President Chirac has proclaimed 10 May in perpetuity a day of commemoration for the victims of slavery. This is certainly, in large part, due to the recent disturbances in France and the need to distance the French government from perceptions that it is racist. It is, nonetheless, a decent thing to do.
As Chirac said:
"Slavery fed racism," he said. "When people tried to justify the unjustifiable, that was when the first racist theories were elaborated.
"Racism is a crime of the heart and the spirit... which is why the memory of slavery remains a living wound for some of our fellow citizens."Mr Chirac said he would propose a "European and international initiative" to tackle any company still using slave labour.
"We must ensure that when western companies invest in poor or emerging
countries they respect basic labour rules such as have been lain out in
international law," he said.
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