Maloka-newsletter
November 30th, anti-WTO actions reports in France
In Toulouse (4th biggest french city), small groups of people invaded the main commercial street of the town with a sound-system and hung big anti WTO cardboards on christmas decorations with long sticks as subversive christmas fathers were busy giving capitalist rotten fruits to passer-by. We’re now waiting for other french action reports on N30.
In Dijon : 40 activists occupied the Dijon Industry and Business institute (chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie) and one bank agency ‘place du théâtre’ in the financial center of Dijon in order to close down these 2 key-structure of capitalism. While ten of them wearing D.I.Y ” enslaved by money ? “‘shirts where blocking off the entrances of the two buildings using D-locks and arm-tubes, other groups where throwing fake blood and money on the side-walks, gluing anticapitalists/anti-WTO/proalternative posters on the walls and shops around, puttin’up a big ’30th of november, global day of action against capitalism and WTO’ banners and other assorted cardboards, playing loud metallic drums, screaming in (mégaphone ?), giving free tea, coffeee and flyers about capitalism, non-violent direct action, anarchism and sustainable D.I.Y alternatives, and telling people why we, as thousand people over the world, were disrupting capitalists structures today. I don’t think that I need to tell more about banks and their key role on these report (I sent here our flyer in french about ‘why targeting banks ?’), but for those not knowing abbout the french situation klet’s tell one or two things about the way the CCI (Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie) works : As the WTO is an institution that let big corporation take control over people and the earth, the Chambre de Commerce et d’Industries, french business institutes, are powerfull local and so-called ‘public’ institutions where the big corporations can directly lobby the state, get agreements and money to achieve their dirty projects and dictate their laws and conceptions on society. After one hour and an half of blockade, the bank had to close definitively , the people of the CCI not happy at all of us attacking their public image were getting more and more agressive and the arrival of more and more cops van shows clearly that our eviction was planned. After a few more discussions with the cop’s bosses, the cops evicted brutally all the people that had gathered around the 4 chained inside the C.C.I. and tried to cut the locks and arm-tubes with knives and bolt-croppers. The 4 people chained decided after a while to delock themselves, seeing clearly that the cops, who couldnt manage to cut the D-locks, were getting more and more violent and were hurting them, even in front of the local medias,. As in London or Seattle, we had to face violent cops ready to protect corporate business interests and repress by all means people expressing without violence their right to protest. State repression won’t make us give up our fight ! This action was covered by the local and a few national medias. The french N30 network : A few weeks before the N30, a french network of autonomous groups that helped welcoming the InterContinenetal Caravan and willingfull to build an alternative political network based on P.G.A principles, sent the first issue of their newsletter ‘sans-titres’ to a few hundreds diverse groups, networks, squats, ‘eco-village’ around France with J18 reports, pamphlets on capitalism and non-violent direct action and N30 call for action.
In France, most of the big official political structures (big unions, Conferation Paysanne or political party inside the present government as the M.D.C or the Communist Party along with N.G.O’s) had decided to organize a big unitarian demonstration in Paris and smaller demonstrations around France on the 27th of november. The general message bringed by most of these politicians of really reformist views on capitalism and WTO based on lobbying, the will to obtain a ‘citizen control of the WTO’ and go back to a stronger centralised state. I mean that’s what their message seemed to us and the way most of the french ‘left’ works presently on liberalism with such ideas as the ‘Tobin tax’. That’s one of the reason why, after the last meeting of the french post-IntercontinentalCaravan network, early november, we thougt it was important to bring fresh air, new ideas and build a network with clearer and more radical views about capitalism, the changes that need to be done, ways of action based on non-violent direct action and the creation of local sustainable alternatives…
We still dont really know how many actions got organized on the 30th of november but the newsletter received a lot of positive enthousiastic feedback, so the network will hopefully grow stronger and more diverse during the next few month. The lack of communication between groups working on various issues (GMO, antifascism, work, illegal immigrants, anti-car, third world or environmental issues, squats or eco-cmmunities…) being on of the main problems at present in France, that would be a great thing to achieve.
Reports or commentaries on french N30 can be send to Maloka B.P. 536 – 21014 Dijon cedex – email : maloka [at] chez [dot] com website : http://www.chez.com/maloka/ tel : 0033 + 380 77 09 40 fax :00 33 + 380 71 42 99
The next newsletter will be done in Toulouse, send your reports, news, tips before the 20th of december to ‘Le clande, 9 rue Queven 31 000 Toulouse/ tel : 05 61 22 92 35). As the first one, it will be copied and distributed locally by the various french groups that wants to get involved. The next french network meeting will be early january in Paris.
Postscript : During the french unitarian anti-WTO demonstartion in Paris on the 27th of november, the Mouvement des Citoyens (MDC) militants were kicked out of the demonstration by the french antifascist action (SCALP). Chevènement, nationalist MDC’s leader and present french home secretary, lead the most repressive politic on illegal immigrants since two years. The same thing happened in Bordeaux.
