'We're not asking for the moon': Forty years on, what legacy for French anti-racism march?

Our reporters caught up with Djamel, Farid, Marilaure and Toumi, some of the protagonists of the 1983 march. Heroes to a whole generation of immigrants and second-generation immigrants in France, they bring us an uncompromising view of their initiative that shook up French society, but also on what has happened since.

Indeed, these "marchers" often take a bitter view of the shortcomings, failures and unfulfilled promises of French politicians, and of the isolation that the inhabitants of working-class neighbourhoods still face too often. Forty years on, the legacy of the March for Equality and Against Racism resonates more than ever in a fractured French society where so little has changed.

English translation: Nicholas Rushworth and Shirli Sitbon

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