"We are hit by high unemployment and insecurity, and the only pathway the kids have to succeed sometimes is through drugs or delinquency. "It's kind of like 'le Bronx' here," he says, comparing his community to the mythical New York city borough. He says this McDonald's is now a vital part of the neighborhood. Over the next two decades, Guemari built a career and helped pull other young people off the streets, giving them the same chance he'd been given. The Salt Why McDonald's In France Doesn't Feel Like Fast Food "At that time, Ronald toured the neighborhoods bringing magic to the kids to help them forget their worries," he says. The person who changed his life? "Ronald McDonald," he tells me. Guemari says he could have gone that route had he not met someone else in these projects 20 years ago. He points to a kid wearing a ski mask outside his old apartment building - a lookout for the dealers. He lived partly on the street and dabbled in drug dealing. Guemari says that as a teenager, he was hit hard by his parents' divorce.
Drug dealers sit in chairs at some of the buildings' entrances. The grounds around the buildings are littered with old couches and overspilling dumpsters. We drive through clusters of impersonal high-rises. Guemari takes me for a ride to show me the neighborhood where he grew up. He has been working here for 20 years, rising up through the ranks after getting his first job at 16. Guemari has a neat dark beard and kind brown eyes. "We've been expecting you!" he said warmly. I was greeted by Kamel Guemari, a manager at the restaurant and the 37-year-old leader of the resistance. The Salt A Battle Royale To Keep McDonald's Out Of Historic Food Hub In Paris On the outside were signs bearing slogans like "We want to work!" and "Dialogue now!"
#Asterix and the vikings logo windows
But as I got closer, I saw that its windows were covered with black plastic trash bags taped up on the inside. But the jobs have long dried up.Īt first glance, this "Macdo," as the American fast-food giant is known in France, looked like any other. These golden arches sit in the middle of public high-rises, built to house workers and their families who came to France from places like Algeria and Morocco during the economic boom years of the 1970s. The McDonald's in question is a 20-minute cab ride from the Mediterranean city's historic port, in a neighborhood in the city's north that's known for crime and drug gangs. The French fighting for Ronald? I had to go find out why. And the actions of an anti-globalization farmer named José Bové, who tried to dismantle a McDonald's 20 years ago, are legendary.īut for the last year, a group of McDonald's employees in the southern French city of Marseille has been fighting to save its McDonald's restaurant. One Paris neighborhood battled for years to keep the golden arches from settling in between its traditional butchers and bakers (it eventually lost).
In France, McDonald's is often a symbol of everything that's despised about American capitalism and fast-food culture. He has been leading an employee charge to save the restaurant, which has become a vital community anchor in an under-resourced immigrant neighborhood. Kamel Guemari is a manager of a McDonald's in a neighborhood in Marseille, France, that's known for crime and drug gangs.
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