Spring 2001, Toulouse (south-west France, Occitania region): A new local network of "active citizens", ranging from social workers, neighborhood and tenants’ grassroots associations, first and second generation immigrants, feminists, trade-unionists, Occitanians, antiracist and cultural activists, artists and other individuals, decides to run for local elections without the backing of institutional political parties, under the banner of “Motivé-e-s”, the Motivated.

The campaign is well publicized thanks to the now top-of-the-charts musical group Zebda, strongly involved alongside the “Tactikollectif”, both originating from the Toulousian popular neighborhoods and committed to independent political and cultural activities since the early eighties.

Motivé-e-s' electoral campaign items get to the mainstream national media and put the need for more local democracy on the French political agenda by implementing an active participation of inhabitants and ordinary citizens in political decision-making. Motivé-e-s obtains a surprising 12,5 % of the votes and four people are elected to the Toulouse city council. More significantly, some of their main political ideas concerning direct democracy are taken into account by the main official politicians.

Meanwhile, right-wing officials supported the shameful slogan "pas d'Arabes au Capitole" (No Arabs in the City council), because the Motivé-e-s leader, Salah Amokrane, is from Arab-Berber descent. This overtly racist statement has been a shock, specifically to Motive-e-s’ Arab membership, but also to many other people in the city. Traditionally, Toulouse has been a stronghold for anti-fascist activities since decades ago: the Spanish anti-Franco militants had been quite influent in local politics, and Toulouse is a well known no-go area for Jean-Marie Le Pen and the National Front since in the mid-1980s, the hall where a National Front meeting was to be held, was bombed by SCALP –“Section Carrément Anti-Le Pen” (The Overtly Anti- Le Pen Group).

This doesn't mean that all racists are out of the picture. There may be more sneaky ones, but when citizens from Arab descent get involved in mainstream politics alongside their French allies and represent local communities all together, low profile racists just can't stand up. But a number of antiracist do-gooders and state politicians are not at ease either: somehow they are scared of possible “communitarian” politics, that is groups organizing themselves outside of the traditional state political circles and/or favoring racial, ethnic, or religious ties between people. “Islam phobia” for instance is on the rise in Toulouse as elsewhere. Ten days after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, a terrible explosion occurred in the local chemical factory AZF: 31 people were killed, thousands injured and nearby popular estates got destroyed.

A temporary French worker of Muslim descent, killed during the accident, has been publicly accused as a fundamentalist suicide-bomber. This accusation was completely dropped because of lack of evidence, but the worker’s relatives suffered a large shock. Motivé-e-s then joined the collective “Plus jamais ça” (Never again), to fight both against capitalist "industrial terrorism" and the stigmatization of Muslims.To address the ethnic dilemma, Salah Amokrane and the Motivé-e-s run again for the general legislative elections in June 2002, after initiating with other groups in France a call for a social movement against Le Pen and his voters (17 %) at the April 21 presidential elections, but also against Chirac who once denounced immigrants' "noise and smell" and against "this institutional left which has failed".

This public call was completely boycotted by the media, while immigrants were again seen as suspicious or unequal. As a result, Zebda and Tactikollectif, very disappointed by their many allies, didn’t believe much any more in getting to their point through mainstream politics and don’t want to become buffoon tokens for media shows.

Therefore, Motivé-e-s decided to join a nation wide independent network, l'Interlocale, including Motive-e-s local groups across the country, DiverCité in the Lyon area, the MIB in Paris, etc. The Interlocale intends to tackle a number of social, cultural and political issues on a local scale, but also internationally, linking together politics and culture, anti-racism and the social movement. "Act local, Think global" as José Bové, the militant farmer and also a supporter of Motivé-e-s, says. These actions include a newspaper, workshops dealing with art, music and the internet, concerts and meetings and demonstrations centered on anti-racist issues (the “Double Peine” (Double Sentence: when illegal immigrants serve prison time before being expulsed, anti National Front, etc.)

During 2003, the network will organize inter-regional events around the issue of Equality and Justice for all, 20 years after the successful “Marche pour l'Egalité” (March for Equality), which gathered 100 000 people in Paris.

Motivé-e-s (Motivated) , 30 rue des Quêteurs, 31000 Toulouse