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Title: Riders on the Storm Author: CrimethInc. Date: May 15, 2018 Language: en Topics: analysis, Paris, France, may day Source: Retrieved on 16th June 2021 from https://crimethinc.com/2018/05/15/riders-on-the-storm-a-blow-by-blow-report-and-analysis-of-may-day-2018-in-paris
In Paris, on May Day 2018, nearly 15,000 people joined a confrontational
march rejecting capitalism and the state, including a black bloc of 1200
people. Intense clashes immediately broke out with the police. This is
the story of the events leading up to May Day, what we experienced that
afternoon in Paris, and what comes next.
Tension has been building in France for years now, from the street
confrontations of 2016 against the Loi Travail to the defense of la ZAD
at Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Here, we offer firsthand reports from the
events of May 1, 2018 in Paris and discuss the aftermath of this day in
order to participate in the critical analyses that have emerged within
our radical circles for several days now.
To hear reports from other May Day actions worldwide, listen to the May
Day 2018 roundup episode of our podcast, the Hotwire. To learn more
about the origins of May Day, read âThe incomplete, true, authentic and
wonderful history of May Dayâ, or read our timeline charting its legacy.
May Day is observed as International Workersâ Day in France, as it is in
many other countries. For more than a century, workers, trade unionists,
traditional leftists, and anarchists have demonstrated together or
separately to pay tribute to the struggles of the late 19^(th) century
and the introduction of the eight-hour workday.
Yet May Day has never been limited to legal demonstrations. On May 1,
1891, in Fourmies, soldiers shot at striking workers, killing nine
peopleâincluding four under the age of 18âand injuring 35 more.
Afterwards, a crowd took the streets of Clichy brandishing a red flag.
At the end of the demonstration, police attempted to seize the
revolutionary emblem, provoking a riot. Gunshots echoed in the streets
and some policemen were injured. Three anarchists were arrested and
detained. Tried in August 1891, the defendants were sentenced to up to 5
years in prison. These events awoke the convictions of many future
radicals, including the notorious anarchist François Koënigstein, better
known by his nickname, Ravachol.
In France, May Day also has other connotations. In 1941, aiming to force
a rupture with socialism, Marshal PĂ©tainâfervent anti-Semite, head of
the French government during the occupation, and among those chiefly
responsible for state collaboration with the Nazisâpassed legislation
declaring that May Day would be called la FĂȘte du Travail et de la
Concorde Sociale (âthe day of labor and social harmonyâ). Since then,
Labor Day in France continues to bear the name âFĂȘte du Travail,â paying
tribute to PĂ©tainâs maxim âTravail, Famille, Patrieâ (âWork, Family,
Fatherlandâ).
During the 1950s and 1960s, Labor Day disappeared in France. During the
war in Indochina (1946â1954) and the Algerian War of Independence
(1954â1962), successive French governments seeking to preserve their
colonial holdings instituted a State of Emergency (1955-1958-1961). The
state used this âexceptionalâ law granting special powers to the
executive branch to forbid demonstrations of all kinds in France. It was
only on May 1, 1968 that people in France were once again able to take
the streets to celebrate Labor Day.
More recently, in 2016 and 2017, anarchists and other autonomous rebels
succeeded in taking the front of the afternoon May Day demonstration,
relegating trade unions and political parties to the end of the
procession. By adopting an offensive strategyâattacking every single
potential target on our routeâwe brought new life to the demonstration,
interrupting the ritual it had become.
As we approached May Day 2018, we faced a new challenge. Once again, we
had to rewrite the story.
âWe are the birds of the coming storm.â âAugust Spies
This year, May Day took place in the context of France celebrating the
50-year anniversary of the uprising of May 1968. This event had a
massive impact on the collective imaginationânot only in France, but
also worldwide, as evidenced by the slogans, artwork, and images of
rioters throwing cobblestones it summons to mind. The so-called
ârevolution of 1968â saw massive demonstrations, general strikes,
wildcat strikes, and occupations of universities and factories
throughout France. Initiated by Parisian students, the revolt spread to
working class milieux and then to many other demographics. What began as
a local struggle became a national upheaval. According to historians,
May 1968 represented a new form of cultural and social movement that
emerged outside of traditional parties and trade unions. This movement
challenged consumer society by critiquing its ideology of productivity
and profit, but it also questioned the authoritarian political model of
the time and put the notions of individuality and personal subjectivity
at the center of the struggle.
