In the heady new world of Nuit Debout (Up All Night) it was March 38 on Saturday to the about 2,000 people gathered in a main Paris square to share their aspirations for change.
It is their way of keeping track of a protest movement that has seen people flock to the Place de la Republique to air their grievances, seek strength in numbers and strategize for a better future every night since March 31.
While galvanized by weeks of protests over the Socialist government’s labor reforms seen as threatening workers’ rights, the separate Up All Night movement is an omnibus of causes.
Photo: AFP
Participants might be fighting for the environment, against Islamophobia and homophobia, for better housing, against unhealthy food — or all of the above.
Up All Night — begun in Paris and now picked up to around 50 other cities across France, as well as to Belgium and Spain — means occupying central city squares overnight and vacating them in the morning.
“Get Indignant!” is painted on a paving stone in the vast Paris square, a nod to Spain’s Indignados, who gave rise to the far-left Podemos Party.
Up All Night also emulates the anti-capitalist Occupy movement and Greece’s anti-austerity 700 Euro Generation.
The atmosphere is festive, with street theater and music, a variety of food stalls and many people swigging beers.
However, the organization is disciplined, with daily general assemblies and a variety of committees handling practical and political themes.
Speakers take turns at the podium supposedly limited to two minutes, although prominent economist Frederic Lordon, one of the instigators of the movement, took a bit longer, receiving a thunderous welcome.
“Something is arising,” he said. “We are doing something. But what? Without political demands, the movement will die out.”
Left-wing activist and filmmaker Francois Ruffin, another architect of Up All Night said: “It’s not a spontaneous movement. There’s been a lot of work, meetings... It’s a voluntary movement that has tapped a latent desire to overcome resignation [to the status quo].”
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