via: athens.indymedia Translated by Act for fredom now!
We block everything! September 10, France
A short update on the September 10th protests in Paris and France.
Since dawn in dozens of cities in France, the “Block Everything” movement began with the aim of closing the highways around the cities and blocking traffic. In some areas, this was achieved by completely closing roads, highways, and even entire cities, while in Paris, an attempt was made to block the ring road that separates Paris from the suburbs. The cops were ready with 80,000 of them throughout the country. From 6 am, the roadblocks, the blocking of stores/companies/supermarkets such as Carrefour (also targeted in solidarity with Palestine), train stations and high schools, in hundreds of places, began. The cops’ order was to immediately intervene in the blocking points, with beatings and arrests (over 500 arrests in the whole country).
Of course, the forces of repression in many of the points found themselves disorganized and surprised by the movement, as they found resistance and counterattacks. Many of the blockades lasted for hours, even the whole day, while others were quickly dispersed, however, turning the “retreat” into spontaneous marches and alternative targets. People stayed on the streets from dawn until night, disrupting normality by any means, from fanfare to clashes. Some interesting actions were:
– the blockade of the Hélène Boucher high school in Paris. The high school students clashed with the police, joining the spontaneous march that started from the ring road in Montreuil where dozens of barricades were set up early in the morning.
– The blockade of a factory that manufactures weapons parts for Israel in Marseille – Sabotage of antennas in Toulouse – The burned bus – barricade in Rennes
– The blockade of the central train stations in Paris Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon
– the closure of the Halles station and shopping centre in the heart of Paris, which may have happened on the orders of the police since the place was overwhelmed by an invited gathering there.
The interesting thing is that these mobilizations maintain a spontaneous character, not integrated into the politics of the unions and the left, which all the while have been doing the work of social peace and the fire extinguisher of the movements. The crowd, consisting of a lot of youth and people who escape the framework of the parties, is turning its attention and self-organizing its movements through open assemblies.
The September 10th movement’s mode of action is concentrated at the blockade points but spreads across the city with many spontaneous marches that connect the points on the map. The culture of manif sauvage, that is, marches that arise from the will of the people to take to the streets, are created sur place by the momentum of the crowd in unknown directions and with the aim of often creating as much chaos as possible until the forces of repression intervene, alas, from the beginning. Such marches took place all day in Paris, such as the one in the centre of Paris on Wednesday afternoon. Tens of thousands of people moved along the main streets with one pulse, and as the crowd and the avenues grew, so did the noise, the fires grew and the shop windows had no choice but to break. As people jumped over the burning barricades, the cops prepared their tear gas to repel the crowd.
Late in the afternoon, thousands of people gathered at the Place des fêtes where, despite the rain, an open assembly was held that decided to block the Porte de Lilas, an urban artery to the suburbs, for the evening. The large fire in the middle of the square prompted some anarchic (or even some drunk) people to pour out into the streets in a “wild” procession, where every bin in their path was overturned, building materials found their proper use, and the windows of banks, supermarkets, and real estate agencies were shattered. People from the neighbourhood took to the streets shouting and throwing things at the cops who were slowly surrounding the square.
The canals with their classic culvert minimized the numbers of people who demonstrated, in an attempt to silence the movement. The courts were filled the next day, of course releasing most of the people, throwing heavy fines at people, an unprecedented tactic. From the next day, the open assemblies in neighbourhoods and cities were filled with hundreds of people who continued to propose imaginative actions for the following days until the appointment of the general strike on September 18.
This movement is not yet sure of its political positions, as opinions range from changing the government to the fall of the state. However, the means used so far are certainly self-organization, spontaneity, imagination, or destruction, with the aim of blocking the country.
LET’S BLOCK EVERYTHING!
FREEDOM IN PALESTINE
FUCK OF MACRON, WE DON’T WANT ANY POWER.
Zbeul partout!
Anarchist comrades
*Photo: Kyriakos X. Present. Written on a broken bank window