From traditional leftist activists to career politicians and
reactionaries of all stripes, everyone has something to say about May
â68. The struggles of May 1968 became yet another component of the
society of the spectacle. Since the beginning of 2018, the French
government, politicians of every party, the corporate media, and the
Ministry of Cultural affairs have all been commemorating this long-past
social and cultural upheaval that supposedly marked a turning point in
French history. The museum exhibitions serve to fix the possibility of
revolutionary change in a long-concluded past, but they are not even the
worst part. For example, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a former student activist
who became the self-proclaimed heir of the revolution of May â68, took
up a career in journalism and politics and finally came to support
President Macron and his neoliberal policies. We can appreciate the
irony of the situation and the hypocrisy of the French government as it
actively strives to suppress any contemporary form of
experimentationâsee, for example, the recent evictions at la ZAD and of
several occupied universities.
In response to this political farce, some radicals published a call
announcing that âinstead of commemorating May 1968, we could try
organizing a beautiful month of May 2018.â You can read translations of
this call here. The authors invited people to converge in Paris in order
to dethrone the myth of May 1968 and precipitate the fall of Macron and
his government. This can only be understood in the context of the
social, economic, and political situation in France today. As some have
argued, the growing anger against President Macron and his reforms could
become a serious threat for the government. For months now, railroad
workers, airplane company employees, civil servants, students,
professors, postal employees, hospital employees, and many others have
been out on strike or protesting government policies. If all of these
groups joined forces against the authorities, the impact would be
considerable.
Two days before May Day, the Police Prefecture of Paris published a
press statement in which Michel Delpuech, the Police Commissioner,
announced that he would receive the trade union leaders and other
organizers of the demonstration to warn them about the potential for
public disorder that threatened the smooth functioning of the march.
Amid typical redundant gibberish, the communiqué stated that:
âDuring the traditional May Day demonstration, activists of protest
groups belonging to extremist movements are planning to violently attack
law enforcement and capitalist symbols. [âŠ] Thus, in the continuity of
May 1, 2017, and accentuated by the 50-year anniversary of the events of
May â68, activists want to take advantage of this demonstration to
engage in multiple attacks and destruction against street furniture,
banks, real estate or insurance agencies, car dealerships⊠and violently
attack police forces. It appears that incendiary devices could be used.â
In view of this threat, the Prefecture deployed some 1500 policemen and
gendarmes in order to insure order during the march. Regarding the risks
of violence, the communiqué added that:
will be implemented upstream and on the outskirts of the demonstration,
as well as at nearby public transport access points.
of all objects considered to be potential weapons.
anticipation of a judicial procedure.
trying to blend in the crowd in order to commit acts of violence.
exploitation [sic].â
With such statements, the authorities sought to set the tone for May Day
in advance. Anyone who wished to do anything to express discontent
beyond marching passively would face uncompromising repression. The
Police Prefecture of Paris also sought to increase its control over the
May Day demonstration by imposing a shorter route than usual. Instead of
the classic route linking Place de la RĂ©publique to Place de la Nation,
the 2018 march was only authorized a two-mile walk between Place de la
Bastille and Place dâItalie, a route that seemed to offer fewer
potential targets for rioters. It was obvious that authorities hoped to
lead us into a trap.
In response, some radicals of the âcortĂšge de tĂȘteâ (âthe leading
processionâ) published their own communiquĂ© on May Day morning.
Regarding the threats and injunctions made against them, they answered:
âWe, members of the leading procession, announce for May 1 that we are
going on renewable strike concerning the role assigned to us by
authorities in the demonstration. We are making the call to retaliate by
invading the Latin Quarter as soon as the demonstration has been
dissolved.â
Joking aside, many of us were determined to break the spell of May â68
once and for all by invading the streets of Paris for May Day and
letting our dreams, inventiveness, and rage speak for themselves.
âFuck May â68, fight now!â âUnknown
On May Day morning, as is customary, several small morning gatherings
occurred before the classic massive demonstration in the afternoon. That
morning, no fewer than five different actions were planned. Around 10
am, traditional unions and organizations (including the CGT, FO, FSU,
Solidaires, and UNEF) gathered at the PĂšre Lachaise cemetery in front of
the âMur des FĂ©dĂ©rĂ©sââthe wall where many of the last participants in
the Paris Commune were executed. (Although the Communards died fighting
as revolutionaries, they have been dead long enough that these
legalistic organizations can risk keeping company with them.) At 10:30
am, a morning demonstration took place in Saint-Denis, a northern
suburban city. At 11 am, after leaving their own traditional morning
procession, some people gathered in downtown Paris in memory of Brahim
Bouarram, a 29-year-old man killed on May 1, 1995 by supporters of the
French National Front after they left the National Front May Day morning
procession. At noon, as usual, the traditional annual
anarcho-syndicalist march left Place des FĂȘtes to walk to the departure
point of the afternoon procession. Finally, around 1 pm, people were
supposed to meet at Place de la Bastille for a lively gathering to
support the ZAD.
