throughout the night very close to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

Paris: Thousands March Demanding Immediate Ceasefire In Gaza

On October 22, a massive rally of around 30,000 people in solidarity with Palestine was held in the French capital, Paris. The mobilization was organized by a coalition of progressive activists calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and an end to the “massacre in Gaza.” The march was led by the National Collective for a Just and Lasting Peace Between Palestinians and Israelis (CNPJDPI), consisting of members of about 40 progressive movements including trade unions like the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), youth and student groups, anti-imperialist and anti-war advocates, and progressive political parties including La France Insoumise (LFI).

France Has Withdrawn From Niger

As of October 23, France completed its military withdrawal from Niger following months of local protests. From 2013 to 2022, France deployed over 3,000 troops to the countries of the G5 Sahel (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) as part of a counterterrorism mission known as Operation Barkhane. After coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and now Niger, all three countries have expelled the French presence. While coverage in western media has fixed on the coups themselves, the story on the ground is more complicated. The actions of the coup governments are backed by broad social movements and popular opposition to France’s relationship to the region, which extends far beyond Operation Barkhane.

She Exposed One Of The World’s Biggest Banks; They Ruined Her Life

Warning signs of the instability of the global financial system abounded in the months leading up to the 2008 Lehman Brothers crash. Among these early signs were the astounding revelations about UBS, the world’s largest private bank, by Stephanie Gibaud, who was employee at the bank’s French division. Gibaud refused instructions given to her and other employees to delete all their company files. In doing so, she helped reveal a vast web of corruption and fraud linking UBS to a shadowy tax evasion scheme. More than 15 years later, Gibaud has endured harassment, professional ostracization, lawsuits, and threats.

France Threatens To Dissolve Pro-Palestine Organizations

The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has deemed that displaying a flag or expressing support for the Palestinian people is an anti-Semitic act and is threatening to prosecute and even dissolve social or political organizations that do so. The French government has started laying the groundwork for an escalation in the criminalization of the Palestinian cause. At the same time, there has been a police and military presence deployed outside all Jewish places of worship in France, and the Minister of the Interior has already begun equating any form of criticism of the policies of the State of Israel with antisemitism.

France Bans Pro-Palestine Rallies

French police have banned two rallies scheduled for 12 October in solidarity with Palestinians being slaughtered in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces. The protest ban was implemented “taking into account the risk of disturbance to public order,” according to French media citing police officials. The decision was taken two days after security forces violently repressed a pro-Palestine rally in France's second city of Lyon, using tear gas and batons to break it up. The police attacks and bans on pro-Palestine rallies come as French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Morett issued a circular to the courts saying that any form of public support for Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Gaza resistance be prosecuted for advocating terrorism.

Shouldn’t The United Kingdom And France Relinquish Their Permanent Seats At The United Nations?

At its fifteenth summit in August 2023, the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) group adopted the Johannesburg II Declaration, which, amongst other issues, raised the question of reforming the United Nations, particularly its security council. To make the UN Security Council (UNSC) ‘more democratic, representative, effective, and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries’, BRICS urged the expansion of the council’s membership to include countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The declaration specifically noted that three countries – Brazil, India, and South Africa – should be included if the UNSC’s permanent members are expanded.

Macron Says France Will Withdraw Troops, Ambassador From Niger

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that French will remove its troops and ambassador from Niger, as the military junta that took over the country in July wants French forces out. “France has decided to bring back its ambassador, and in the coming hours our ambassador and several diplomats will return to France,” Macron said on French TV, according to AP. “And we will put an end to our military cooperation with the Niger authorities.” The comments show France is backing down from its hardline position on the military junta that ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum.

Is This The End Of French Neo-Colonialism In Africa?

In Bamako, Mali, on September 16, the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger created the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of the transitional government of Mali, wrote that the Liptako-Gourma Charter which created the AES would establish “an architecture of collective defense and mutual assistance for the benefit of our populations.” The hunger for such regional cooperation goes back to the period when France ended its colonial rule. Between 1958 and 1963, Ghana and Guinea were part of the Union of African States, which was to have been the seed for wider pan-African unity. Mali was a member as well between 1961 and 1963.

France Out Of Africa, US And NATO Too: Activists Picket The United Nations GA

On Tuesday September 19, the opening day of the United Nations General Assembly, anti-imperialist activists rallied outside the UN Headquarters in New York City to demand that France end its imperialist meddling in West Africa and the Sahel. Organizers with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the December 12th Movement, Bridging Africa and Black America, and others denounced the neocolonial policies of the European nation and voiced solidarity and support to Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Niger, which recently underwent coups opposing French neocolonialism. Activists demanded that France end its neocolonial exploits in the Sahel, principally Niger. 

France: Stellantis Workers Walk Out To Demand Breaks Amid Heat Wave

Last week, France was blanketed by a dome of heat, resulting in exceptionally warm temperatures. It even broke the previous record set in 1949, making September 4 the hottest day ever recorded in France during the month of September. The French national meteorological service, Météo-France, points to a remarkably long and intense heat wave which has lasted late into the season, clearly pointing to the impact of climate change, which tends to extend summer heatwaves. At the Stellantis plant in Hordain, France, where Peugeot and Citroën vehicles are assembled, outside temperatures exceeded a scorching 30°C (86°F) every afternoon from September 5 to 10.

Niger’s Government Accuses France Of Mobilizing For War

Questioning the “sincerity” of France’s comments about the withdrawal of its troops from Niger, the transitional military government, the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), has accused the former colonizer of mobilizing for war. CNSP spokesperson Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane said on September 9 that a “hundred or so rotations of [French] military cargo planes unloaded large quantities of war material and equipment” in multiple member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He added that “two A400M type military transport aircraft and a Dornier 328 were deployed as reinforcements in Ivory Coast”, and “two Super Puma type multi-role helicopters” and “around forty armored vehicles” have been deployed “in Kandi and Malanville in Benin”.

No Respite For France As A ‘New Africa’ Rises

By adding two new African member-states to its roster, last week's summit in Johannesburg heralding the expanded BRICS 11 showed once again that Eurasian integration is inextricably linked to the integration of Afro-Eurasia. Belarus is now proposing to hold a joint summit between BRICS 11, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).  President Aleksandr Lukashenko's vision for the convergence of these multilateral organizations may, in due time, lead to the Mother of All Multipolarity Summits. But Afro-Eurasia is a much more complicated proposition.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.