Between a swing to the right and a revolt
In 2015 we released the documentary 'Une vie de lutte'
about the activist Clément Méric
about the rise of right-wing forces in France
and antifascist struggles in Paris.
In June 2016 we traveled to Paris again to meet
some comrades and to join the commemoration
activities around Clément's third day of death.
We wanted to know something about news
concerning the trial against the two main suspects
and how people commemorated Clément this weekend.
There are some news concerning
the murder of Clément.
They still didn't consider the knuckleduster
as the murder weapon.
The suspects are still not accused of murder.
During the last months the trial was held in camera
and the court still allows
new documents to every charge.
We currently don't have a trial date.
They say it will be in winter 2017,
but there's no guarantee for that.
This year, the commemoration activities for Clément
were similar to the first year.
We organized a festival consisting of two concerts
on Friday and Saturday - one evening with Rap and
the other evening with Punk, Ska, Reaggae, Oi music.
That's for Friday and Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon we also had a demonstration
and there has been a football tournament, organized
by the MFC [Ménilmontant Football Club 1871]
with various teams from France, Paris and Europe.
To me, it's important that those who were murdered
are not just a sad occasion to commemorate,
but that we rather make clear
that they died for a reason in a fight.
When we have a party, people get together,
share a mutual moment, it's a shared moment.
It's a concert - our Rap music is a concert
in commemoration of Clément.
It's a call for commemoration and it's a way
to express the time we spend together
and that we support each other.
Especially because there's not only the murder
of Clément but there's also life
and a social and political context.
Well, the commemoration takes place in a time
of social struggles and so on.
Therefore it's important that people,
who call themselves antifascists - and especially
the surrounding of Clément, come together and
spend time together, commemorate together
in order to move forward, to motivate each other
to continue and to do things together.
This was a performance of 'Choral debout'
and 'Orchestre debout' as an act of remembrance
for Clément in form of a song.
Well, I think this is respectable, because it's a move
from people who were truly touched
by the things that happened.
On the other hand, the address at Place de la République
isn't really related to us, because it doesn't belong
to our political practice.
But we accept those things, because we support
the diversity of approaches and opinions.
What's interesting about the topic of Clément,
compared to the first year of commemoration:
Back then everybody was interested, sad, touched.
And as time goes by - like it often happens with people,
who were murdered - the interest decreases
and is replaced by other events.
This year it was more difficult to assemble
all the different organizations to this event.
Of course they are still there and they're doing their best
to make sure, that this murder does not
fall into oblivion.
There were connections established to other countries
concerning fascist murders.
There's a connection to Italians.
Clément's parents are in contact with Italian mothers
who lost their sons and daughters due to a murder.
For the matter of cooperation:
only few things have been established.
We're focused on the trial and on what happens now
and it's difficult to establish connections besides that.
My name is Jean, I'm part of RAGE, Action Network Geneva,
formerly Antifa Network Geneva.
We came to Paris this weekend for the demonstration.
We were also here three years ago,
when Clément was murdered.
We joined the first demonstration
and we also came here for his first date of death.
It's important to us to be present on such occasions
to show our moral support
and to support the comrades logistically.
That's very important because we noticed that
extreme right-wing structures establish cross-border,
transnational connections.
That's why it is necessary that we extend our networks
to establish solidarity on an international level.
Therefore we also took part in the demonstration
in commemoration of Dax in Milan.
We think that it's extremely important to keep up
the remembrance for our comrades
who were murdered and to continue their fight.
It's important to overcome the isolation
and to establish international contacts.
We will start a campaign about the trial.
We don't have a date yet
but we're already preparing it.
When we get the date, we need to be ready
to tell the public again what happened
and to be present in the internet.
Because extreme right-wingers are very active
in social networks - much more than we are.
We need to re-establish the truth against
all their lies and half-truths.
We have to make clear that it was a political crime,
not a brawl on the street that simply turned out badly.
