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Viewing cable 05MARSEILLE102, MARSEILLE SPARED URBAN UNREST DURING RECENT RIOTS: WHY?

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
05MARSEILLE102 2005-11-29 11:15 2011-08-24 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Marseille
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MARSEILLE 000102 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/WE (KATHY ALLEGRONE, SUSAN BALL), INL, DRL 
PARIS FOR ECON, POL, PD FOR PAO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ECON FR
SUBJECT: MARSEILLE SPARED URBAN UNREST DURING RECENT RIOTS: WHY? 
 
1.  Summary:  Multiethnic and multiracial Marseille, home to 
about 
200,000 Muslims, and one of the poorest cities in France, was 
largely 
spared the unrest that shook France in November.  Why? 
Precisely 
because Marseille is a poor, multi-racial city, where the poor 
live in 
the center of town and not in the suburbs.  Marseille's 
municipality 
and civil society are also un-French in that they acknowledge 
the 
existence of religious and ethnic communities, and have put 
together 
mechanisms to interact with them.  The result is a city that has 
a 
remarkable ability to absorb immigrants and handle poverty.  It 
is of 
course not paradise.  This region is after all the home to many 
strongholds of the racist Front National Party.  However, the 
"Marseille exception" is real, and will fuel debate about the 
"French 
Integration Model" in the coming months.  End Summary. 
 
2.  GEOGRAPHY MATTERS.  OR: THERE IS A REASON IT IS CALLED "THE 
PANIER" 
 
One of the oldest districts of Marseille is called the Panier, 
or 
"basket", because it is hemmed in by the sea on one side, and 
the hills 
that form Marseille's outer limits on the other.  Waves of 
immigrants 
over the years have poured into this "basket", producing a 
mixture of 
race and heritage rarely found in French city centers.  Once 
mainly 
Corsican, now heavily North African, and recently home to a 
growing 
Chinatown, the Panier is just one of many similar neighborhoods 
in 
Marseille.  This port city has for centuries been a destination 
for 
immigrants and asylum seekers.  Hence you don't find in 
Marseille the 
disaffected suburban populations feeling outcast from the city 
center. 
Numerous immigrants interviewed about the lack of riots cited 
this 
sense of geographic belonging in their answers.  As one woman 
from 
North Africa told the Washington Post, ""We have our troubles, 
but I 
can go to the center of the city without thinking I am entering 
enemy 
territory.  We belong to Marseille and Marseille belongs to us." 
 
3.  COMMUNITIES ARE ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
As several recent articles have noted, Marseille is very 
un-French in 
that it freely acknowledges the many religious-based communities 
that 
make up the tissue of the city, and have developed municipal and 
civic 
mechanisms to interact with them.  A typical example is 
"Marseille- 
Esperance" a municipal innovation created in the 1990s.  It is a 
consultative council of religious leaders representing the major 
religions in Marseille that meets with the Mayor on an ad hoc 
basis and 
receives some office space from the city.  The importance of 
this 
organization is as a symbol of unity and belonging, and it has 
played a 
role in maintaining social peace during times of tension. 
 
4.  COMMUNITIES ARE ORGANIZED 
 
On November 17 CG attended a "dinner of sharing" offered by the 
Muslim 
association CORAI (Committee for Islamic Thought and Action) for 
close 
to 1,000 representatives of the local government and civil 
society.  It 
was held in a banquet hall across the street from the Velodrome, 
where 
Olympique Marseille plays, and bears witness to the most 
organized 
soccer fan base in France.  This evokes the thick web of local 
associations that lace through the poor quarters of Marseille. 
Associations such as "Jeunes Errants"; "Tolerance Esclavage 
Zero"; 
"Femmes d'ici et d'ailleurs"; "Ni Putes, ni soumises"  and 
"Observatoire pour la Non-violence", are all very active on the 
ground 
and confirm that they worked hard to prevent violence.  The 
President 
of the "Observatoire pour la Non-violence" described the concept 
of 
what he calls the "House of Marseille" saying that the youth of 
poor neighborhoods feel like Marseille is their home, and thus 
don't 
feel the desire to despoil it.  However, others, such as "Ni 
Putes, ni 
soumises" caution that the situation is still explosive, and in 
many 
cases is held in check not by the police, but by the leaders of 
the 
parallel economy, the celebrated "caids" of Marseille. 
 
5. WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT 
 
Marseille is still and has always been a poor city. 
Unemployment is 
higher than the national average, and 5 percent of the 
population 
receives the RMI (long term unemployment benefits).  Hence 
traditions 
of solidarity are strong here.  As one sociologist was quoted as 
saying 
in the local paper, "We share everything in Marseille:  Poverty, 
OM 
(Olympic Marseille soccer team) and the beach." The rise of 
Marseille 
as a trendy city, with the arrival of the TGV and the 
Euromeditereanee 
redevelopment project has not yet changed the strong traditions 
of 
solidarity that help new immigrants make their way. 
 
6. WE KNOW HOW TO KEEP THE LID ON 
 
To a certain degree, Marseille was spared because it has a long 
history 
of dealing with delinquent behavior, and has a surveillance 
network in 
place that works.  For example, during the height of the riots, 
police 
were able to stop an attempt to pillage a Marseille shopping 
mall 
because they had prior notice, and were deployed in strength 
when the 
bandits arrived.  The Prefect de Police, Bernard Squarcini, has 
a 
background in intelligence, and puts a lot of emphasis on good 
intelligence so that trouble can be anticipated.  He told 
Ambassador 
Stapleton during a recent meeting that because the local police 
maintain good contacts, he was able to deploy his forces in such 
a way 
as to stop trouble before it started.  It is also true that the 
parallel economy run out of some of the poorer housing projects 
has an 
interest in maintaining order as well, and has traditionally 
been 
tolerated to a degree not found in the North.  Local association 
contacts thought this was a large factor in the lack of 
violence. 
Comment:  Given the results of Squarcini's methods, it is not 
surprising that he was recently asked by Interior Minister 
Sarkozy to 
return to Paris.  For the moment, he is resisting these calls. 
However, it sounds like Squarcini has been using the community 
policing 
methods that the Minister of Interior has been criticized for 
neglecting. 
 
7. CAN FRANCE LEARN FROM MARSEILLE? 
 
Many will point to Marseille in the coming weeks as the "French 
Model 
of Integration" is debated.  Whether or not parts of the 
Marseille 
experience can be exported to other parts of France is certainly 
open 
to question.  The things that make Marseille different are also 
the 
things people often cite when the say Marseille is in some way 
not very 
French.  However, at the very least, the emphasis Marseille 
places on 
conscious interaction with religious and ethnic communities 
suggests 
that there is a way for France to modify the unitary, "we are 
all 
French" model of integration without betraying the ideals of 
French 
society. 
BREEDEN