More than 1 Million People Take to the Streets in France
Featured image: Red bloc on the streets of Paris on September 18. Source: Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire (LJR)’s X account.
More than 1 million people protested across France yesterday, following the call for a general strike and blockade of the country. La Cause du Peuple reported that more than 250 mobilization points were expected, and that “80,000 police forces were mobilized, along with 24 armored vehicles, 7 of them for the capital, and 10 water cannons. In the main cities the police will be equipped with drones to repress the demonstrations. The government counts with a total of 1,615 new drones, available for the police and the gendarmes.”
The French State reports on 181 arrests during the protests of yesterday. The demonstrations included all kind of workers, youth, etc. The CGT union announced that more than 1 million people participated in the protests.
The organizations Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire (LJR), Jeunes Révolutionnaires (JR), la Jeunesse Communiste (JC), PARTIZAN, CupLGIA and the Fédération Syndicale Étudiante (FSE), issued a joint call for a combative 18th of September:
Since the first hour of the morning there were reports of blockades in the Marseille port, in several highways of the city, for example in the accesses to Toulon, Caen, Nantes, Lyon, Rennes, Limoges, etc. At 10 AM the Ministry of the Interior reported on 252 actions outside of the big cities. More than 900 people participated in 18 blockade actions in Marseille.
Despite the deployment of armored vehicles in Paris, the demonstrators took to the streets and confronted the police attacks:
Railway workers entered in the Ministry of the Economy and Finances in Bercy to protest against the anti-people’s measures proposed by the French government:
Combative blocs of youth were seen in many cities of France:
Paris:
Rennes:
Lyon:
Toulouse:
Students participated in several blockades, as for example in universities of Saint-Étienne, Paris, Caen, Montpellier, Rouen, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, etc. Also several high-schools were blockaded as for example in Amiens, Brioude, etc.:
Today high-schools were blockaded also in Limoges and Lille as the students expressed solidarity with the detainees during the protests of September 18:
The striking workers, combative youth, students, etc., faced brutal police repression and aggressions against them, as it’s shown by footage from many points across France:
There were also important mobilizations in Reunion and Martinique, with sabotages against the water supply, massive strikes and highways blockaded. Actions in solidarity with Palestine and targeting collaborators with the genocide perpetrated by the State of Israel were reported in several cities, as for example: “blockade of the Eurolinks arms production plant in Marseille; blockade of Carrefour in Saint-Denis, McDonald’s in Aubervilliers, the Thales premises in Rennes, etc.”
