"The Survivals of the Seine": in Marseille, 65 years after October 17, 1961, we demand justice
From Saturday, October 17 to Thursday, October 22, 2026, the October 17, 1961 Marseille Collective marks the 65th anniversary of the massacres of October 17, 1961, with a series of mobilizations: a rally, workshops, meetings, and a film screening. Its title, "The Survivals of the Seine," and its slogan: The water did not wash away the blood. 65 years later, we demand justice. The Jean-Luc Einaudi Friends Association is among the organizations supporting this program.
A State Crime
For the collective, October 17, 1961, was not the rogue action of a police prefect: it was a state crime, decided upon, covered up, and silenced by a government.
The curfew imposed on October 5, 1961, solely on "Muslim Frenchmen from Algeria" extended a state racism forged in the colonies. On the 17th, at the call of the FLN's Federation of France, tens of thousands of Algerian men and women marched in Paris to demand liberation and justice. Protesters were killed, thrown into the Seine; more than eleven thousand were arrested. Police Prefect Maurice Papon acted under the authority of Interior Minister Roger Frey and Prime Minister Michel Debré: it was an entire state apparatus striking, then organizing the silence of the river.
Sixty-five years later, in Marseille, a collective of teachers, community actors, researchers, and activists is meeting again so that this massacre is recognized for what it is: a state crime.
"We are reborn from the ashes"
Every autumn, the same ritual returns — a wreath, a sentence, a minute of silence — which allows those in power to occupy the commemorative stage while dodging the demand for truth, justice, and reparation. The collective rejects this role: "We are the heirs of those they sought to drown. We are not commemorating, we are being reborn." To inherit is to turn this history into a force for emancipation and liberation.
The initiative is part of the national mobilization led by the association Au Nom de la Mémoire (In the Name of Memory).
Three Demands
- Honor our dead — name, remember, cherish: restore to the victims the name and place that official history has denied them.
- Put knowledge to the test — subject to criticism the theoretical, practical, and strategic knowledge born from social mobilizations, socio-educational action, the trade union world, and academic research.
- Carry out advocacy — build together the arguments for a true political recognition of October 17, 1961.
The program: five events
Saturday, October 17, 4:00 PM — "Word Carriers"
Popular education workshop · Vieux-Port, under the mirror shade
What does Marseille know about October 17, 1961? What traces of it does the city keep, and what horizon does it draw around the decolonization of space and thought? With microphone, paper, and open ears, the workshop collects the stories and memories of the people of Marseille: the archive of a colonial crime does not only sleep in the vaults of the Republic; it circulates in families, settles in neighborhoods, and lodges in the silences.
Saturday, October 17, 5:30 PM — Rally for the 65th anniversary: "Naming the crime"
Vieux-Port, under the mirror shade
October 17, 1961, was a major political turning point in the power struggle between the counter-insurgency war waged by the French state and the resistance of Algerian immigrants, led by the FLN's Federation of France. Long obscured, this massacre remains a political issue: the rally aims to have it known and recognized in Marseille, and demands full and complete recognition from public authorities.
Tuesday, October 20, 7:00 PM — "Colonial crimes and mutilated history"
Literary meeting with novelist Faïza Guène · Dar Yumi, 4 place du Dr-Igonet, Port-de-Bouc
What does violence do to us, and what do we do with this violence? From bodies thrown into the Seine in 1961 to the violence targeting young people in working-class neighborhoods today, a common coloniality works upon our gaze, our bodies, and our stories. Drawing on literary and political texts, the meeting explores the places of individual and collective reconstruction and the processes of reparation.
Contact: Dar Yumi — daryumi.asso@gmail.com
Wednesday, October 21, 7:00 PM — "Women in the War of Liberation"
Public meeting and readings, with Zohra Boukenouche, Elias Belhaouas, and Elsa Einaudi · Librairie Transit, 51 boulevard de la Libération, Marseille 1st
From the laughter of Djamila Bouhired, cast on July 15, 1957, into the faces of the judges sentencing her to death, to the footsteps of Algerian women pounding the pavement of Paris on October 17 and 20, 1961: one and the same backbone, straight, standing, demanding liberation and justice. What are we doing with this legacy in the streets of Algiers, Paris, and Marseille?
The evening pays tribute to Elaine Mokhtefi, an anti-colonial activist who passed away on September 11, 2026.
Contact: Librairie Transit — contact@transit-librairie.org
Thursday, October 22, 8:30 PM — The Silence of the River
Screening and discussion hosted by ACT, in the presence of Mehdi Lallaoui · L’Alhambra Cinema, 2 rue du Cinéma, Marseille 16th
The film by Agnès Denis and Mehdi Lallaoui (1991) draws on interviews with witnesses and protagonists, period documents, and sequences filmed today to shed light on the violent repression that fell upon Algerian protesters on October 17, 1961, in Paris. Mehdi Lallaoui is the author of more than fifty documentaries on the history of immigration and urban and colonial memory, including The Sétif Massacres, a certain May 8, 1945, From the Slums to Public Housing, and In the Footsteps of Frantz Fanon.
Contact: Centre de ressources sur les migrations ACT — direction@approches.fr
All week
New education workshops in regional high schools, with ACT – Approches Cultures & Territoires.
The collective's organizations
The program is proposed by the October 17, 1961 Marseille Collective, with: ACT – Approches Cultures & Territoires; Association les ami·es de Jean-Luc Einaudi; Au nom de la mémoire; Cinéma L’Alhambra; Cris Écrits; Dar Yumi; GFEN Provence; Guide du Marseille colonial; La courte échelle / Éditions Transit; Librairie Transit; Mémoires en Marche Marseille; Mtsachiya; NAQD; Transborders Marseille.
Contact the collective: marseille17octobre1961@gmail.com
Illustration: Kamel Khélif, plate from Dans le cœur des autres (Le Tripode, 2024). Texts: October 17, 1961 Marseille Collective.