The ''Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peuples'' (MRAP; Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples) is an
anti-racist
Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...
French
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
founded in 1949.
Origins and name changes
![Tractcreamrap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Tractcreamrap.png)
In 1941, the ''Mouvement national contre le racisme'' (MNCR, the "National Movement Against Racism") was created by several members of the
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
who believed that a specific struggle against
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
was a crucial part of France's liberation from
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
. One of their primary goals was to save as many black children as possible from
deportation
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
. The movement coordinated its actions with the
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
and
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
. Two clandestine
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
s, ''J'accuse'' in the
North zone and ''Fraternité'' in the
South zone, were established to counter the racist ideology of the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
s and the
Vichy state
Vichy (, ; ; oc, Vichèi, link=no, ) is a city in the Allier Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of central France, in the historic province of Bourbonnais.
It is a Spa town, spa and resort town and in World ...
.
On May 22, 1949, several MNCR members, including the painter
Marc Chagall and the
Social Catholic
Catholic social teaching, commonly abbreviated CST, is an area of Catholic doctrine concerning matters of human dignity and the common good in society. The ideas address oppression, the role of the state (polity), state, subsidiarity, social o ...
leader
Marc Sangnier
Marc Sangnier (; 3 April 1873, Paris – 28 May 1950, Paris) was a French Roman Catholic thinker and politician, who in 1894 founded '' Le Sillon'' ("The Furrow"), a social Catholic movement.
Work
Sangnier aimed to bring the Catholic Church i ...
, created the ''Mouvement contre le racisme, l'antisémitisme et pour la paix'' (Movement Against Racism, Anti-Semitism and for Peace). The group emphasized the role of anti-racism within their larger critique of
neo-nazism,
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, and the larger
Cold War.
The group was renamed the ''Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l'Amitié entre les Peuples'' in 1972, the name it is still known as today.
Postwar activism
After WWII, the MRAP targeted its anti-racist activism to support anti-colonialism within the ongoing French
wars of decolonization. They opposed the
Algerian War (1954–62) and were one of the few organizations to condemn the methods of the
police prefect Maurice Papon
Maurice Papon (; 3 September 1910 – 17 February 2007) was a French civil servant who led the police in major prefectures from the 1930s to the 1960s, before he became a Gaullist politician. When he was secretary general for the police in Bo ...
and the
Paris massacre of 1961
The Paris massacre of 1961 occurred on 17 October 1961, during the Algerian War (1954–62). Under orders from the head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, the French National Police attacked a demonstration by 30,000 pro- National Liberatio ...
.
In 1951, the group advocated in support of sixteen accused
Martinican
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
sugar cane cutters during the unsolved French criminal case known as the
Affaire des 16 de Basse Pointe.
The MRAP also critiqued the nature of the French economy's dependence on
immigrant labor during the period of economic growth known as the ''
Trente Glorieuses
''Les Trente Glorieuses'' (; 'The Glorious Thirty') was a thirty-year period of economic growth in France between 1945 and 1975, following the end of the Second World War. The name was first used by the French demographer Jean Fourastié, who ...
'' (1945 to 1974).
On January 6, 1956, at the
Hôtel Lutetia
The Hôtel Lutetia, located at 45 Boulevard Raspail, in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, is one of the best-known hotels on the Left Bank. It is noted for its architecture and its historical role during the Ge ...
in Paris, the MRAP award was given to
Jules Isaac to recognize the “great impact” against antisemitism made by Isaac’s two books ''Jésus et Israël'' (''Jesus and Israel'') and ''Genèse de l'antisémitisme'' (''Genesis of Antisemitism'').
The MRAP supported the
Pleven Act of July 1, 1972, which condemns incitations to racial hate and permits anti-racist associations to depose court suits against those who commit such
hate speech.
The MRAP was also engaged in international issues. It was active against
apartheid in South Africa
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
and within the struggle against
racism in the United States
Racism in the United States comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are related to each other, are held by various people and groups in the United States, and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and ...
(in particular by defending
Black Panthers member
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Mumia Abu-Jamal (born Wesley Cook; April 24, 1954) is an American political activist and journalist who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1982 for the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. While on death ...
).
Recent activities
Mouloud Aounit was its first general secretary (1989–2004), then president (2004–2008), then member of the presidential college (2008–2011) to not to belong to the
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...
