Calais (France): Updates of the October 1st Demo

By: xxx - October 12th, 2016  Filed under: News

A comrade was arrested and charged for attempting to conceal his identity and participating in an unauthorized demonstration; the trial will be on 7 November, in Boulogne-sur-Mer.

The following text has been translated from French, from an article published on October 3rd, 2016 on Squat!net. The next solidarity gathering will take place in Calais, on friday October 14th, at 4pm, Places d’Armes.

This Saturday, October 1st, a solidarity demonstration was scheduled in Calais departing from the “Jungle”, the name given to the largest slum of France, where thousands of migrants are living. The event had to cross through Calais to reach its ending point downtown.

Two days before, the protest had been “prohibited” by the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais, Fabienne Buccio, who announced “a ban on any protest demonstrations in connection with the issue of migrants in Calais, Sangatte, Coquelles, Fréthun and Marck-Calaisis, during the entire day of October 1, 2016.” [Read More]

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Calais (France): Total jungle eviction may begin on 17 October

By: sisulscz - October 6th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

The French State has been spreading word that it will evict the whole of the Calais Jungle, meaning the homes of 10,000 people, by “the end of October”. The latest rumour is that the attack will begin on 17 October and will feature a new weapon: blinding laser cannons developed for use against Somali pirates, now to be used for the first time against Africans and other migrants on European soil.**

Other talk is that the eviction will take just “three days”, and that not only the self-built jungle but also the official Jules Ferry day centre and maybe even the state-built Container Camp will go. Comrades from the ZAD (occupied zone of resistance to the airport project in Notre Dame des Landes) also believe that their own planned eviction may be delayed so that the state can first throw all its forces at Calais.
[Read More]

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Calais (France): Homes on trial

By: xxx - September 28th, 2016  Filed under: News

On September 28, eight friends will have an appeal trial for charges related to the last squat attempted in Calais. Aquitted by a previous court ruling, largely due to police abuse and police not even following procedures. Now the state representatives have filed an appeal (to contest what?!).

If you think of the judicial system as a good measure of “right” and “wrong,” it is Natacha Bouchart (Calais’ mayor) and Philippe Mignonet (deputy mayor) who should be on trial. They have executed massive and numerous evictions in Calais – making thousands of people homeless, using force to traumatize people, damaging people for years. [Read More]

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Calais, France: A political victory for the Calais 8

By: dolph-l - April 3rd, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

On Friday,  when the judge at Boulogne-sur-mer announced, three times that the trial of 8 friends was irregular the court room erupted into applause and cheering. Waiting outside were a brace of Police de l’Air et des Frontières (PAF) waiting to take 5 of them (the foreigners) to detention after they had been served with Obligation de Quitter la Territoire Français (OQTF). But these had already escaped and were not present to appreciate the announcement of their victory.

The judges had decided that there were too many irregularities and that the authorities had not followed procedure when arresting and detaining the 8 people on the roof of an abandoned building in the centre of Calais on Sunday the 27th April.

[Read More]

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Calais: Update on trial and call for solidarity

By: dolph-l - March 31st, 2016  Filed under: News

An update on the court case of the 8 friends arrested for squatting an empty homeless shelter in Calais.

Today, the trial scheduled to take place  at the court in Boulogne-sur-Mer was postponed until Friday, April 1. All 8 had accepted to be tried today,  under the comparution immediate (fast track procedure).

