SOS Racisme

A movement of NGOs describing themselves as anti racist

SOS Rascime (ɛsɔɛs ʁasism) is a movement of NGOs which describe themselves as anti racist. The oldest chapter of SOS Racisme was founded in 1984 in France, and it has counterparts in several other European countries or regions. Its Norwegian branch, which claimed to be both the largest chapter of SOS Racisme and the largest anti racist organisation in Europe, was controversial for its strong Maoist stance and for defrauding the government, resulting in the organisation's conviction for fraud and its bankruptcy as well as criminal proceedings against its leaders. 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. 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); another president of SOS Racisme, , 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 Israeli–Palestinian peace process 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.

Its Norwegian branch SOS Rasisme was by far the largest chapter of SOS Racisme and claimed to have 40,000 members and 270 local branches. SOS Rasisme was closely affiliated with and largely controlled by the Workers' Communist Party and later by the Maoist party Serve the People – The Communist League (the Marxist Leninist Maoist faction which split from the Workers' Communist Party in 1997 as a result of an internal conflict), and was widely described as a front organization for those communist parties. SOS Rasisme went bankrupt in 2013 after being convicted of defrauding the government by exaggerating its membership, and 8 of its leaders, including its last President and its last Secretary General, were indicted for fraud, embezzlement and money laundering in 2015 and subsequently convicted and sentenced to prison in 2016. SOS Rasisme faced strong criticism from the media in Norway and from all mainstream political parties over several years due to its dominance by Maoists, and SOS Racisme has been widely considered politically extreme in Norway and was shunned by some other anti racist organisations.