On 4th of June 2016 a commemoration demonstration
for Clément took place on his third date of death.
People from France
and from many European countries participated.
Due to this event the activists also protested
against the increasing militarization of the public sphere,
the neoliberal labor market reform and
against the growing repression by state and police.
Well, I guess we were approximately 3000 people
on this resolute demonstration.
But we were stopped by the police who divided
the demo in two parts.
Now we're in a police encirclement
for more or less 45 minutes
close to the St. Martin canal.
We actually knew it before, because someone set
a police car on fire right in this street a few weeks ago.
The police stopped us there and therefore we were
worried that they could strike back.
Concerning the demonstration yesterday:
according to people who took part, it was very violent.
The demo was determined to go from a point A
to a point B. It should start at Stalingrad,
circle through Paris and end in the 20th Arrondissement.
The demonstration started at 2 pm and was ended
at half past 3 because the security forces decided
to encircle the demonstrators and to block them
between a number of CRS lines [police].
The repression is currently completely directed
against the social movements of the last months
on occasion of the Loi Travail.
The more we achieve with our demonstrations and
the more weeks are passing by,
the more brutal is the repression. As you can see in
Rennes, in Nantes, everywhere in France, in Lille
for example, where politically active people face
an enormous repression because they dared to occupy
a public square, because they have the misfortune to be
at a demonstration, because they have the misfortune
to be somewhere where
things are getting out of control.
And from this moment on any activism
leads to repression.
I can only state that I, as a demonstrator for about
20 years, have never seen anything comparable to
this police, who establish this kind of systematic
repression at demonstrations.
Violence against younger demonstrators, students
- it's them who are most affected by it.
Quite more than us in the union's parts
and other parts of the demonstration.
Alone being organized collectively in order to fight
is criminalized. They call us "destroyers"
or even "terrorists". This discourse
has always existed, but now it's pushed
by preventive arrests and custody
that is extended systematically.
These arrests are completely arbitrary
and even lawyers say that everything is possible today.
About the current situation: yesterday there was
an antifascist demonstration and one part of it
was encircled by the police. In order to get out,
people had to hand over everything they carried.
In some way I would call this robbery by the police.
Some of the people complied - which can be criticized.
But on the other hand there was arbitrariness
by the police and sometimes you just don't know
how to defend yourself in any way.
But people are making a huge effort
to convey the following: "No, not everything is permitted,
we can still use the remaining remedies
to defend ourselves." And there's also a drift
developing from it, e.g. the mutual support.
People are far better equipped today, e.g. against
tear gas - I've never seen it before in this way.
When they shoot tear gas at you and you don't
have any equipment, there's immediately
10 people around, helping you to rinse your eyes.
And that's new indeed. I mean, people
have been doing that before,
but now there's a systematic side to it,
which is becoming a standard in their practice.
In my opinion that's really interesting, even if it sounds
like old stories, but I believe that it means something.
There's another remarkable thing:
today there are hundreds of people on each
demonstration who affront the police because it's part
of their political practice.
Surprising is now that more and more people
stand behind them who wouldn't fight themselves but
who fill the gap behind them and offer a peaceful
but determined support for the others by saying
'that's not my approach
but I don't want people to get arrested.' I can't remember
ever having experienced something like this before.
After the attacks in November 2015
the French government declared a state of emergency
which is constantly extended by the parliament
and that lasts until today. The state of emergency,
which was imposed under the pretext of preventing
terrorist attacks, entails an increasing militarization
of the public sphere and makes repression against
politically inconvenient persons and structures
much easier for state 'security' forces.
Thus only 5 of over 2500 house searches,
executed without a judicial search order,
led to charges on suspicion of terrorism.
Meanwhile the government plans to transfer
numerous measures from the state of emergency
into normal conditions via constitutional change,
which would mean a massive limitation of civil rights.
The state of emergency turned
the political situation in France upside down.
