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Em resumo
In 2016 French citizens occupied the Place de la République for three consecutive months to expand democracy and protest attempts by the government to liberalize the labour market.
By the spring of 2016, with the rightward drift of the French Socialist Party towards neo-liberal positions, a large swath of French citizenry, especially those on the left, felt overwhelmingly disappointed and unrepresented. When the government tried to push through a set of laws to liberalize labour markets, the people revolted.
On March 31, 2016 French citizens occupied the Place de la Republique in Paris, beginning a series of round-the-clock demonstrations (see: TACTIC: Mass street action) that lasted for almost three months.
“. . . the square became a melting pot for joint struggles and unity.”
Everyday, a citizen assembly took place, with public, open-mic discussions amongst hundreds of citizens. The square became like an agora, where every citizen had the chance to raise their concerns and address the public. In addition to the assembly, dozens of discussion groups formed, each addressing a different problem and setting proposals for possible solutions.
Soon after, citizens from various professions and ideological orientations including nurses, educators, lawyers, feminists, ecologists and more joined. The protest become more than just an opposition to the proposed reform, but rather a demand for social and economic justice at large.
Out of this coming together, a social movement arose, composed of unions, associations, and citizens. Nuit Debout, which stands for “arise at night” in French, gave the people the chance to take part in politics in a direct and dignified way: organizing the community.
The tactics ranged from demonstrations and sit-ins (see: TACTIC: Occupation) to citizen assemblies. The assemblies gave people a platform to speak out, and also to interact to resolve common challenges to their livelihoods. With almost 100 discussion groups forming to addressing 100 topics, the square became a melting pot for joint struggles and unity. Additionally, the people organized concerts, movie screenings, poetry readings, and workshops as part of the Nuit Debout life. At some point, Nuit Debout became like a new little community, organized by and for the people.
Initially, demonstrations and citizen assemblies began in Paris, but soon after they spread across France and beyond reaching Berlin, New York, Rabat, and Mexico City. These demonstrations embodied a protest against the broader austerity framework being implemented by neoliberal governments around the world.
While the labour market law was eventually forced through by the government without a vote in Parliament pursuant to the very undemocratic Article 39 of the French Constitution, Nuit Debout is now a cornerstone of the history of French social movements because it had no famous figures, only citizens. There were no spokespeople and no hierarchy. Indeed, it showed how a movement can give the floor to everyone with no pre-set demands or ideas, except the demand for a fairer world.
Teoria chave
The Nuit Debout movement saw itself as part of a larger anti-austerity sentiment rising across the globe in which the people are struggling for a fairer world. The protest against privatization and the deregulation of markets — in this case, the labour market — stems from a core rejection that everything should be subordinated to the whims of the market, and the imbalance of economic power created by such policies.
Tática chave
Occupying the Place de la Republique was a strategic tactic for Nuit Debout as the square — with the “Marianne” statue sitting at its heart — symbolises the French Republic, and its core values of liberty and reason. By using this tactic, Nuit Debout sought to reclaim public spaces as a way to defend the people’s right for genuine representation as well as show popular support against the proposed reforms.
Princípio chave
Instead of relying on a leader (be it government or parliament) that was seen as representative of the people’s aspirations, the movement created a space for citizens to lead the movement, especially via the daily citizen assemblies. It emphasized that an environment in which more people took leadership is a more representative one, not the opposite.