In view of the threats of the authorities, we decided to play it safe
and joined the anarcho-syndicalist march to get a sense of the situation
in the field. Once we reached Place des FĂȘtes, some of us decided to
redecorate the police station with personal messages and posters about
the Haymarket affair and the origins of May Day. As more and more people
arrived, it was already apparent that a lot of autonomists, anarchists,
and other radicals had decided to join the morning festivities before
the afternoon march. Throughout the crowd, we could hear people speaking
in French, Italian, German, and English. International call or not, some
comrades had decided to visit France and spend May Day in Paris with us.
The morning march finally started. Everything went smoothly; trade
unionists and families walked alongside autonomists and newer
generations of anarchists while police remained almost invisible the
entire time. Some of us took this opportunity to take action: banks and
insurance companies saw their front windows smashed and colorful
messages appeared on the walls. As we were approaching Place de la
Bastille, the departure point of the afternoon procession, tension and
apprehension were palpable. Would the police actually stop and search
everyone attempting to join the May Day demonstration? Not at all! As
the anarchist procession passed a group of policemen in plainclothes
(members of the anti-criminality brigade, the BAC) and insulted them, we
reached the Place de la Bastille. We had entered the belly of the beast
without a hitch!
When we arrived, the Place de la Bastille was packed. Thousands of
people already thronged the streets, making their way through the
numerous food trucks, traditional organizations, political stands, and
balloons. As in 2017, we decided to leave traditional organizations
behind us and hurried to catch up with the front of the procession.
Along the bassin de lâArsenal, hidden by the blossoming trees, the
colorful crowd progressively changed color. Waves of black appeared
among the leading procession. Once everyone was properly changed and
equipped, we all moved forward to reach the first lines of the march,
already located on the Austerlitz bridge. Once on the bridge, we
realized that we would not be at the front of this May Day
demonstration, as another crowd of activists was already walking ahead
of us.
The beginning of the demonstration was quite strange. While we waited on
the bridge, a line of journalists separated us from the front of the
procession. All the corporate media outlets wanted to have their own
footage of the impressive bloc that was occupying the bridge. For long
minutes, we remained completely static; several smoke bombs and torches
were lit and the banners at the front formed a perfect line. To us, this
entire situation was unproductive and somehow narcissistic, as it seemed
that part of the bloc was completely at ease with having their pictures
taken by photographers. We felt that they were actively participating in
the political spectacle of May Day by playing their role and posing so
the media could broadcast their sensational images. In the end, when
people were tired of waiting, fireworks and large firecrackers were
thrown at journalists to push them back. After several unsuccessful
attempts, the bloc charged them and thus finally managed to cross the
bridge.
Once we reached the other riverbank, we found police forces and water
cannons waiting on both sides. This created confusion in our ranks. For
several more minutes, no one knew what to do or what we were waiting
for. Would police forces try to split the procession and carry out an
enormous mass arrest before the march even started? While the bloc
paused again, indecisive about what to do next, the journalists
recreated their line in front of us, taking more shots of the famous
âblack blocâ while preventing us from reaching the other group of
demonstrators ahead of us.
Then things began to accelerate. Someone climbed a post and started to
smash a city camera with a rock. As the journalists continued filming us
unrelentingly, we were finally compelled to respond by smashing or spray
painting every single camera in our path. It was time to put out the
eyes of the state; in such a situation, rather than being neutral tools,
cameras are connected directly to the apparatus of repression. Then the
first advertisement billboards were smashed, along with some bus
shelters. It seemed that we had finally found our pace.
We entered the boulevard de lâHĂŽpital, passing the Jardin des Plantes (a
large public park) and the rue Buffon, where additional police units
were already blocking the street, until we reached a McDonaldâs. The
storm broke. Activists took out all the front windows of the fast food
restaurant while others enthusiastically decorated the walls. As the
windows fell to the ground, others entered the restaurant, destroying
and looting everything inside. At the end, someone threw a Molotov
cocktail inside. Other activists extinguished the flames, as inhabitants
living in flats above the restaurant started appearing at their windows.
