This is the second time the gilets noirs have made the headlines in as many months. In late May, several hundred activists occupied a terminal in Charles De Gualle, France’s largest airport.

There they demanded a meeting with the CEO of Air France – the ‘official deporter of the French state’, and called on the airline to “stop any financial, logistical or political participation in deportations”.

Again, the activists sought to highlight the contradictions of their situation – it is normally only as baggage handlers, cleaners or security guards that they are allowed access to this terminal, which is reserved for internal EU flights and thus generally passengers who travel the world with ease.

This contrasts to the situation of gilets noirs and undocumented people across Europe, where the European Union’s ‘Dublin regulations’ means people are either stuck in a country in which they don’t want to be, or are being forced back to a country which they are desperately trying to avoid.

At their airport action, as with the demonstrations at Elior, they called for a meeting with the French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, demanding he grant them residency to live and work in the country.

Françafrique

As the activists held the lobby, waiting for their delegation to be received, people played music over a loud speaker. One song was ‘Africain à Paris’, from the award-winning artist Tiken Jah Fakoly, who details life in the capital as an African migrant.

As well as migration and the difficulties people face, another recurring theme in Fakoly’s music is the neocolonial relationship between France and its former colonies (known as ‘Françafrique’).

They sell us weapons,

While we fight,

They loot our riches,

And say they are surprised to see Africa still at war.

Françafrique by Tiken Jah Fakoly (2007)

This theme is also clear in the gilets noirs statements: they say they targeted Paris’ business district because it is “the heart of imperialism”, and list the complicity of the companies headquartered there:

...Total and Areva who plunder Africa, Suez who steals his water, Societe Generale who steals his money and who finances the pollution from Africa with coal-fired power plants, from Thales building the weapons with which they wage war. [...] The same people who destroy our lives over there are waging war here!

Kanouté said it was important to make the link explicit between the exploitation of migrants in France, and the exploitation of African countries by French companies.

“They don’t want countries in Africa to be independent, because then they can’t make a profit from us. They just want us to stay down on our knees, and then they can exploit our resources and make profits. And so it was very important to talk about this as well while we are in La Défense, because a lot of companies there are exploiting resources and selling arms in Africa. They are dividing people in Africa, so they can control them,” Mamadou added.