We don’t want any wars

THE EDITOR, Madam:

International news coverage of terrible fires and riots in Paris and many other French cities over the past days, ignited some memories of my own. First, I recalled my schoolboy history lessons of the French Revolution that began in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille, and resulted in King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette both losing their heads, courtesy of Monsieur Joseph-Ignace Guillotine.

The French motto of ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ was adopted during the decade-long revolution, and when the current unrest exploded after a teenager’s tragic death at a police traffic check last week, I began to wonder about that national motto. Did the teenagers who came out in huge numbers to protest how their compatriot lost his young life, really enjoy those lofty patriotic values, or were they feeling ostracised and disenfranchised as racial minorities? Protesters as young as 12 years old, mainly of Arab and African descent, initially received sympathy from many foreign observers, until the violence took over.

Sympathy was lost when they started burning vehicles, torching police stations and town halls, looting supermarkets and tech stores, etc, etc. Thousands of protesters were arrested, as things turned really ugly, and damage worth millions of francs was incurred. It bore an eerie resemblance of what happened in many American cities following the death of George Floyd in 2020, when many establishments were torched during ‘Black Lives Matter’ riots. A huge police presence in France, coupled with pleas from the teenage victim’s family and members of the French football team – with its many wonderful players of African and Arab heritage – helped to quell the riots, for now.

HUGE MOVEMENT

I know from experience that street protests need not turn violent to produce a definite result, having participated in a 1969 anti-Vietnam War protest. Working as chief mate on a bulk-carrier bound for Baltimore, the trainee marine pilot guiding the vessel through the Chesapeake Bay suggested I join him in the well-advertised protest the next day. It was part of a huge movement right across America. Everything seemed well-organised, having received the necessary permits from the authorities. All these years later, I can remember how those in charge stressed there must be no violence, no throwing of any type of missiles, no abuse aimed at law enforcement officials – even though they were referred to as ‘pigs’. We were told to sing and chant as loudly as possible. John Lennon’s Give Peace A Chance was only recently released, and there were many similar anti-war songs, but the chant remains in my memory until this day. It was simple and very effective: ‘1–2–3–4, We Don’t Want No F***in’ War !!’.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada