France

The clashes in Lyon: a particular revolt?
by Jean-Baptiste Cutzach

Last October, large waves of fighting have convulsed France.
Particular emphasis had Lyon, from where an anarcho-syndicalist militant sent us this notes.

 

«Look at Italy, Spain, Germany ... Sorry, France is not an island ... »

Jean-François Copé
(Chairman of the parliamentary group of the UMP, Union for a Popular Movement, the ruling party)
about the reform of pensions, September 7, 2010

A dull anger 2007-2010

Since the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, major events have marked with regularity (millions of people all over France) French social and political life. More or less every two months, the ritual repeats itself: civil servants are mobilized massively to the streets against the various French reforms (justice, education, social work, health, local civil servants, temporary workers). These events are constantly ignored, they talk about dissatisfaction of civil servants and minimizes the real sign of rebellion. "Now, when there is a strike in France, nobody notices" Sarkozy quipped in June 2008.
Things would stop here if this discontent had not turned into an explosion of anger and scenes of violence that have ravaged the central city of Lyon during a week in late October 2010.

The spark: Pension Reform

To understand these events we must take a step back, about the commitment in the public sector, both of permanent employees as of the precarious. Since 2007, civil servants, especially teachers, have regularly fought against the strict policies such as those that provide for the reduction of posts in the civil service.
From October 12, 2010, entering new areas in the battle against the pension reform par repartition. So for ten days, officials, railroad workers, drivers, workers in oil refineries are side by side in the square. The trade union unity is declared and demands the withdrawal of the bill.
The protesters have the potential to block the country. The key areas are blocked (refinery, transport), the movement is massive (3 million protesters on October 12) and the general public is largely against the reform (71% of French people support the event, the CSA poll on October 6 ).

Lyon, October 19, 2010 - Two popular moments of the event (photo by Laurent Combe, www.laurentcombe.com)

The part of young people: anger

On 7 October, called by trade unions and political parties of the left, secondary school students fall heavily in the square. The events are more noisy, more restless. Before long the tensions with the police are being felt. The police, who until then had been content to remote control (since the movement despite the anger was institutional and structured), shall carry out intrusion in marches and arrests. Everywhere in France, the movement becomes more fierce, and in some cities, clashes occur between the 'young', the 'casseurs, "and the police.
You might be tempted by laziness and offer a simplistic explanation that these clashes with the presence of young people in the suburbs and immigration (which have already accused by the media of being responsible for insecurity, Islamization, rapes and the loss of values of French society).
Yet the case of the city of Lyon shows that the reality is more complex.
Unlike Paris, where tensions were on suburbs , inLyon the city center is on fire . The arrests immediately reveal that the typical profile of the "insurgents" that are labeled as "casseurs", were heterogeneous (and not included in the definition "of immigration and youth of the suburbs"). Often these young people were from the suburbs, had no criminal record and were educated.
Sure, some traditional "criminals known to police" were in the game. However, violence broke out (of urban fires, burned cars, police on stone-throwing, looting of the windows) was only partly the result of some who took advantage of agitation. This often starts in the morning when school students shall meet. Some very firmly expressed a willingness to clash with the police.
But if the above average high school students found themselves in general in the parades, the students of vocational schools were scattered. In fact, from different parts of them felt that the reform was yelling at passing the professional diploma from 3 to 4 years, thus putting them at the mercy of a hungry patronage of unskilled labor. The only common trait among all the insurgents was to be perhaps the most concerned (rightly) the destruction of the social system and exclusion.
To this is added a specific French justice and the school. Minors are criminally responsible at 13, but compulsory education comes to 16 years. Juvenile delinquency has been provided but not a project involving young people and even their project in the society ...
In Lyon, the police management of the violence showed the preparation and the coach of the police. There wasn't even one smear during the stronger tensions. The police responded to stone-throwing, but a helicopter was omnipresent to report every movement of the crowd, the cameras in the city have been used and the GINP (National Police Intervention Group) has been used. Usually this occurs only when there are hostages.
The subliminal message given by the police was so clear, you have to free the hostages. But the hostages, who were they? The inhabitants of central frightened by scenes of war? The protesters who marched peacefully along the defined institutional path? The French who claimed the mass withdrawal of the reform?
With this ambiguity, the police and the government have already succeeded in isolating a mass movement from its radical part. The Lyon extreme right rejoiced demonstrating against "the racaille" (the villain) and "casseurs" but no comment on the movement of pensions ...

Pension reform, an incidental question?

Most of the UMP government politicians have ridiculed the students, accusing them of being manipulated, with the reinforcement of interviews out of context. Still, the anger expressed by secondary school students, the fatigue of workers in the public strike, the determination of the railroad and employees of the petrochemical industry have been all screened in the same direction, that is, for a moment to put the government in check, to be the grain of sand that stops the machine. But it was enough to separate "the establishment of the demonstrators' by its radical elements, it was enough to deny the word to young people and bring the debate on pension reform,to weaken the movement , divide it and make it harmless, choking and asphyxiation. While policy analysts explained the concern about the future of the protesters, some of those who rebelled expressed the rejection of the present and the impossibility of the future.