This is especially true for activism in this period,
because the emergency rule
was enforced right after the attacks.
The police is more and more present in the streets.
It practically became impossible not to come
across them when you leave the house.
In the matter of social movements, demonstrations,
political commemoration, political actions, assemblies
- the police is everywhere.
At the beginning they forbid every
demonstration and assembly.
Meanwhile they're not that strict anymore
and therefore we can make demonstrations.
But as you could see during the last months
with the 'Loi Travail' and the movement torched by it,
the repression became more and more visible
and more violent.
They're currently presenting a law that should end
the state of emergency - but at the same time
extend the measures of police and justice.
So - well, you can feel the state of emergency
especially in the Banlieues.
And it is brought to this movement through pressure
by the police, going like this: "Attention, attention, …",
until the demonstrations get out of hand
and people become desperate.
On the essential evenings with confrontations on
the square [Place de la République] there were
a lot of young people here. Everybody was here,
actually – 18-year old and 70-year old people
- and the police.
By day there were demonstrations where the police
exerted enormous pressure.
That's a matter affecting the whole protest movement.
It's clear that the state of emergency
changes all circumstances.
That means: what was unimaginable
two months ago is everyday reality now.
Concerning strategies to keep up law and order
- also activists with a lot of experience see things
that they've never seen before.
An offensive, aggressive security policy,
willing to strike physically.
We're not in a way of escorting demonstrations,
with some scrambling and a snappy balance between
demonstrators and police.
Now we can see the intention to spread fear
- especially towards young people.
State of emergency means brutal repression
- especially against minorities and non-white persons.
They are searching for people
they can blame for the attacks.
They are trying to prevent further ISIS-attacks
but they are also turning against groups
they call "religious communities".
In terms of the state but also in parts
of the general public, "religious communities"
nowadays only means “Muslims”.
If you're Catholic, Jewish, Hindu or religious
in some other way, you are neither "community"
nor a religious extremist.
For the French state it's only Muslims.
There really is a huge repression.
They try to find Jihadists everywhere,
remand people in custody whose beard is too long
or whose clothes they dislike.
And for veiled women it obviously became
more complicated because today the veil
is an enemy of the French state and of the
French population - as the media puts it.
In March 2016 the government's neo-liberal
labor market reform provoked resistance.
Subsequently French unions organized strikes
spreading over the whole country.
At the same time a young protest movement
called 'Nuit debout' developed.
It connected different people and didn't only criticize
the new labor law but began questioning
the whole political and economical system.
As an initial impulse for the development of 'Nuit debout'
the anti-oligarchic documentary movie
'Merci Patron!' is mentioned.
It deals with the closure of factories by
a luxury company and the resulting unemployment
and worker poverty.
Meanwhile, the legislative package was passed
but activists and unionists keep fighting
for its withdrawal.
At the beginning of 'Nuit debout'
several events took place.
At first there was a movie related to the periodical paper
'FAKIR', called 'Merci Patron!' [Thanks, boss!].
And people who made this movie...
We heard that people left the preview screening
of the movie charged with a lot of energy
to change something and they said
'Ok, we will collect contact data from everybody
who watched the movie and we'll meet
at the union's building opposite to the square.
And then we'll see what we can do
with this energy.'
At an assembly people proposed: "Let's not just
go home now. We're tired of making demonstrations
once a week and then going back to work,
waiting for the next demonstration on the
following week and so on.
There was a demonstration on March 31st
and we didn't go home afterwards,
but occupied a square and stayed there.
Everything developed from this moment.
There were some dozens or one-hundred people
organizing it and we stayed for the whole night
and even the whole weekend to talk about politics,
to get together.
We came from different fields of political activity
and we wanted to share our motivation for mobilization,
our working approaches and our work in general.
So we do what's called "fusion of fights".
We meet here, take our time to get to know
each other, to discuss, to build something.