(As lundimatin put it, âFinesse was not the theme of the day.â)
From this point on, nearly every window display was smashed and every
wall spray-painted. The march continued thus, destroying everything in
its path, until it reached two car dealerships. Again, some activists
ran to the front windows and shattered them. Others entered the premises
of one car dealership, wrecking everything inside. Finally, they pulled
two cars out onto the sidewalk and set them on fire.
On the other side of the street, not far past the Austerlitz train
station, several activists were breaking down the barriers around a
construction site. Behind the fencing, they found an excavator. This,
too, was set on fire. As the flames consumed the machine, someone took
the time to spray-paint âZAD everywhereâ on it. Whatever happens at
Notre-Dame-des-Landes, the ZAD will survive! Perhaps not in its current
formâas the process of normalization seems to leave fewer and fewer
breaches open for experimentationâbut its spirit continues to inspire us
in other struggles, as this tribute action demonstrates.
At this point, we looked ahead and saw that we couldnât go any further:
police forces were waiting with anti-riot fences and water cannon
trucks. They were blocking the route of the demonstration, probably to
prevent us from reaching the district police station located a little
further ahead on our right. At the same time, confrontations with police
broke out at the construction site near the train station. It seemed
that police were located inside or near the station, behind additional
fences. Law enforcement units answered our projectiles with showers of
tear gas canisters, which created a great degree of confusion. As
reported by lundimatin:
âThen, we witnessed the most absurd scenes of the day. Dozens of
activists in black threw hundreds of stones over the fences at an enemy
that was completely out of reach. Others threw stones at a machine in
flame, others at a McDonaldâs that would no longer cause any harm to
anyone. Actions that showed that the static but overwhelming and
ubiquitous police presence was about to win, that is to say, to diffuse
powerlessness. There was certainly a lot of will and determination
during these events, but it ended being compressed in a restricted space
where in reality frustration and fear prevailed.â
Little by little, the police trap was closing. While we were distracted
by the confrontations near the construction site, the police lines
blocking the boulevard ahead of us took the opportunity to move forward
with their water cannon trucks, then filled the streets with tear gas.
Our only option was to retreat. We were pushed back near the ruins of
the McDonaldâs. There, we were blocked between the thick clouds of tear
gas, the closed fences of the park, and a disoriented and panicking
crowd. Facing the jets of water cannons and uninterrupted showers of
tear gas canisters, some of us tried to resist with Molotov cocktails
and stones, but without any real success. As the intensity of
confrontations escalated, people began to escape by climbing over the
fences of the public park. Eventually, realizing that the increasing
panic could lead to a potential tragedy, firemen decided to open the
gates of the park. A breach was opened, and some of us took this
opportunity to exit the confrontations. Shortly after, police units
fanned out to attempt to arrest people inside the park.
Those who stayed on the boulevard de lâHĂŽpital continued retreating as
the water cannons were now in full use. They ended up crossing the
bridge we had departed from and then tried to start several actions by
taking other routes. Some joined the march of the CGT, others went back
to the bassin de lâArsenal in order to bypass police lines and harass
them. For the occasion, a huge barricade was built to slow the police
while others were attacking another car dealership and several stores.
Then, as police reinforcements arrived, activists dispersed into the
nearby streets, only to gather again a bit further away to begin another
spontaneous demonstration. Several Autolibsâelectric car sharing
vehicles owned by the BollorĂ© industrial groupâwere set on fire during
the action. Later, the Place de la Bastille was occupied by police, who
repeatedly tried to surround people in order to carry out additional
arrests, while other small groups of activists were blocked in a nearby
boulevard by other law enforcement units. The authorities cleared the
entire square of any potential activists.
Once the afternoon demonstration was definitely over, people began to
converge around a bar located at Place de la Contrescarpe, in the Latin
Quarter, the same district where most of the confrontations of May 1968
had taken place half a century earlier. The main objective of this event
was to gather people from different political horizons in order to meet,
debate, and create new connections. Unfortunately, police forces were
already on site when the first groups of people showed up at the square.
As more and more people arrived, police left the square so people could
occupy it, but not without stopping and controlling some groups that
wanted to join the gathering. Clashes erupted, with police repeatedly
beating and pepper-spraying the crowd. The rest of the night witnessed
an ongoing cat-and-mouse game between activists and police forces,
involving several reoccupations of the Place de la Contrescarpe.
