<nettime> Nuit Debout

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France: Nocturnal protests 'to change the world' gather force
Published: 11 Apr 2016 07:53 GMT+02:00

http://www.thelocal.fr/20160411/france-nuits-debouts-night-protests-to-change-the-word-gather-strength

Riot police moved in on Monday to clear out Place de la Republique in
Paris, which has become home to nocturnal protests as hundreds have
gathered to air their many grievances as well as sing and drink beer.
But how will it end ?

It wasn't immediately clear if Monday morning's evacuation of the famous
square in Paris meant protesters would be forbidden from returning as
they have done each evening for the last 11 nights.

What is clear though is that the "Nuit Debout" (which roughly translates
as "Rise Up at Night") movement appears to be growing in strength rather
than dying out and the authorities in Paris are unlikely to risk barring
them from their headquarters just yet.

Following the evacuation, which removed the wooden fences and structures
built by protesters, the organizers of Nuit Debout immediately vowed to
return for a 12th night.

In the heady new world of "Nuits Debouts" it was March 40 on Saturday to
the some 2,000 people gathered in a main Paris square to share their
aspirations for change.

It is their way of keeping track of a protest movement that has seen
people flock to the Place de la Republique to air their grievances, seek
strength in numbers and strategise for a better future every night since
March 31st.

While galvanized by weeks of protests over the Socialist government's
labour reforms seen as threatening workers' rights, the separate Nuit
Debout movement is an omnibus of causes.

Participants may be fighting for the environment, against Islamophobia
and homophobia, for better housing, against unhealthy food - or all of
the above.

In the wake of the November jihadist attacks in Paris, many are also
opposed to the state of emergency that remains in effect.

Nuits Debouts, which began in Paris and now picked up to around 50 other
cities across France, as well as to Belgium and Spain, means occupying
central city squares overnight and vacating them in the morning.

__'Without political demands, the movement will die out'

"Get Indignant!" is painted on a paving stone in the vast Paris square,
a nod to Spain's Indignados, who gave rise to the far-left Podemos party.

Nuits Debouts  also emulates the anti-capitalist Occupy movement and
Greece's anti-austerity 700 Euro Generation.

"We haven't seen this for a long time," said Emeric Degui, 33, an
activist with Desobeir (Disobey). The protests against the labour
reforms have "awakened awareness".

The atmosphere is festive, with street theatre and music, a variety of
food stalls and many people swigging beers.

But the organization is disciplined, with daily general assemblies and a
variety of committees handling practical and political themes.

Speakers take turns at the podium supposedly limited to two minutes,
though prominent economist Frederic Lordon, one of the instigators of
the movement, took a bit longer, receiving a thunderous welcome.

"Something is arising," he said. "We are doing something. But what?
Without political demands, the movement will die out."

__'Lots of unknowns'

Elsewhere in Paris, students have been at the forefront of weeks of
sometimes violent protests over the Socialist government's labour
reforms, which will make it easier for struggling companies to fire people.

The reforms, which have already been diluted once in a bid to placate
critics, are considered unlikely to achieve their stated goal of reining
in unemployment, which stands at 25 percent among young people.

The turnout in the latest of the often tumultuous labour reform protests
was down on Saturday compared with a peak of hundreds of thousands on
March 31st.

But Saturday's Nuits Debouts crowd in Paris, at around 2,000 despite
rainy weather, was twice as high as a few nights earlier.

The government has taken a benign but dismissive attitude towards the
movement, which has seen no violence in contrast to the street protests
against the labour reforms.

An exception occurred late Saturday, when several hundred people headed
from the Place de la Republique towards the central Paris home of Prime
Minister Manuel Valls but were turned away by riot police using tear
gas. Valls was not home at the time.

"I don't dispute the fact that... people need to ask questions and that
should be respected," government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday.

"There's no need for concern."

Sociologist Albert Ogien told AFP: "It's a modern form of political
action, outside of parties, unions, without leaders, without an agenda
that says 'we are discussing among citizens what needs to be done'."

But left-wing activist and filmmaker Francois Ruffin, another architect
of Nuits Debouts said: "It's not a spontaneous movement. There's been a
lot of work, meetings... It's a voluntary movement that has tapped a
latent desire to overcome resignation (to the status quo)."

The movement is still in its early stages, and "has to mature," said
Ruffin, who directed a recent hit film about outsourcing labour. "There
are lots of unknowns."





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