It wasn't spontaneously really, because we
prepared it but it was interesting that the people
who heard the call, were mostly people
who didn't have any militant experience,
who discovered everything for the first time
but who also wanted to do something.
Thus, we were a number of people already being
active in movements and others who said
'We're living in a system that doesn't offer a way out
and therefore we'll simply build up
what we need ourselves.
We don't know yet which form it'll have,
we don't know exactly how we'll do it
but we'll sit down together
and we'll create it together.'
'I may not have any experience,
my ideas are quite blurry,
but I don't want this system anymore.
And I want to take part in creating something new.'
Regarding the Loi Travail - which is also called
Loi El Khomri, after Myriam El Khomri,
minister for employment:
It was published on February 17th and it is aimed
at changing labor law completely.
It contains 130 pages and 52 articles.
Therefore it's a very complex law that affects
the employee's conditions in many points,
especially working hours.
It's a law that aims to extend the weekly
working time and to keep it variable in order
to serve the company and the employer.
For example: It will be possible to make blanket
daily working time contracts.
These will be working contracts that will determine
a general payment without considering overtime.
People would work any number of overtime
hours by getting the same payment.
In the big companies this has to be negotiated
with the unions but it's planned [in the law]
that companies with up to 50 employees,
mid-size companies, can make these contracts
without the union's agreement.
Protest emerged quite fast. As I said, the
legislative proposal was published on February 17th
and the unions stated very early
'That's a scandal! First of all, the legislative proposal
is bad - bad for the employees.
Secondly, we haven't been asked'.
There was indeed a two-hour-meeting, where
CGT, Force Ouvrière, CFDT (the big unions) were invited,
but they didn't ask for our opinion.
So the law's content was dictated.
Therefore the big unions protested very fast.
Youth organizations and university students
also expressed their protest.
During the strike days there sometimes are 'Nuit debout'
blocks in the demonstrations and sometimes
there are none. Everybody mixes with
everybody, with unions' blocks or with other activists
in front of the demonstration.
As you can see - everybody can find a place.
People are trying to make something out of it.
Unions were invited several times to speak here.
Apart from that, we're besides traditional
political paths. We are bit less remote from the
unions because many of us are organized in unions.
On the other hand, the methods and forms of action
are quite different from the unionist traditions.
So we try working together with 'reason',
whereby there definitely are a lot of
significant differences.
That partly runs together with unionist organizations
because unionsts often come to the square.
Then people take the mic and say 'I'm from the CGT
and in my company this and that happens
also I think this and that.'
But there are also people mistrusting the unions:
young people, unorganized people. Nevertheless there
are also times with a great proximity to the unions.
For example: On April 28th, a thursday, there were some
big demonstrations. 50 or 60,000 people in Paris.
Unions were invited to the meeting
that took place at the Place de la République.
The general secretary of the CGT
Philippe Martinez, who represents approximately
700,000 employees after all, came there.
He spoke there, and he wasn't the first one,
but he let several people speak before him
and waited. Then he called up
for a strike, even for a general strike.
And that was new because the CGT didn't use
the word 'general strike' in this conflict before.
He said indeed 'I'd call up for a general strike if
the government's actions make it necessary,
if it doesn't withdraw.'
To the more radical people who say 'general strike'
carelessly he said that you can't order it.
This wouldn't happen because you want it
- it needs to be built up.
Therefore we need to go into the companies.
Both found each other there: the non-unionist
organized, young people who are not organized,
precarious people the unions don't care
about enough and the unionist themselves.
There were times when they worked well together
and there were more suspicious phases.
But I would say that the question is:
How can they come together?
Because otherwise we can't win.
The CNT is an anarcho-syndicalist union,
it' anarchist, revolutionary. We are located in quite
a lot of vocational sectors in France with more or
less importance depending on the professional branch
and the region.