During these events, several spontaneous demonstrations took place. In
one case, activists succeeded in escaping police units by entering an
already occupied building of the EHESS, the School of Advanced Studies
in the Social Sciences. Fascists and neo-Nazis armed with gulf clubs
were patrolling the Latin Quarter at the same time. They assaulted
several activists who were on their way to the gathering, injuring at
least one individual.
May Day 2018 was a special day on several different levels. First, fully
14,500 people joined the non-affiliated march, demonstrating behind or
alongside a black bloc of 1200. These are the figures provided by
authorities. That means that about half the people who attended the May
Day demonstration decided to abandon the traditional political marches.
We saw the first signs of this in 2016. It reveals a deep change in
terms of political traditions. It seems that more and more people are
searching for something more in their activism while losing faith in
trade unions and political parties. We are glad to see that this is
continuing to spread. To illustrate this phenomenon, here is a
translated extract of a personal account written after May Day 2018. The
authors explain why they decided to join the leading procession despite
their ânon-violentâ moral stand:
â[âŠ] We recognize that we might have come to the head of the procession
because we are attracted by the smell of powder, with the feeling that
âthis is where things happen.â All this precisely because elsewhere,
there is not much going on. The rest of the march is nothing but a
deadly boredom, both politically and philosophically. The trade union
processions are saturated with trucks, sound systems, a technical power
that crushes all life and reduces demonstrations to, at best, a nice
walk, at worst, a funeral march. These regulated parades do not disturb
anyone and always end with the ritual discussions about figures. The
human reduced to numbers: beautiful result!â
The great number of radicals present during May Dayâthe largest black
bloc constituted in Paris so farâalong with the intensity of the attacks
(31 stores attacked and 16 cars damaged) and our mobility and
determination not to be separated from the rest of the leading
procession: together, these created difficulties for the authorities.
Because the police decided to avoid direct confrontations with
demonstrators in favor of maintaining a security perimeter from a
distance, they were not able to contain us or track all of our movements
once we had no option other than to retreat. Because of the chaotic
situation, the Police Prefecture of Paris, with the agreement of trade
union leaders, decided to simply cancel the May Day procession. A
surprising decision, when we bear in mind that beforehand, the
Prefecture had discussed an alternative route with trade union leaders
in case violence occurred during the march. It is always instructive to
see the masks of trade union leaders fall, revealing how superficial
their convictions are.
Later that night, authorities, politicians, trade union leaders,
journalists, and âspecialistsâ of all kinds continued to argue over the
events of the day and the tactics used by police against the black bloc.
Journalists and politicians are still having a great deal of trouble
understanding that the âblack blocâ is not a specific entity but a
street tactic; the black bloc was blamed not only for the cancellation
of the May Day procession, but also for all the evils of our modern
world. As usual, the same old patronizing discourse distinguishing âgood
demonstratorsâ from âviolent thugsâ returned to center stage in these
debates. What irony, to see self-proclaimed leaders celebrating May 1968
one day, then denouncing demonstrators the next day on account of some
of the same confrontational tactics.
Due to intensifying polemics regarding the tactics used by law
enforcement during the afternoon, the Prefect of Paris had to improvise
a press conference to explain why the police did not simply charge the
crowd to put a stop to the vandalism. The Prefect explained that the
results of the day were extremely positive in that, despite the property
damage, only one policeman had been lightly injured and the police had
carried out numerous arrests. On our side, we donât know how many people
were injured during the confrontations.
The trap the authorities had set for May Day 2018 ended up being more
effective than we expected: afterwards, we learned that over 250 people
had been arrested during the day. That night, the authorities announced
that more than 100 had been taken into custody, and that the first court
appearances were already scheduled for the end of the week.
On Thursday, May 3, six individuals went to court; all of them refused
immediate appearance. Their trials will be held at the end of May and in
mid-June. In the meantime, two friends were put in pre-trial custody and
three under judicial control. On May 4, seven individuals were indicted,
two were convoked later, and thirteen just received reminders of the
law. Three defendants accepted immediate appearances: two were
discharged, and the last one received a 1000-euro fine for carrying a
smoke bomb and spray-paint cans. The others will be tried later. Two
more people were put in pre-trial custody and others under judicial
control. We send our love and support to everyone arrested on May
Dayânot only in Paris, but everywhere. For those seeking more details
about the several days of hearings concerning the events of May Day in
Paris, we recommend this report by the Parisian legal team.