Yesterday, after spending 48 hours in police custody, 3 friends were released until the trial and 5 kept in preventive detention to ensure that they would come to court. However, 3 of those in prison were not able to be transported to appear in person before the court. This was due to an apparent lack of organisation of transport from the prison to the court. [Read More]

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Calais (France): Newly opened squat evicted

By: xxx - March 27th, 2016  Filed under: News

A recently squatted building was publicly opened this morning in Calais, on rue des Prêtres. The building was an abandoned homeless shelter capable of accommodating at least 50 people. People started gathering outside the building around 11 o’clock this morning in support of the people already barricaded inside. A neighbour-collaborator called the cops, even going as far as to offer them a hand when they arrived. By around 2.00 some 12 vans of riot cops had the building surrounded, and those inside had already climbed up on the roof. Around 4.30, they started pushing away the people outside and smashing down the front door of the house with a battering ram. The deputy mayor of Calais who’s name isn’t important enough to publish was holding the battering ram together with the riot cops. Not managing to break down the door, they smashed in a window and opened the front door from the inside. [Read More]

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Calais (France): New Occupation

By: xxx - March 27th, 2016  Filed under: News

For years, the government and the prefecture of Calais have been destroying living places. For years, people in Calais have been assaulted by police and fascists and have had their belongings destroyed . For years, people are forced to live in fear and insecurity because they are foreigners. [Read More]

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Notre-Dame-Des-Landes (France): Communique on the meeting with the Calais hunger strikes

By: dolph-l - March 24th, 2016  Filed under: News

This Wednesday 23rd March, four 2012 hunger strikers from Nantes, accompanied by four activists, met with the Calais hunger strikers. Here is their testimony:

“We are here in support, in sympathy, in bringing our experiences, but certainly not to bring advise.

Compared to theirs, our experiences were very light: they have been on hunger strike since March 2nd, isolated in the southern part of the jungle that was destroyed, with a background noise of bulldozers flattening rubble, and the polce that surround them. [Read More]

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Notre-Dame-Des-Landes to Calais: Call-out for decentralised actions against the Socialist Party

By: dolph-l - March 22nd, 2016  Filed under: News

The weekend of 26th to 27th March, a call-out for decentralised actions against the Socialist Party was launched by the anti-airport movement.

Come to Calais, it’s possible to link these struggles. It’s why we invite you to reach Calais from Friday 25th March. There is no housing infrastructure, come with your own plan for sleeping, duvets, tents, supplies, etc… Be as autonomous as possible. There are some not too expensive restaurants in the jungle, put in place by refugees. Camp water isn’t drinkable. Bring what you need. It’s possible to reach the town centre by bus. If needed, an on-site telephone number : 07.51.02.17.33 and the legal number 07.51.55.72.54. [Read More]

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Marseille, France: Week of action in solidarity with eviction resistance in the Calais jungle

By: dolph-l - March 17th, 2016  Filed under: Communique

Following the recent evictions in Calais, a week of action in solidarity with the resistance of the ’’jungle’’ took place in Marseille. The various actions contained in this communique were anonymously contributed by numerous individuals and groups. All the targets chosen collaborate in the repression, subjugation and deportation of migrant and/or paperless people in Calais and elsewhere.

Below is the list of actions as they were communicated by those responsible: [Read More]

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Calais jungle eviction: a chronology of resistance

By: dolph-l - March 5th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

Today [March 2nd] the southern half of the Calais ‘jungle’ enters it’s third day of eviction, in a process the authorities have now said will take 3 weeks to complete.

Here’s some of the acts of resistance that have been happening in & beyond the camp. It’s looking like it’s going to be a drawn-out process, so get busy researching, preparing and taking action now. This post will be updated as more action reports come through. [Read More]

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Updates from Calais – four camps evicted

By: dolph-l - September 30th, 2015  Filed under: News

Last week the French police evicted four migrant camps in Calais. These were the only camps in the town itself. Monday’s evictions made it clear that the migrant population in Calais would only be allowed to live in the “jungle”, an area of land on the edge of the town (note: the word ‘jungle’ comes from the Pashto ‘dzangal’, meaning ‘forest’. The name comes from the Pashtun Jungle, a forested area in Calais occupied by Afghans back in 2009, but it is no coincidence that the media has continued to use this term to describe the camps…). The current camp population has swollen to 4000 people due to tightened security at the border and the greater difficulties crossing; 3 people have died trying to cross in the past two weeks. This article is gathered from Calais Migrant Solidarity and gives an update on the latest situation over there. [Read More]

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