SOS Racisme - History

History

SOS Racisme is very close to the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste). Several important members of the party, as well as other leftist movements, helped create the association. The guiding principle of the association, brotherhood, is represented by the yellow hand logo upon which is written Touche pas à mon pote. This slogan, which means "Hands off my pal!", was adopted upon the creation of the organization in October 1984. Indeed, SOS Racisme benefitted from open support from the PS in the 1980s, and many members of SOS-Racisme became high-level PS politicians: Harlem Désir, president of SOS Racisme from 1984 to 1992, is today a Member of the European Parliament for the PS; Fodé Sylla, president of SOS Racisme from 1992 to 1999 was at that time a member of the PS (and later a Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party, PCF); his successor, Malek Boutih, was national secretary of the PS in charge of social issues (including immigration-related issues); finally, current director of SOS Racisme, Dominique Sopo, started political activism in the UNEF-ID socialist student trade-union, before taking membership in the youth organisation of the PS.

SOS Racisme believes that, to put an end to racial discrimination, changes must be made to methods of urban planning and to education. Since the early 1990s, it has denounced the ghettos that are on the outskirts of big cities. The association advocates integration, and often cites examples of successful immigrants or their descendants.

At the turn of the century, SOS Racisme declared support for the peace process in Israel that was interrupted by the Second Intifada. It also denounced a resurgence of antisemitism in a book jointly published in 2002 with the UEJF, a Jewish student organization. Since then, the two organizations have continued to collaborate. Their Rire contre le racisme event (Laughing against racism) is held annually since 2004 at the Zenith concert hall in Paris, where it has featured performances by comedians such as Michel Boujenah, Dany Boon, Jean-Marie Bigard and Gad Elmaleh. In 2003, they also founded a joint student association called FEDER (Fédération des Enfants de la République) which runs for office in university elections.

In February 2006, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, SOS Racisme organized public meetings to defend their publication.