France Follow

Peter Fysh argues the French riots had both political and economic causes.

The two weeks of rioting across France have seen extraordinary confrontations between young people and the police.

The French Centre for Modern Art in Paris is featuring a rich exhibition about Dada until 9 January 2006.

The events in France over the last three weeks are more than a riot — they are an urban uprising on a scale not seen in Western Europe since the Second World War.

The riots in France have exacerbated the deep crisis facing all the country’s civic and political institutions. Many commentators have claimed this demonstrates a failure of the "French model of society", as if everything could be sorted out simply by prescribing more social programmes and rethinking what "citizenship" means. But this underestimates the situation.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s invective has focused on the "criminals" of France’s suburbs, and in particular the underground economy. But those we spoke to in Seine-Saint-Denis took a somewhat different view.

"The French have got it right," was the cry from some quarters after the riots in three of England’s northern towns four years ago.

The slums of France have risen in revolt.

Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, is known as the Banlieue Rouge, the red suburb.

Rachid Taha, the radical French Algerian singer, will join Brian Eno, Nitin Sawhney and others for the most exciting musical event of the year.

One million French workers struck and protested on Tuesday of last week. The popular strikes were called in opposition to attacks by the right wing government on the social security system and laws protecting workers.

French special forces stormed a Corsican ferry last week. Corsican trade unionists had seized control of the ship in protest at the privatisation of the SNCM ferry company.