Even if this massive wave of arrests ends up being simply a symbolic
gesture orchestrated by the government and the Police Prefecture of
Paris, the number of individuals held in custody shows their
determination to increase repression towards anyone suspected of
belonging to the leading processionâeven simply on account of clothes,
accessories, or medical supplies. By spreading fear of being arrested
for âparticipating in a group formed in order to commit vandalism or
violence,â the authorities aim to discourage demonstrators from the
practices of the leading procession, and to compel everyone else to
dissociate from us. History will show whether we can avoid this trap.
The storm of May Day 2018 is over. Itâs time for us to reflect on the
events of that day, the strategies and decisions on the field, and some
attitudes and postures within the leading procession that, in our eyes,
are becoming problematic. Many personal essays and reflections have
already appeared online on the subject, indicating that everyone feels
there is room for improvement.
As anarchists, we are all aware of the risks that new technologies can
involve. It is no surprise that our phones and computers can be tapped
and that our favorite websites and social media platforms are monitored
by the authorities. This is why, for strategic reasons, we believe that
we should minimize our dependence on social media and new technologies
in general. How many times has online informationâstatements, posts,
pictures, friendships, eventsâbeen used against us in court to add more
charges to our cases? We need to be more cautious with these tools in
order to protect others and ourselves. As younger generations of
activists are joining us for actions like those of May Day, we have to
find ways to pass on proper security practices to new participants
before they get themselves into trouble.
A Facebook event entitled âMay Day 2018: A Day in Hellâ and a call for a
ârevolutionary, determined, and fighting processionâ were posted online
before the eyes of the world. Our point here is not to attack the
authors of this call, but to consider the use of social media as a
platform to announce actions. What is the goal of advertising such an
event online? Publicity, certainly. It is true that we need to announce
events in order to draw people to them who are not already involved in
our circles, but perhaps there could be a way to do this that would not
also forewarn the authorities as to the character of our plans. When we
do so, it enables them to prepare strategies for media narrative and
repression in advance. Of course, the authorities already suspected that
we intended to join the traditional procession and unleash hell, as we
did in the past; but we should not make it easy for them to predict
where and how we will strike, nor to identify the most confrontational
elements. Regarding such press statements from our side, they may
sometimes be necessary, but we should avoid publicity stunts of all
kinds, and we also have to consider what the process is by which it is
determined which actions are announced and how. These announcements can
make things possible, but they can also make things impossible. One of
the greatest structural challenges of organizing in the 21^(st) century
is how to resist the dictatorship of those who have the most media
access.
Because we openly announced our intention to carry out a frontal
assault, the authorities had plenty of time to prepare a trap for us.
They used this call to warn trade union leaders and to stir up the
tensions that exist between them and some individuals in the leading
procession. We should take care not to use rhetoric or publicity
strategies that will leave us more isolated and vulnerable in the end.
There is no doubt that the government is increasing its pressure on us,
and an approach that works once may not work so well the next time.
Michel Delpuech, the Police Commissioner of Paris, reported that the
police and government officials were generally pleased with the results
of the law enforcement strategy they used on May Day, and that they
already knew in advance what our main targets were: the train station
and the district police station.
All this raises a lot of questions regarding our discretion, our ability
to stay under the radar while getting organized until the day of the
action, and also our ability to remain unpredictable. We should not
depend on social media to communicate among ourselves, and we should be
intentional in determining which information we share in different
venues. There have to be other safer ways to reach out to
othersâespecially newer generationsâwithout having to rely on social
media or voluntarily drawing attention to ourselves before an action.
For us, the solution lies deeper underground, in our informal
assemblies, gatherings, meetings, and parties, where real human
interactions and affinities can flourish. It is there, and through
meeting new people in the streets or during actions, that we can develop
and extend new informal connections and solidarity while escaping as
much as possible from the constantly increasing state surveillance.
Another concerning issue is that since its first appearance in 2016, the
head of the leading processionâthe âblack blocââis becoming more and
more ritualized, at the risk of becoming a caricature of itself. When at
first, groups of students, anarchists, autonomists, and other radicals
decided to take the head of the demonstration at the expense of trade
unions, it was to open up new horizons for activism in France. This
strategy worked: new forms of action and solidarity emerged as people
decided to secede from the trade union processions. The leading
procession became an uncontrollable body for which diversity, mobility,
and spontaneity were the watchwords.