...and at strikes, by striking, by being present
at demonstrations and activities, by being present
at Nuit debout also - you might have heard of it,
this public space of permanent assemblies
with good and not so good things, interesting and
not so interesting things. But anyway,
there happens a lot, a politicization of the public sphere
where we assured our part as a union.
We're continuing our work: propaganda, leaflets,
publications, communiques, calls for strikes.
Of course we call up for general strikes
right from the beginning. Within our means
we try to strike as much as we can.
And besides that there 's an unbelievable amount of
active people in the CNT who are very committed,
who are acting as the "free" head at demonstrations.
And this shows that the CNT
is an union but an union that's
different regarding its function, aims and approaches,
just a little different compared to the
traditional union structures.
We don't know where we are heading from the
beginning, or what we're building up.
We don't know how to build it up yet.
We are reinventing everything each time.
Sometimes we reinvent things that have already
been invented. Therefore it doesn't go very fast.
What's interesting about it: an enormous
number of people is mobilized for militant actions.
And - we've talked about this before
- among those people there are many
who never raised their voice before against oppression,
against capitalism and its functions, against the
usage of police to beat down every opposition.
And therefore there are many people
who stand up and push forward new ideas.
There's the assemblée populaire which is a great
place to talk, where everybody can make
proposals, where everybody can speak.
There are commissions, which are working spaces
to create new ideas and activities
that are put into practice afterwards.
Then there are the demonstrations and actions
that start here. This is important to us because
it keeps up the connection with the social movement
on the square, especially with the movement
against the Loi El Khomri, the labor law, but also with
the actions, the presentations [at the square]
or with the [striking] railway employees,
the electricians, the gas workers, the teachers
who think about how to change the relationship
between school and society.
There are many things starting here.
Yes, there's some exchange. From the beginning
we were told: 'In some way you're like the
Indignados in Spain, you're like Podemos etc.'
We dissociated ourselves from that.
We said we're very interested in exchange with
Spanish people, Greek people, Germans - with the
whole planet, Turkish people occupying squares,
Egyptians but every movement is very different.
We're surely no spin-off or offspring of the
Indignados. We're building up our own
movement, it's impossible to say where it goes.
For the matter of international connections:
They exist, there's a commission dealing with them.
The connection to Spain is the strongest because
we interact with Spanish people, who are here
from the beginning. People from all over the
world are coming here.
And we're trying to build up new connections
for really becoming international.
We stated what we won't tolerate on the square:
neither racism, nor sexism, no infiltration by
right-wing people arguing ambiguous,
or being openly violent as it happened the
first Saturday night of Nuit debout.
Since then we have this position.
There is no place for extremely right-wing
people here. And that's something everybody agrees on.
Nevertheless there have been debates.
Some people said that we should let them speak
and see afterwards, whether their ideas are bad,
so that we could send them away.
But many of us were saying, that we did not create
a place like this to give it to people
already having a place to speak
and who want to silence our voices.
Despite a new social movement from the left,
right-wing forces are still growing stronger
in France - as in many other European countries.
The Front National, stoking a climate of fear after
the attacks in November 2015 and using it for
personal gain, reached their best election result
in history at the regional elections in December
2015 with 6.7 million votes.
The reactionary organization 'Manif pour tous'
is still taking thousands of people to the streets
for demonstrations against homosexual marriages.
New right-wing movements try to establish racist
resentments in society in the guise of freedom of speech.
Generally the right-wing is on the run when a
new politic space appears. Concerning the
institutional right, the Front National:
they have a problem because they are not quite able
to react to a movement. Because on the one hand
- from a populist point of view - they want
to attend this movement and dedicate themselves to it.
On the other hand they see themselves as guards
of a republican order due to their conservative views
and therefore they can't just say:
'Yes, strikes and blockades are the right thing.'
There was a demonstration by discontent
policemen and -women here on the
Place de la République on Wednesday, March 18th.
There were 1000 policemen and -women from different
police unions, especially from a
right-wing union called 'Alliance'.
