SOS Racisme

SOS Racisme is a French anti-racist NGO, founded in 1984. Its Spanish counterpart, "SOS Racismo", is based in Barcelona.

Activities

SOS Racisme's main goal is to fight racial discrimination. Often the plaintiff in discrimination trials, the organization also offers support to immigrants and racial minorities that are facing discrimination. It is also heavily involved in protesting and publicising examples of discrimination in society and in the law.

SOS Racisme uses testing as a method to expose racial discrimination by finding where racial double-standards may exist. For example, two identical work applications might be submitted to a prospective employer, with the only difference being the name of the applicants. One with a name of French origin, the other with a name suggesting the one of an immigrant. Other testings could take place at a realty office, where two people whose only difference is race would both look for housing, etc… This tactic has led to numerous law suits for racial discrimination, especially against nightclubs.

SOS Racisme advocates making CVs anonymous when filing for employment but is firmly against affirmative action.Fact|date=August 2007

History

SOS Racisme is very close to the French Socialist Party ("Parti Socialiste"). Several important members of the party, as well as other leftist movements, helped create the association. The guiding principle of the association, brotherhood, is represented by the yellow hand logo upon which is written "Touche pas à mon pote". This slogan, which means "Hands off my pal!", was adopted upon the creation of the organization in October 1984. Indeed, SOS Racisme benefitted from open support from the PS in the 1980s, and many members of SOS-Racisme became high-level PS politicians: Harlem Désir, president of SOS Racisme from 1984 to 1992, is today a MEP (Member of European Parliament) for the PS; Fodé Sylla, president of SOS Racisme from 1992 to 1999 was at that time a member of the PS (he is now member of the Communist Party, PCF); his successor, Malek Boutih, is national secretary of the PS in charge of social issues (including immigration-related issues); finally, current director of SOS Racisme, Dominique Sopo, started political activism in the UNEF-ID socialist student trade-union, before taking membership in the youth organisation of the PS.

SOS Racisme believes that, to put an end to racial discrimination, changes must be made to methods of urban planning and to education. Since the early 1990s, it has denounced the ghettos that are on the outskirts of big cities. The association advocates integration, and often cites examples of successful immigrants or their descendants.

At the turn of the century, the anti-racism movement was in turmoil due to the situation in the Middle East. SOS Racisme declared support for the peace process in Israel that was interrupted by the Second Intifada. It also denounced a resurgence of antisemitism in a book jointly published in 2002 with the UEJF, a Jewish student organization. Since then, the two organizations have continued to collaborate. Their "Rire contre le racisme" event (Laughing against racism) is held annually since 2004 at the Zenith concert hall in Paris, where it has featured performances by comedians such as Michel Boujenah, Dany Boon, Jean-Marie Bigard and Gad Elmaleh. In 2003, they also founded a joint student association called FEDER ("Fédération des Enfants de la République") which runs for office in university elections.

In February 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, SOS Racisme organized public meetings to defend their publication.

According to its president, Dominique Sopo, the association was interested in the Alter-globalisation movement for a time, but has now distanced itself from it because of its "lack of clearness" with regard to Muslim fundamentalism and antisemitism.

Criticism

While often coming under fire from the far right, SOS Racisme is often criticized by the far left as well. Immigrants' associations and far left movements have often decried it as a puppet of the PS socialist party, and have in particular criticized its reformist and assimilationist stance, based on a classic Republican vision of a "meritocratic society," where social ascension is held to be favored by the Republic — a vision already denounced in the 1970s by the works of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.

Hamé, a member of the French rap band "La Rumeur" (The Rumor) wrote: "…through organizations such as SOS Racisme, created by the PS to contribute to the destruction of the Marche des beurs radicalism; 'Equal rights' has become 'Equal chances to be admitted into nightclubs'. Justice for those assassinated by the police is overshadowed by massive slogans such as "Hands off my pal!" and "Long live miscegenation!", etc… [Hamé, "La Rumeur Magazine", n°1, 29 April 2002]

Malek Boutih, president of SOS Racisme between 1999 and 2003, was often criticized for statements supporting immigration quotas made while a member of parliament, where he was the Socialist Party's point man on immigration affairs.

Presidents of SOS Racisme

* Harlem Désir, 1984–92
* Fodé Sylla, 1992–99
* Malek Boutih, 1999–2003
* Dominique Sopo, 2003–"present"

References

Bibliography

* Serge Malik, "L'Histoire secrète de SOS-Racisme"; Albin Michel, 1990; 185 p., ISBN 2-226-04818-9

External links

* [http://www.sos-racisme.org/ Official website]