Activists Denounce State Reprehension During Demonstration

Activists Denounce State Reprehension During Demonstration

By Marguerite Gallorini | 28 November 2015

On the Place de la Republique in Paris on Sunday, a peaceful demonstration was aiming at putting pressure on the COP 21 government officials. It will result in 289 arrests, of which 174 people in police custody: environmental activists are angry at the State taking away their right to demonstrate.

A demonstration on Sunday gets ugly in Paris

Thousands gathered in spite of the current ban. A policeman barrier now follows the peaceful human chain on the plaza, and dismay is the general feeling among people present on the scene. A passer-by on the phone mutters "state of urgency, my eye"; an activist distributes lists with names of lawyers for the demonstrators that got taken.

Around and in the policeman barrier, dismay was the general feeling. A passer-by on the phone mutters "state of urgency, my eye". An activist distributes lists with names of lawyers for the demonstrators that got taken.

The French riot police make up a human barrier around the
Place de la République

Yet everything was calm up to the middle of the day. Even a policeman part of the human barrier acknowledges it: "The human chain around the plaza's monument, up until noon or one, that was alright. It really started to go wrong when that little group of 200, 300 violent anarchists attacked us with anything they could get their hands on."

Environmentalist activists are becoming increasingly critical of the French State's motives since it launched and prolonged its state of urgency. Under this law, twenty-four anti-COP 21 activists have been assigned to their homes the time of the conference, so that they do not make waves according to the French AFP agency.

One of the two groups of people is being blocked by the police, at the start
of Faubourg du Temple street

Alma, 27, is a member of the Association in Support to Arrested Demonstrators. She describes what she has been witnessing and told since she arrived on the premises at three in the afternoon: "Policemen blocked the plaza, and for a little while there was a back-and-forth movement between them and the demonstrators. There was also a peaceful human chain around the monument [where there is a memorial for the Paris attacks], but they were standing well afar from the flowers and candles. All of a sudden though, the police just rushed onto them, breaking everything, to spread people away. And now, two groups of people closely blocked by ranges of policemen, and they've been breathing tear gaz..."

General mood on the Place de la Republique on that day. Policemen straighten their human barrier, some backup arrive - one of which armed of a videocamera for future proof. People get impatient, some of them shout "Shame on the Republic!", others laugh of the situation. Monique, a sixtysomething activist, is holding a sign "State of climatic emergency" while singing 'Le Chant des Partisans' (The Partisans' Song).

In between the police cars and vans parked around the plaza, demonstrators are taken away one by one. One of them, while being taken, calls out to her friend: "Have you recorded everything ? Good !" A sixtysomething woman, another member of the association, and anti-COP 21, is indignant: "This is outrageous. They [the French State] are killing two birds with one stone, that's it. Their state of urgency was just kept somewhere in an old box, waiting to be used with the first opportunity. They're doing the same thing as the Americans with the Patriot Act."

A demonstrator is taken away by the police

A man in the crowd shouts "If the police protects us, who will protect us from insanity ?"; policemen are booed; people chant "Shame on the Republic !", and "Let – go of our comrades". Photographers and passers-by approach, more and more numerous. An old man with a moustache arrogantly drops "If only people were disciplined !", to which a woman demonstrator replies "We can't possibly be disciplined in front of this !" A police van painstakingly goes through the crowd; an undercover police car, more impatient, almost hurts a passer-by.

Tourists, photographers and passers-by all record what is happening

Within the encircling barrier stands Christiane, 50. Among the indignant but quiet crowd, this self-described sympathizer to civic causes deplores the state of things: "We're right in a big coup against freedom. But I'm far from ready to let go of some freedom for a little security. In any case, we've seen, historically, that letting go of it never led to an actual rise in security. Now clearly, for a little climate march turning into this, the State clearly shows it is afraid of us and feels its authority threatened. But the COP won't do anything; citizen movements should be heard, they can make a difference !"

Dozens of police motorcycles, cars and vans are parked
all around the plaza

Bintou, a 22-year-old activist, holds the same view: "The COP is not going to change anything. What we need is a confrontation of ideas within the population. But now we're taking our right to demonstrate away : we're banned to create that dialogue."

Now while the foreign press almost unanimously denounces draconian measures, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls does not exclude prolonging the state of urgency beyond the limit voted upon by the Parliament. The future chances of a trusting relationship between environmentalist activists and the French State coming back are dim.

At the end of the day, lots of broken glass coming from the run-over memorial lay on the street.
Earlier in the day, a peaceful event had layed hundreds of shoes as a symbolic way of undertaking the forbidden environmental march. While they were supposed to be distributed to the homeless afterwards, some are now just being thrown away.

This news round-up was done as part of a university assignment.

All photo and video credits belong to Marguerite Gallorini.