The policemen and -women demonstrated here
to support the public relations of the FN.
In advance the FN announced
'We're going to support the policemen'.
That was some bad propaganda, because the FN-boss
in the region Ile de France, Wallerand de Saint-Just,
published an article on the internet where he stated:
'I'm standing here with this injured policeman',
using a press photo.
There's an injured policeman on the photo lying
on the ground and bleeding, but he wasn't hurt here
- but in Thailand.
It was a Thai policeman from 2014, two years ago.
That was the prologue. And then they came to
this square. The day of the demonstration there
were grids around the square, you couldn't just
enter - you needed a press card or police ID.
Parliamentarians could also enter, because
you could pass with a parliamentarian ID.
The Front National has two parliamentarians
in the National Parliament,
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen - a young woman -
and Gilbert Collard, a former lawyer. The two of them
came here. It was quite a great success for them,
because many policemen and -women wanted to take
a picture with them, especially with
Marion Maréchal-Le Pen. So they were
in the public's eye again.
A climate of fear, times of social uncertainty,
uncertainty in the world of employment
or uncertainty on the street due to the
assassinations and other things - that's always a
soil for extreme right-wing structures to flourish.
But there's a tendency - in France and abroad -
to pretend that right-wingers have won in every
aspect. That means: no matter what happens -
right-wingers benefit from it.
In Switzerland there's a xenophobic, populist,
islamophobic party, the UDC,
Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP
This party regularly presents public petitions concerning
asylum law and this makes life harder
for migrants in Switzerland.
Nowadays the Front National takes over poster motifs
from every SVP campaign. There's a poster made
by the SVP showing a minaret and also used
by the Front National.
For every election success of the SVP in Switzerland
Marine Le Pen pipes up and congratulates the SVP and
Switzerland for passing xenophobic, racist laws.
On the other hand, from my point of view,
it's the French fascist groups on the margin of the FN
who are a bigger problem in Switzerland,
because there's a border to France.
Due to the fact that the Swiss right-wingers
built up many connections to the French right-wingers
there are many militant French Neo-Fascists
coming to Switzerland for working and exporting
their activism, their knowledge - and that creates a
transnational connection
between Switzerland and France.
The [right] radicals are traditionally living by the baton.
Therefore they often attack demonstrators themselves
acting like an auxiliary police. It always was like this.
Now there's something new and that's the confusionists.
They are saying that they're not right-wing.
They're representing right-wing opinions but they say
that's freedom of speech and see themselves
as a social movement. But they're a small minority.
It's problematic, that right-wing structures changed
their appearance very much. Therefore they can
intrude new fields without being directly connected
with the political right and without being uncovered.
And even if they are there is this strange relation
to freedom of speech today, saying that every opinion
has to be respected and that racism were
'not good but an opinion like the others' and that
you need to listen to everybody and so on. And that
nothing needs to be more protected than this fact.
The right-wing is on a lifted and well developed
level. I would say that's the result of four years of
social-democratic policy which failed in
all sectors, which is bad in all sectors and
contributed to the increasing votes for the
political right from those, who were disappointed
by social democracy. But right-wingers have
already been on a good level before.
The most important right-wing party, the Front National,
got 17.9% - let's say 18% - in the presidential elections
on April 22nd 2012. The votes increased from there.
They had 18% and today they get 25% of the votes,
whereby there was a high abstention rate.
So...There were local elections in March 2014
and European elections on March 25th 2014
when the Front National got 25%.
There were Départment elections in March 2015
- another 25% for the Front National.
There were regional elections in December 2015 where
the Front National got 27%.
Thus: they're on a high level.
The result of 4 years left-wing government
is completely bad and that contributed to it.
We as autonomous antifascists find elections
interesting but we're not affected directly.
It doesn't seem to be important to us who
wins the elections in 2017 but we're asking ourselves
if the people will finally start thinking about
how to organize society and about how
they want to live.