Two years later, the situation has changed. Of course, we are happy to
see that the leading procession still exists and keeps attracting more
and more people. Nevertheless, when we decide to take part in an action,
everything follows a familiar pattern: we join the demonstration, we
reach the front of the procession, we change our clothes for anonymity,
we create a bloc at the head of the leading procession, we pose with our
banners and smoke bombs for photographers, we march, we shout the same
slogans, we attack some targets, we confront police forces, we escape
and disband. Once again, we have reached a plateau, and we find
ourselves fulfilling a role in an orchestrated spectacle. What used to
be an unpredictable spark, a way of outflanking specific demonstrations,
is now becoming an expected form of action. In ritualizing our
strategies, we end up integrating them into othersâ expectations and
facilitating the task of the police at the same time. We have to create
a new momentum in our actions. Only our creativity and originality can
add new subversive, spontaneous, and chaotic elements to the âblack
blocâ strategy.
As a starting point, we could start by refusing the cult of images, an
integral part of the âsociety of spectacle.â It seems that there is a
lot of work to be done in this regard among the monochrome bloc of the
leading procession. For us, it is clear that images of all kinds are
nothing more than invisible chains that tie us to the narcissistic and
materialistic aspects of the prevailing order. We should not be
imitating popular images of struggle; we should seek to interrupt a way
of living based on emulating images. While the autonomous bloc was
waiting on the Austerlitz bridge, we witnessed a strange scene in which
dozens of photographers captured footage of the autonomous procession,
while some of us proudly posed with banners and smoke bombs. It took the
crowd a long time to show the first signs of irritation against
journalists, even though they repeatedly blocked our path.
Regardless of the intentions of journalists, their profession endangers
us. They record us before, during, and after actions; often, they are
positioned between us and our targets, or our comrades, or the police.
Their presence can distract us from other important objectives, obstruct
our movements, and incriminate us afterwards if police utilize their
footage for investigations. After May Day, discussing this subject with
comrades, we all agreed that some of the newer generations in the
leading procession probably decided to join us only because they saw
images online of the confrontations during the movement against the Loi
Travail. Unfortunately, the power of images is a double-edged sword: on
one side, it can make people choose to join us, but on the other side,
they might remain fascinated by this warrior posture and the production
of spectacular images.
As the government tries to intensify control and repression, we have to
be especially careful regarding the presence of cameras during actions.
Once, the only cameras we had to be worried about were police or city
cameras. Today, they are everywhere. But this should not make us accept
them as inevitable: we need to keep journalists and cameras out of our
procession, without any exceptions. What is more important, the
dissemination of images flattering our egos, or making it possible to
act freely during demonstrations?
For more information about the issue of cameras in our radical
processions, you can read the zine âDialogue imaginaire avec un-e
dĂ©fenseur-euse de lâimage photographique dâindividus.â
Rather than taking for granted the simplistic dichotomy of âvictoryâ
versus âdefeat,â we would like to discuss several points that could be
improved for future actions. Some decisions taken on May Day raise
questions that we must confront if we want to move forward.
First, when we passed the Austerlitz bridge to enter the boulevard de
lâHĂŽpital, we all realized that police forces were waiting for us on
both sides of the procession. This made us uneasy for some time. Then,
when we finally decided to move forward and reached the McDonaldâs, we
realized again that police forces we blocking the nearby street rue
Buffon. In our view, as soon as we ravaged the McDonaldâs, we were
already within the trap of police forces, as anti-riot fences and water
cannon trucks were blocking us from progressing further. In other words,
starting at that specific moment, we had no options except to retreat
via the park, to return across the bridge we had just crossed, or to
endure the police attacks. Next time, we need to be more aware of our
surroundings, to anticipate the movements of law enforcement, and to
think ahead of time about possible escape routes in order to avoid the
moments of panic that we saw on May Day. We are fortunate to be able to
say that we succeededâfor the most partâin escaping and outflanking the
massive police presence, at least for a moment. But we could certainly
do better.
We also should revisit individual decisions, such as the choice to throw
a Molotov cocktail inside the McDonaldâs when people were living above
the restaurant, or to set cars on fire on the sidewalk so that flames
threatened the apartments above them. The point is not to criticize the
use of Molotov cocktails, but to consider when and where to use them. We
should never risk collateral victims because of our decisions. Letâs
avoid another tragedy like the one that took place in Greece several
years ago in the Marfin bank fire. A tragedy like that would affect all
of us on several different levels.
