Blog Archives
FRANCE: Why Euro 2016 is a festival of cash and football business
June 10, 2016 Source: paris-luttes.info
Photo from Paris-Lutte.Info
Little analysis of the Euro, its sponsors, its construction of hiperexpensive stadiums and its violations of labor law….
A few days before the start of the most awaited competition in the football world, voices are raised to denounce a competition eroded by money and partnerships between companies of big capital. Besides the threat of terrorist attacks and fights between hooligans, an appeal was spread by militants against the Labour Law to disrupt the Euro in the continuity of the social movement in progress. The sponsors of the competition include entities such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, Credit Agricole, Mc Donald’s, Continental, Orange, the French Games, UEFA, the FFF etc. to justify the text. Similarly, 42,000 police officers, 30,000 gendarmes and 13,000 mobilized vigilantes throw light on an event based on both the financialisation of football and ultra-security of public space (fan-areas and grandstands). Read the rest of this entry
FRANCE: Weekend of anti-fascist resistance in Calais, 5-7 September and Defence Of Migrant Squats
On Sunday 7 September, local fascist group ‘Sauvons Calais’ will once again try to hold a demonstration ‘against immigration’ in Calais, bringing in hardcore neo-nazis from across France. A number of high-profile fascists have already confirmed their presence including Thomas Joly (general secretary of Parti de la France), Yvan Benedetti (conseiller municipal of Vénissieux and former-member of the now banned organization L’Œuvre française), and Richard Roudier (of Réseau Identités). It is also likely that some neonazi gangs will arrive before and stay for more time after the demo to attack vulnerable people in the streets. Read the rest of this entry
FRANCE: letter from the inhabitants of the squat fort Galoo
[French follows English]
Mr, Mrs,
We are the refugees who squat this place and we are from different nationalities. We demand you not to use sadistic violence against us and not to make us go out of this place without any dignified solution.
We ran away from our countries because of injustice, war, dictatorship, ethnic cleansig, poverty, arbitrary imprisonment, religious persecution, theocracy which prevent us from believing in what we want : for example, in Sudan, if you drink a beer you can be whiped 40 times. We suffer from marginalisation in our countries because we fight the opression of our government and because of this we don’t have access to medical care, to school, we don’t have access to anything. Read the rest of this entry
FRANCE: Eviction of migrants camp in Calais
The eviction of refugee camps in Calais
On 28 May the French authorities moved to evict 3 tent camps in the center of Calais. The camps have existed since October and house 650 people mainly refugees from Syria and Eritrea. People resisted the eviction and occupied the SALAM food distribution area. Calais Migrant Solidarity is calling on the continued support of the people and associations of Calais and for solidarity across Europe and the world. They ask for you to come and help, to contribute food and infrastructure, to stand at their sides when the police arrive and to fight the border here and everywhere! For more information see here Read the rest of this entry
FRANCE: Interview with a comrade from CREA, Toulouse
By Leila Al Shami & Blabiush
CREA is a collective and Autonomous Social Centre based in Toulouse, south of France. It has been at the forefront of the struggle for housing through the occupation of empty buildings in the city and establishment of collective self-managed spaces, particularly working with immigrants. In November CREA extended an open invitation to ‘NOTHING TO LOSE’ an event organized to share experiences and knowledge around the struggles for affordable and adequate housing and to reclaim the city, which we joined. Comrades attended from all over France as well as from as far a field as Chile. During the days of action more than 200 people marched through Toulouse to say no to evictions and also squatted a house owned by the City Council to provide a home for evicted families. Workshops were held in their new Social Centre, an occupied building which was the former Moroccan Consulate, on different topics to share information and experience of struggle. What follows is an interview with a comrade from CREA. Read the rest of this entry
Workers Of Self-Managed Factories Gather in Marseille
By Theodoros Karyotis
SolidarityEconomy.net via ZSpace
Feb 6, 2014 – Workers, activists and academics gather at the occupied and self-managed Fralib factory in Marseille for Europe’s first “Workers’ Economy” meeting.
Fralib is a herb processing and packaging factory located twenty-odd kilometers from the southern French port city of Marseille. The previous owner of the factory, chemical and agri-food giant Unilever, decided three years ago to move production of Lipton tea abroad to save on costs. The 80 workers, through protest and boycott campaigns, have demanded that the factory stay open and, after this proved impossible, they decided to take production into their own hands. Read the rest of this entry
FRANCE: Rural Rebels and Useless Airports: La ZAD – Europe’s largest Postcapitalist land occupation
by laronceblog
October 2012, Notre dames des Landes, France.
Chris leans forward, her long fingers play with the dial of the car radio “I’m trying to find 107.7 FM“ … a burst of Classical music, a fragment of cheesy pop. “ Ah! Here we go! I think I’ve got it?” The plastic pitch of a corporate jingle pierces the speakers: “Radio Vinci Autoroute: This is the weather forecast for the west central region…happy driving to you all. Traffic info next.” Chris smiles. Read the rest of this entry
FRANCE: On the ongoing insurrection of Notre-Dame-des-Landes
Going at the ZAD (as in « Zone Autonome a Défendre », or « Autonomous Zone To Defend ») amounts literally to be getting lost in the middle of nowhere, to arrive on a war front, to the cornerstone of a conflict between two worlds; between the dead world of a cattle/slave/consumer society they are forcing down our minds, and a world of liberty, of possibles for all those who come to built and defend it; a world of free wine and bread- and bed- to all those who oppose the regime where you get forcefully charged for all the material aspects of life. At the ZAD has been raging a long, continuous conflict suspended in uncertainty and disbelief as seen from both sides, an impossible stream of liberation at the very fringe (and yet the doorstep) of a miserable society of control, where quiet moments of comraderie and lazy living are shifting back and forth into days of wild fighting with authorities easily reminiscent of the French resistance against the Nazi occupation. It isn’t too far-fetched to describe it as a major tip of the iceberg in the ongoing social war between the consolidated totalitarian forces of corporate socialism (here, impersonated by the infamous “troika”) and the will and desires for liberation of the people that resent its many forms of oppression, just as it would be unwise to not see any relation between the Notre-Dame-des-Landes struggle and the ongoing bailout/austerity protests that are shaking several major european cities these days. It also has quickly become some sort of focus, and catalyst, for the autonomous squat and the eco-anarchist movements in Europe. Read the rest of this entry
FRANCE: Hands off Mali!
15 January 2013 Alex Lantier
The World Socialist Web Site denounces France’s war in Mali as an act of imperialist piracy. After mass bombings of cities in northern Mali that killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, French tank columns crossed into Mali yesterday from the Ivory Coast. Read the rest of this entry