And it's definitely necessary to resist.
No matter who's head of the state, it's gonna be
the same police, the same policy, it's gonna be the
same changes. And for us: which projects are we going
to develop, which projects are we going to push further.
These are our questions.
Rap is a tool in the antifascist struggle for expressing
parts of the struggle. When we either make
a rap concert or we spend a good time with people,
bringing them closer to this discourse or giving them
an understanding of our texts. When we back people up
who hang out with our comrades
- that's fun, it's a pleasure.
And music is good because it...it allows to
touch people, to sensitize them for certain ideas
and practices. Because you don't choose to be
touched by music, it happens randomly.
Then you try to understand and you come across
what we do with [the label] BBoyKonsian,
what we develop, how we live, how we're organized,
what we're doing on the streets and so on.
I actually think that we could inspire many people.
Those people only liked rap before.
And then they say 'Wow, I like rap, i like Première Ligne
and then I'm already inside this universe',
that's how it goes.
I think, that the point here is an unexpected
development of a progressive social movement
in France. In the years 2013, 2014 there was a big
reactionary movement - the 'Manif pour tous'.
Hundred thousands of people demonstrated with it.
And we started losing hope for
something to happen from our side.
It was similar in 2010. There was a mobilization
against a pension reform that finally didn't lead
to something successful. And now,
for two, almost three months, we feel as if something is
finally happening. In some way it's similar to the
big striking movement in many vocational sectors 1995
in France. And now we see this social movement,
which is traditionally unionist at the same time,
in many important sectors
like transport, energy, education.
Interesting is that it creates alliances
- something we've already seen in other countries,
in Spain or in Greece. It's a development
of a movement that supports employees and that has
other questions apart from the most simple ones.
It is concerned about the labor reform for example
and it invites people to get involved, to develop
fresh hope and especially, to say that the
possibility of social change is not a myth
or fantasy but something that can become
true even if we don't know yet, where we go.
From the the first day on I think it will be over tomorrow.
That's why I'm pleasantly surprised every day.
I'm definitely for another policy and political structure,
completely different from the existing one.
For France this means: an abolition of the constitution
of the 5th Republic and the establishment of a
constituent assembly that creates a new constitution.
Abolishment of presidency.
I think it's indispensable - and that seems important
- that we profit from the current social climate
to change people's belief that right-wing policy
is an alternative concerning the social question
The more people explore new ways,
the more possibilities emerge, the more people see
the political right as an alternative - but in which sense?
We need to offer a counter-model for that.
But since we don't have an alternative concept in society
now we couldn't do so, because people say
'You're just talking, but you have nothing
to offer on your own'. Now we can focus on something.
We can start all over.
But we're staying alert because - as I said -
the current movement doesn't have
a stable political identity yet.
Clément didn't die in vain,
neither in a random situation nor in a random context.
Right-wing structures, repression, the state
are growing stronger the more time passes,
the more years are passing by.
Well, I think, that for a change in the current situation
in France we'll need a revolution.
Nowadays it's easier to talk about revolution
than to induce it.
In a way the violence of the state 'helped' to show
people the brutal repression of every protest
- something we've told them for years.
That's not right, but if we take ourselves into
a revolutionary perspective, this means
to assume that possible changes don't come softly
but heavy, that it has to be organized and carried out
collectively and that there's more than one way to do it.
The interesting thing is, that there's no dogmatism
right now, no well-defined way.
There's no assistance by political structures or parties
or organizations or even a political practice
in this movement. It stays pluralist, it stays open,
it's a minority yet but it could create something.
Of course it makes sense for antifascists to fight against
right-wing structures, to become stronger for real,
to make ourselves understood,
if we really have an alternative to defend.
In tribute to all victims of right-wing violence!
Many thanks to everybody who made this project
possible through their donations
and support of any kind!
We also thank all groups and persons who
contributed to this production!