Also, we need to take better care of each other during actions. On May
Day 2018, many people were not equipped to endure the showers of tear
gas. Many people experienced panic attacks or respiratory issues while
caught in a middle of a large confused crowd. We saw at least one person
with a head injury receiving medical attention from firemen. It is
obvious that we need to bring more medical supplies with us to these
actions.
Finally, let us recall that solidarity is one of our greatest assets.
Today, about 50 arrestees await trial. Several gatherings took place in
front of the police stations in which individuals were incarcerated.
These actions need to intensify, and not only because friends known to
us personally are detained. Solidarity is for everyone, friends or not.
One idea for future actions could be to find new tactics to protect each
other from being arrested, or to respond to arrests.
It is now apparent that the autonomous procession, in all its diversity,
needs to use creativity to break out of the current stalemate. To
accomplish this, we need to free ourselves from the defeatist rhetoric
that tends to crop up in our discussions, to accept criticism, and to
abandon the ritualized framework of the leading procession. We need to
become unpredictable again.
Regarding the argument currently circulating to the effect that we
should join forces once more with trade unions, we have some
reservations. Letâs not forget that trade union leaders are the ones who
negotiate with every successive government to determine the length of
the chains with which we are all bound. We donât need longer chains, but
to be rid of chains once and for all! And what about the trade union
service personnel who attacked students and radicals on several
occasions during the demonstrations of 2016?
Letâs make it clear that we donât want to join forces with trade
unionsâwith an authoritarian and hierarchical political apparatus.
Rather, we want to create connections with everyoneâunionized or notâwho
is disillusioned with the presiding political hierarchies. We can form
these connections during blockades, in spontaneous actions, or in the
leading processions.
Here are some closing thoughts that we could discuss in hopes of opening
new breaches in our struggles:
First, why not take law enforcement by surprise during major events like
May Day? Instead of converging for the afternoon demonstration as we
usually do, we could desert the demonstration. As police units would be
positioned along the official route, we could seize this opportunity to
carry out actions everywhere else, outside the official route of the
demonstration. Certainly, such action requires a lot of preparation and
organization. The goal would be that every single affinity group that
would otherwise have constituted the head of the leading procession
should attack a specific target, all at the same time. It might not
work, of courseâcalls for âautonomous actionsâ often fall flat, and this
strategy (branded as âPlan Bâ for the 2007 G8 summit in Germany) has
failed before. People usually need to experience a certain amount of
concentration to gain the morale necessary to take transformative
action. But if we could decentralize our efforts, we could outmaneuver
the police and draw more people into the confrontations.
Another solution could be to dissolve the autonomous bloc at the head of
the leading procession, as the latter is now becoming too predictable
and somehow too slow. In doing so, we might be able to use to our
advantage the fact that the majority of the crowd in the leading
procession supports our actions, so as to move through the crowd like
free electrons, attacking one target after another. If they had to
control the entirety of the leading procession, police forces would
constantly being harassed or overtaken by events. As mentioned earlier,
traditional trade unions are still eroding, and more people are joining
the leading procession; therefore, we can expect more and more people on
our side. Strategically, it would be a nightmare for law enforcement.
How would they carry out arrests amidst thousands of uncooperative
individuals? If they sought to divide the procession, they would risk
being surrounded by demonstrators as they were on May Day 2016; if they
charged the crowd, it would be a public image nightmare for the
government. The Police Commissioner of Paris made it clear that the
current strategy of the police is to avoid direct confrontations; if
this continues, it means that sending undercover officers into the crowd
to arrest specific individuals is not an option. Our mobility and
agility would be a precious asset. Finally, distributing the
confrontational black bloc throughout the rest of the leading procession
would dissolve the dividing lines of identity, creating confusion for
the authorities as to who to target and opening up the possibility that
people who had not previously expected it of themselves might cross the
threshold into action.
One thing is certain: the present situation cannot continue. As the
authors of an article entitled âCe sera tout?â (âThat will be all?â) put
it:
âThe self-satisfied âleading processionâ has now been instituted as a
norm of superficial radicalism to the detriment of inventiveness,
effervescence, and riotous joy, thus removing all its subversive
significance and opposing the savage and uncontrollable aspects that no
longer find a place to express themselves within it.â
It is vital to consider every single criticism made of the leading
procession, in order to find solutions to escape from this dangerous
stalemate. We need to rethink everything and begin acting according to a
different logic.
All of that being said, the events of that afternoon continue to fill
our hearts with warmth, joy, and passion. Count on us to continue
smashing every single symbol of the prevailing order until we reach its
very foundations.