A week in Montpellier

16/03/2006 Montpellier : Demonstration, Occupation, Police and Thieves
Montpellier had the biggest demo I've seen there - a lot bigger than the Iraq war one 3 years ago. The CRS blocked the way to the station (an attempt to occupy it had been thwarted by them a couple of days previously, using baton charges and tear gas; also, a couple of days previously there had been a 3 hour occupation of the Chambre de Commerce) protected a dozen pro-govt demonstrators who were also protected by a line of student stewards yelling at people not to be provoked - which even most of the anarchists submitted to.

A 16 yr old girl I know from my village tried to get people to occupy the station. There was an attempt to occupy a big entertainment/theatre centre to hold a general assembly, the cops got heavy, a few people got in, someone's nose got broken, there was an arrest, and a truncheon (those Japanese style ones with the handle) was stolen. Saturday looks like being bigger - but who knows?

18/3/2006: Montpellier : Polygon Shopping Centre, “CRS Police everywhere - Justice Nowhere”
I arrived in Montpellier late as I had a few lessons, but the demo seemed a lot smaller than just 2 days before, partly because there were a lot less lycéens. For me, the demo was like the weather - a lot colder than the one on the warm Thursday just 2 days before. It could have been the same demo as 2 or 3 years ago, and the planned action didn't happen (an occupation to have a general assembly) - mainly because those who had been into it the previous day were nowhere around.

I bumped into Americans for Peace and Justice, who had a stand outside the Polygon (a big indoor shopping centre right in the centre of Montpelier.) - doing their bit about the war, living in a bubble separate from the movement in France (they had a homemade "spin machine", where you turn a handle and various quotes from Bush , a pic of a torture victim and a photo of Bush himself spin round -- a lot of work for a mildly funny joke, but I suppose it was mainly to attract passer-bys attention). A van of CRS passed - so I followed it to the outside of the Polygon.

There had been an attempt to occupy the Town Hall, with 10 or 20 people getting in before they'd been evicted. Apparently half the demo had been led away by the CGT to the Regional Town Hall, which is so far away from the main demo area that the cops had plenty of time to stop an occupation attempt. Gesture politics. And it split the demo in two (CGT workers separated from youth, mainly).

I saw a Polygon security guy talking to the CRS, and followed him running past the shops in the Polygon. There was a massive crowd amongst the regular shoppers. 2 out of 3 shops had their grills down. And people in the Polygon were shouting and chanting and singing, winding up the security people with slogans " Police everywhere - Justice Nowhere!", "Those who reap misery, sow fury", "General strike of all the waged workers", standard anarchist stuff here, but quite invigorating in the context of this indoor shopping precinct. No damage to anyone or anything, people talking in a generally friendly manner.

Most shops had pulled down the shutters, but not all. Some people started banging out a rhythm on the shutters, which harmonised with the chants. Someone accidentally knocked over a cafe chair, and suddenly the security guards threw a chair at someone and cut open his head, and then continued throwing chairs and tables - even though there were quite a few shoppers amongst the crowd, kids, etc; immediately after this a cop pulls out a big gun and fires tear gas - this with tourists etc around, and INSIDE.

Everyone panics, running outside, as the CRS start charging (I get a slight whiff of tear gas). Then outside everyone starts running as the CRS rush out, they're hitting the backs of legs, and push a guy right next to me holding a truncheon on his throat; they scream "run...run", and most people do, but I just say in an impeccable BBC accent "I'm just doing my shopping here", and limp away, pretending I've got a bad foot (it seemed best to do that, because they were more vicious towards those who were running). They close the Polygon, with a line of about 10 CRS, someone chucks a bottle at the glass front, and then they charge, the same guy pointing the gun at everyone, whilst they make an arrest behind him.

People say the gun is for a "flash ball", a kind of plastic bullet, but it looked exactly the same as the tear gas gun. My first experience of the CRS. See a few of my students in the crowd, who are genuinely shocked by the tear gas. The local paper next day has a photo of security guards holding chairs, but just says there was an exchange of missiles (not true - it was only on their side, at least inside the Polygon) and doesn't mention the tear gas.

