Cortege for the CPE

The drama is nearing an end.

Ten days ago Chirac had addressed the nation stating that the CPE would be modified. Of course, in reality, that was only a precursor to the scrapping of the CPE. Last Tuesday, 4 April, once again students, workers, and others launched their fifth organized, large-scale public protest just to make sure their voices were heard. However, considering the circumstances the march was either one of triumph for the left or a cortege for the CPE.

This time armed with full information about the march’s route I left the BN at 2 p.m. after a half day of work and walked up the river to the Pont d’Austerlitz. Crossing over to the right bank I scouted out a locale from which to watch. I found myself on a traffic island on a main road on the Seine at a “T” intersection. At that intersection I had a clear view up the Boulevard de la Bastille to the Place de la Bastille, perhaps a half mile away. It was a good spot because within twenty minutes of moving there not long before the march’s arrival (they were leaving from the Place de la République) a couple of professional photographers and one television news team joined me.

The US media has tended to overplay the amount of violence in these demonstrations. Of course, I can see editors wanting people to read articles and headlines reading “Riots in Paris” might be more attention grabbing than “Workers and students parade in Paris.” There was violence, but this was at the end of the march and did not so much involve students and workers but instead those known as ‘casseurs’ (literally, the “breakers” but in this case anti-police youths who opportunistically took this occasion as one to throw stones, rocks, and whatever else they could find at the police). I had no desire to be anywhere near the Place d’Italie where the march would finish. This day was another day of strikes but their weight was even less than those of the previous week.

From my vantage point I could finally see the march approaching, first escorted by a retinue of France’s special police, the CRS. Certainly, one does not want to mess with members of the CRS and a group of some twenty in the vanguard in their full riot gear approached us on the island and motioned for us to move off our island (as an upcoming video will show) and I did not argue, though once they continued on we moved back). What followed was the literal parade of students, high school and university, for the next hour. Most were in organized groups with signs and banners showing their affiliation and if I had seen “floats” I easily could have thought of myself at a New Year’s Day parade as the atmosphere was festive, not threatening. Some groups were accompanied by vans with loudspeakers with someone inside with a megaphone leading a chant or a cheer. Anti-CPE (and anti Chirac, Villepin, and Sarkozy) stickers and flyers and propaganda broadsheets abounded. Some students had costumes on, one was wearing stilts, one was dressed as a clown: the variations were countless. One of the Parisian papers estimated the crowd at a quarter of a million and my own rough estimate based on time and distance though that reliable (the protesters claimed the much-too-high figure of one million the police gave the much-too-low estimate of ninety thousand).

As my island became too crowded I decided to walk against the flow of the crowd and to make my way to the Place de la République. That way I could in some way join the march but really it would give me the vantage of seeing the whole thing. The marchers took over the whole Place de la Bastille and a good number of students climbed the monument to get a better view. Prudence prevailed and I decided not to join them. Thousands literally crammed the square as marchers still poured in from Republique. After taking a few pictures I left for my last phase. By this point the students were done and what followed were the trade unions, organized by union affiliation and then by sub-profession. These, not surprisingly, had more a sense of organization and respect and I witness a good deal less of drinking and other various vices. All of the union groups had multiple flags, banners, and an organizing van with loudspeaker that led them in their particular retinue. Even the Bibliotheque nationale was “en greve” and I shot a photo of my photocopy pal Grizzly Adams.

I reached Place de la Republique by six p.m., over three hours after the march began. The last few union groups milled around to find their place in the march. The city of Paris street cleaners by this time were out on foot and in vans cleaning up the debris left behind. Two figures, clearly not students, had climbed the central statue and sat having a festive drink beneath the word of “liberté.” How appropriate. Some other youths surrounded a van with thumping loudspeakers and were participating in a spontaneous rave. As I left my dancing shoes home in a box I could not join in, as tempting as it was.

Today, with approval-rating for himself and his Prime Minister at a all-time low, Chirac has announced that the CPE would be scrapped. Students and unions had another day of protest planned for tomorrow but now those may be cancelled. How long de Villepin can now remain as an effective Prime Minister remains to be seen but if I had to guess I might posit that Sarkozy could become the new PM before the year’s end.

Obviously this has been an incredibly experience to witness first hand. The power of the people can be incredibly effective as we have seen in other instances in the last twenty years, be it in the Philippines with the overthrow of Marcos in 1986 or the Revolutions in Eastern Europe in 1989. Even if I did not much agree with the viewpoints of either the students or the workers I did enjoy seeing them out in force to express their views as it is a longstanding tradition in France.