Paris October 17

October 17, 20206

 

Saturday Oct 17th saw the biggest student uprising in France since the defeat of Sarkozy’s CPE legislation in the mid 2000s. An estimated 800,000 protested across the country. Saturday was billed as the mother of all protests as the movement of secondary school students was to be joined by the famous ‘Yellow Vests’.

The Vests (or Gilet Jaunes) were a loose knit movement of largely working-class protestors who brought France to a standstill 8 years when demos against fuel hikes became a decentralised direct-action movement against inequality. They caused massive economic damage to the French state and regularly fought the cops off the streets. They were largely unconnected to the organized French left and trade unions. Their unruly campaign achieved a lot of its objectives causing Macron to scrap a raft of neoliberal proposals.

Yesterday they had little or no presence on the protest in Paris but there were plenty of the trademark high-vis garments on display. Being worn by their children.

The state has thrown everything at the secondary school students who have imposed militant blockades of their schools over the appalling state of education. The repression has achieved little other than making the protests more determined. Students have been blinded and mutilated by the cops rubber bullets and stun grenades. Over 6,000 (majority of whom are under 18) have been arrested, yet still they march and disrupt.

It is also very clear that these mobilisations are about much more than just the state of secondary education.

These protests are militantly antifascist. There is a very genuine fear that after 8 years of neoliberal misery, inflicted on the French people by Macron’s technocratic failures, the door is now open for fascist Le Pen at next year’s Presidential elections. For the youth of France this thought is utterly abhorrent.

They fully understand the real causes of their pain and their anti-racist instincts have been cemented by the behavior of the cops towards students of colour. Particularly in the poorer suburbs of the cities like the Banlieues of Paris. Many of them chant the chorus of antifascist anthem ‘Porcherie’ by 90s punk bank Beruier Noir. A song written over a decade before most of them were born.

The other issue that dominates is Palestine. Generation Z care little for the billionaire owned outlets of the mainstream media. Their news comes from sources like Instagram where the ongoing livestreamed genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of the west bank has become a focus for the injustice they see everywhere coming from the ‘Epstein class’. Racism against French Muslims, particularly Algerians, has also played its part.

On Saturday we started on a feeder march at the Tenon hospital where younger nurses, doctors and support workers from The CGT trade union made speeches about the state of healthcare. Then a giant Trojan Horse on wheels constructed by striking art school students showed up being pulled by youths in cardboard helmets made with impressive care and detail.

The march wound it’s way through the streets towards Place de Rebublique the meeting point of the main protest. On the way we stopped at Hospital Robert Debre for more speeches by health workers.

There is clear disconnect between the trade union leadership, who are making vague gestures of support towards the protests, and their members who are actively hitting the streets with the students.

By the time the march was coming close to Republique it had swelled to several thousand and it was clear that the day was going to be huge.

The police are presently estimating that over 100k were on the streets of Paris. Every boulevard around the square was completely rammed with mainly young demonstrators. Heavily armed cops nervously tapped their batons as they realized the task ahead of them. At one point we were entertained by a screaming row between commanders of the National Police and paramilitary Gendarmerie as they failed to find common ground over tactics.

In the square itself, things were already kicking off as the CRS were pelted with cobblestones and were responding with baton charges, tear gas and water cannons. We didn’t see any arrests. The cops were so overwhelmed by the numbers that they could do little other than hold their line. Cars and bus stops were set on fire as students posed for selfies and the assembled media in front of the flames.

The famous statue got brutally spray painted and adorned in a giant yellow vest. Meanwhile, away from the fighting, thousands waited patiently, braving the tear gas, to join the main protest which was taking hours to leave the square due to its sheer size.

After documenting the fighting & main demo we retreated to a family run bar on Boulevard Voltaire to decompress for a while. Before long the unrest was spreading to our vicinity with running battles with the cops, burning barricades and jubilant kids charging through the streets with looted goods from high-end chain stores. There is something gloriously French about necking a pint of Leffe while all hell breaks loose on the other side of the window.

Our journey home took longer than expected as many central Metro stations were closed. Walking through the streets it was clear that the chaos had spread out into the city with smoldering barricades and looted shops in most of the streets that we passed through on foot.

It was clear that the incredible numbers seen in Paris and across France had brought the youth to a place where they had lost their fear and decided it was payback time for weeks of police brutality and a rotten system that is robbing them of their future. They know that the broken economic model they endure is hurtling them towards a fascist dystopia full of social, economic and environmental ruin. Why the fuck should anyone be expected to behave themselves in such circumstances?