Riot police attack the blockades at Nanterre university 13/11/2007

At least 150 students started the blockade from 7am, at one point the blockade of the F building looked to be under threat, but by the time I arrived there were easily 250 people blocking the doors. The law students threw apples at the pickets but discipline was maintained on the picket lines so as not to give the police an excuse to atack. Also once picketers went into the crowd the police would have been able to take the doors easily . They didn't throw anything once the first group of police arrived and over the next 45 minutes more and more police arrived until there were well over a hundred, many in full riot gear. There were 12-15 police vans and a dozen cars. By this point the pickets at the other buildings had been abandoned to support the blockade of building F.

The anti-bloqueurs chanted 'liberte d'etudier' (freedom to study) although those at the pickets took up the chant and outsang them. The anti-bloquers had also sung the Marseillaise earlier on. Students chanted things such as "University: public, free and for the people." "Police, get out of the university." There were lots of other chants, there were some anti-police chants at first but they were hushed down to avoid provoking them.

One of the things the anti-bloqueurs had been demanding was a secret ballot, they had a huge cardboard box and it was passed around while they shouted 'secret ballot, democracy' they did spoil the gesture by putting in two or three ballots each. An hour or so later one of them tried to bring it over to the bloqueurs but his nerve was failing and the policemen told him to stop being stupid. They also chanted 'go blues' as well. The responses from the bloqueurs were generally funnier and certainly showed a lot more imagination. At one point the anti-bloqueurs trying to show the blockade was undemocratic all raised their hands, unfortunately for them they looked as if they were doing Nazi salutes.

As the police lined up the bloqueurs moved up the steps leading to the building and linked arms along the top, we stayed that way while more and more police arrived. The first police charge was on the left hand side, the police mostly just pushed forwards and were pushed back by bloqueuers, there were a few baton hits, I got hit a couple of times on the back of the hands when I was holding a railing. Some bloqueurs further along on the right were hit in the head with truncheons and punches and kicks were exchanged, I didn't see anyone get seriously hurt but there was blood on my hands and coat that wasn't mine.

The police had clearly been told not to use overarm swings of the truncheons. They did try to hit at the knees, but with their shields blocking them and us on higher ground they couldn't do this very effectively. CS gas was used but I didn't see where, we could all feel it burning. Then 30 yards along to the right the police charged us, having drawn a lot of us across to the left hand side. They came in two columns one pushing in each direction. We were out manoeuvred and they reached the building . I think it was then that a group of six to twelve bloqueurs were surrounded by police using overarm swings of the batons, the bloqueurs had their hands up to protect themselves and the police kept swinging for at least a minute. On the left they couldn't push us back far, although it was difficult to move across and without breaking the chains or risking being grabbed. On the left they stopped, but they drove back the picket on the right to clear the entrance.I saw them spray gas at students back where the first charge had happened, it was aimed at a few people milling in front of the lines and was punitive. There was then a long stand off. Between those two charges a groups of people in the crowd in front of the building started to chant CRS out this was met with a massive cheer from the bloqueurs.

Myself and the guy next to me began talking to the policemen, asking them why they had come, why they were attacking their own children etc? I read a bit of my book to them but they didn't like it. We told them that this was a democratic decision and that they should not be breaking a strike that had been voted for. We asked them why they wouldn't look us in the eyes. I don't knwo if that mad it any more difficult for them to attack us or not. The other guy asked them about who had sent them and since when had they been prepared etc but the guy who responded was pretty evasive, but they were definitely called in specially.

The law students were let in in small groups by the police and some teachers also went in. A friend of mine tried to go in but he didn't have a student ID and was refused entry. None of the bloqueurs tried to enter. Not many went in, I was worried that they would drop things on us from the windows but they didn't. One girl got hit in the face away from the main struggles, she fell to the floor bleeding and the friend leaning over her was hit in the back with a baton. The policeman who did it was stopped from striking her again and told to stay in his position by another.

As a couple of groups of law students entered,(10 or so) many waving and cheering entered some of the bloquers threw earth from the flowerbeds at them. The police charged, the bloquers held them back for several minutes but the police managed to pull a dozen or so bloquers from the front line in total, throwing them to the ground and giving them a few punches kicks or a blow from a truncheon for good measure. They didn't hold their line well as they advanced and we used a pillar as support, I pushed back at them and could probably have thrown one down the steps but then I'd have been inside the police lines by myself. But he knew I could have and I was pointed out and several of them dragged me to pull me out. As I went down I pushed myself along the floor as far as possible so the ones near the front couldn't hit me, they yelled at me to stop resisting and I yelled I'm moving to avoid getting hit with a baton. I had one with a knee on my chest, one with two and a third walked over and tried to knee me in the groin, I closed my legs and just about stopped it. They told me if I didn't come back they'd let me up so I said I'd go and I was dragged out of the lines.

Most people who were thrown out went back in, but I wasn't feeling too good. I was also a bit worried because the guys on the front row had got a good look at me because I'd been shoulder to shield with them for 45 minutes so I went towards the back of the group of protesters and there were a few people who'd been badly gassed. Some people had an anti-tear-gas serum so I helped hold his eyes open so we could use it. I had a quick look at the polive vehicles, wondering if they'd left them unguarded, I went back towards the lines and saw the guy I'd been talking to staggering held up by two people. I helped him get to a seat and then we tried to talk to him, the girl said he'd been groggy for ten minutes. When the ambulancemen arrived one of them told him that it was his own fault. The guy didn't want to go with them after that but the girl insisted and the other ambulanceman was actually trying to do his job so he got into the ambulance. I saw him later on and he was ok.

I walked around to the other side of the former blockade and spoke to people there. There were still people on the steps on either side. There were roughly three lines of police in front of the building, one facing up to the remaining bloqueurs on each side the other facing the crowd, forming a square with the front of the building. With the bloqueurs not moving and the police seemingly unwilling to have any more conflict everyone just stayed in position with regular chants and cheers from the bloqueurs. On the news they showed a local communist politician asking the head of the police what he was doing. He said the president of the university had called him in to lift the blockade and push back the demonstrators and that that was what he had done.

The the five main campus buildings connected by an internal corridor were all locked up except for a single entrance only teachers accompanied by students could go in. I doubt many did, as I walked along the buildings I didn't see anyone inside. One window in the English building opened for a few minutes and that was it. I left in the afternoon, the campus was in a stalemate and the transport strike is due to begin tonight.