(PCF).
Despite dropping the term from its name in 1972, the MRAP continues to be engaged against
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. They group also defends the rights of immigrants,
Romani peoples, and other forms of racism. It is also engaged in actions against the right and
far right. Currently, it concentrates its action against immigration-restricting laws and in favor of immigrants' rights, as well as denunciation of racism on the internet and against
historical revisionism (courtsuit deposed against
Bruno Gollnisch
Bruno Gollnisch (; born 28 January 1950) is a French academic and politician, a member of the National Front (FN) far-right party. He was a member of the European Parliament and was chairman of the European Parliamentary group ' Identity, Tra ...
, member of the
Front National
The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right:
Academic:
...
).
In some cases, it has also criticized the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
, criticizing
Ségolène Royal
Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election.
Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 201 ...
, the Socialist contender for the
2007 presidential election, when she released her program on security issues, stating that she was engaging in the "most dangerous kind of
populism".
The MRAP was engaged in the creation of the
alter-globalization
Alter-globalization (also known as alternative globalization or alter-mundialization—from the French alter- mondialisation—and overlapping with the global justice movement) is a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation an ...
NGO
ATTAC
The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...
in 1998.
Some argue that a dividing line has emerged between the anti-racist organizations in France with SOS Racisme and the LICRA on one side and the MRAP and the LDH on the other. The first two are characterized as reacting against racism and antisemitism (sometimes amalgamating antisemitism and anti-zionism) while the latter two broaden their goal to defend voting rights for foreign residents and opposing the ban of the Islamic headscarf in schools.
In 2006, the MRAP came to the defense of two women wearing headscarves who were refused service at a bed and breakfast in
Vosges
The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...
. The operator of the establishment,
Fanny Truchelut Yvette "Fanny" Truchelut is part owner of a bed-and-breakfast type of hostel in the department of Vosges, France. On August 11, 2006, Truchelut asked two female Muslim boarders to remove their headscarves in the public rooms of this hostel.
A lawsu ...
, was successfully sued for the refusal to provide a good or a service based on personal discrimination.
Opposition to genetic studies
The organization has voiced opposition to
genetic studies
Genetic analysis is the overall process of studying and researching in fields of science that involve genetics and molecular biology. There are a number of applications that are developed from this research, and these are also considered parts of ...
being carried out in France, following advances in science and the discovery of
DNA which now allows scientists to identify which
Y-haplogroup
In human genetics, a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup is a haplogroup defined by mutations in the non- recombining portions of DNA from the male-specific Y chromosome (called Y-DNA). Many people within a haplogroup share similar numbers of ...
a person or group belongs to. In the summer of 2015, a group of British scientists from the
University of Leicester
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_lab ...
wished to study the DNA of around a hundred local volunteers from the
Cotentin Peninsula
The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; nrf, Cotentîn ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its w ...
in
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, to find out “the intensity of the Scandinavian colonisation” from the 9th century
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
invasions. Despite the French state agreeing to this, MRAP and local member Jacques Declosmenil attempted to obstruct the scientific study, saying that the scientific results "will build on the idea that there are real
Normans
The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
and fake Normans."
Image gallery
File:Mrapcrea1.png, Opening gala for the first MRAP Congress (1949).
File:Palantcharles.png, Charles Palant (1949), former chairman of the Youth committee of LICRA
The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism—or Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l'antisémitisme (LICRA) in French—was established in 1927, and is opposed to intolerance, xenophobia and exclusion.
In 1927, French journ ...
, who became one of the founders of MRAP in 1949, and its General Secretary from 1950 to 1971.
File:MRAPdroit&liberte.png, On September 19, 1949, the newspaper ''Droit et Liberté'' (Right and Freedom) becomes the propaganda organ of MRAP.
See also
*
France in the twentieth century
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
*
Human rights in France
Human rights in France are contained in the preamble of the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic, founded in 1958, and the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. France has also ratified the 1948 Universal Declaration o ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mrap (Ngo)
Anti-racism in France
Anti-racist organizations in Europe
Human rights organizations based in France
Non-profit organizations based in France
Far-left politics in France
Organizations established in 1949
French Communist Party
Immigrant rights organizations