In Paris, I heard there was quite a big riot in a popular area of the 20th arrondisement, not many students, lots of youths, and the local populace were quite supportive, jeering insults at the gendarmes outside. This was not reported in the media at all - they just concentrated on the centre of Paris. It's not '68 , but it's probably the biggest thing in France since, and the dominant forces are warning of a social crisis (an opinion poll of the French showed a majority expected one). The Unions called a General strike, but didn't call it that, called it "An inter-professional day of action and strikes". It's a year till the presidential elections and the Left see de Villepin`s contract law as a gift horse not to be looked in the mouth (there must be a joke somewhere in that phrase, but it's too early for me).

22nd March : Assembly General and Media Treatment
A lot of graffiti at the Uni here. The General Assembly on Monday (20th March) resolved so as to have a demo at the main police station in Montpelier. for someone arrested at the Corum theatre on Thursday (hadn't realised on Thursday that the cops offered to exchange the guy arrested for the truncheon that was stolen: he was a hostage, the truncheon the ransom). The assemblies here are open to everyone - outsiders can even vote on motions. But some of the faculties aren't on strike, and the ones that are don't seem to be confronting them.

Yesterday, according to the local media, dozens of lycees were on strike in the department of Herault (last year, very little happened in Herault against the Fillon law, when it was an immediate issue), so I imagine similar things are happening round the country that we don't hear about. The TV talks mainly of Paris - a guy on the Saturday demo in a coma after the cops trampled over him - took them 2 days to broadcast that one; a riot during the day (Monday) outside a lycee in a suburb of Paris involved in the riots of November.

23/03/2006 : Yesterday in Montpellier
Sports students invaded the University admin building through the windows and held a sit in/sing in against the fact that there've been cuts in the number of sports teacher jobs in the secondary schools - should we be supporting these future fascists?

A demo of students and others outside the prefecture (regional admin HQ) clearly stated that the movement had gone beyond the issue of the CPE (first employment contract) and verbally attacked Sarkozy for all his repressive measures, especially including those against kids as young as 3 (they want to define kids as potential delinquents); a demo against the bosses organisation MEDEF (euivalent of CBI) invaded their building, where they were discussing ways of giving advice to labour lawyers on how to deal with the CPE, and peacefully removed all the furniture into the street, where people proceeded to sit on the armchairs and hold a discussion. Not bad for one day in one town.

In Marseille there's a total strike of the lycees.

Yesterday, in a small town near Millau (about an hour and a half's drive from here) a lycee on strike held a demo outside a college (for 11 - 15 yr olds) to try to get them to come out on strike. I heard this from a friend (no media reportage) - we'll see today if they were successful...Also heard that a large PRIVATE Ecole Superieure in Paris was occupied by outsiders, without the cops trying to expel them. The media is openly talking about a social crisis and there's going to be a general strike next Tuesday (but the Unions are calling it "an inter-professional day of strikes and action", presumably because 'General Strike' sounds too radical for them.

A general assembly at the Uni today, which in the past has called for a withdrawal of loads of laws ( though resolutions don't mean much) was temporarily disbanded after a call for a solidarity demo in the rain outside the towns main police station because of a guy who'd got arrested at a brief occupation of a theatre on Thursday ( where a French flag was partly burnt, and a cop's truncheon was stolen: the cops said they'd release the guy, if the truncheon was handed back; in effect the arrest was a hostage-taking, the truncheon was the ransom).

Most of the students, however, don't have any consciousness of the extent of this struggle, and just sang silly kids songs outside the police station, songs with the original words, not' "detourned'" ones. And everywhere, conservative kids of bosses and the bourgeoisie are counter-attacking, but this is getting beyond being a student movement. Even the Ministry of Education, which invariably underestimates the extent of the movement, said yesterday that 316 secondary schools were on strike. No optimism though – it doesn't help, and could easily lead to an anti-climax.

The writer has a website at http://www.endangeredphoenix.com/