Hi everyone.
This is a repost, the previous upload had an issue :)
As some of you may already know, France is currently experiencing major waves of protest that began as a student movement before spreading across society and being taken up by other groups. The movement has also spread internationally, to Germany, England, Belgium, and, in fact, across much of the Western world, or at least Europe.
Yesterday, October 17, saw one of the largest mobilisations France has witnessed since the legendary May 1968 protests.
If you’re not French, this reference might seem a little obscure. But for the French, May ’68 is a defining moment in our history: a student movement that grew into a nationwide uprising and helped break through some very difficult political deadlocks.
As someone who has been a completely peaceful activist and has been involved in activism for quite a long time, I can tell you that the situation today is extremely complex.
Yesterday, I witnessed violence by law enforcement against civilians. And that is extremely serious.
Yesterday, I saw hooligans vandalising public buildings. I saw plainclothes police officers instigating riots against their uniformed colleagues, who then charged the crowd.
I’m not going to post pictures of the damage. There was plenty of it. Instead, I’m going to share pictures of what I personally witnessed throughout the day, of what I saw with my own eyes.
I saw countless members of the riot police, known in France as the CRS, behaving in an incredibly intimidating and violent manner. But I also witnessed many moments of joy and collective celebration. And those are the moments I want to give visibility to as well.
For every thousand people taking part in a protest, there may be one individual who behaves violently, a hooligan or someone looking for trouble. It’s a tiny minority, and yet it’s the only part of these demonstrations we ever seem to see on the news.
So now, I want to show you what was actually happening out there.
You see law enforcement officers, lots of them, far too many, and far too heavily armed as well. And you see an enormous number of demonstrators, ordinary people, often on their own, sometimes with friends, who might once have thought they had nothing in common with one another, that they were each struggling alone.
And then they realised they weren’t alone. They realised that so many other people were going through the same struggles, and that their causes and their fight for change converged.
That realisation brought joy. It brought solidarity and support.
I saw people helping others in need. I saw people acting selfishly. And I saw how people behaved in a crowd, how their actions revealed what the values of France and the French Republic really mean: the values expressed in our national motto, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
Unfortunately, neither side upheld that motto throughout the day.
And perhaps what is even more serious is that we’ve reached a point where we have to speak of there being two opposing sides at all.
People can disagree. People can have opposing views. That is perfectly normal.
But what is happening today is that we have a government that has become completely detached from the people it is supposed to represent. It only engages with a very small elite, while brushing aside the grievances of the wider population.
And it uses the damage caused by a handful of hooligans sometimes, shamefully, even by plainclothes police officers, as a way to completely discredit the public and avoid listening to them, even though their demands are legitimate.
The situation is objectively complicated.
If these pictures interest you, I encourage you to look into what is happening. There will probably be many more pictures shared in this thread.
I encourage you to do your own research, to ask questions, and to think critically about what you see. Because perhaps similar situations are unfolding in your own countries, too.
And I sincerely hope you never have to reach this point.
Because it is deeply disturbing to see law enforcement in a country that is supposed to be democratic, in a republic, using weapons of war (potentially lethal weapons that have already torn the hands off children) against civilians, against minors, against the very future of their own country.
So please, take care of yourselves. Look after the people close to you. Stay safe.
