For the right to demonstrate
French riot police attacked climate justice demonstrators with tear gas and arrested several hundred people at a November 29 mobilization in Paris held despite a ban on protests by the French government.
The state of emergency decreed by the government following the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris was used as an excuse to ban a protest to mark the beginning of UN climate summit, known as COP 21. Numerous organizations defied the government's ban and mobilized for a protest that formed a human chain from Place de la République to Place de la Nation. Some 5,000 to 10,000 people took part, according to estimates of police and organizers, respectively. There was also a call for a demonstration protesting the ban on demonstrations. The police were even more repressive toward this gathering.
As the police attacks were being carried out, France's released the following statements protesting the government's breach of basic democratic rights and the mass arrest of protesters. The statements were published in English at the International Viewpoint website.
Free All Anti-COP 21 Demonstrators Now! No More Police State!
A climate justice demonstration numbering as many as 10,000 people is being brutally repressed by the police. Using tear gas and clubs and making tens of violent arrests, the government did not hesitate to go all out to stop the demonstrators from opposing the COP 21 conference. The government allows remembrances of the November 13 victims, sports events, concerts, etc, to be held, but represses demonstrations. The government is not concerned with protecting the demonstrators, but with implementing its policies.
EDF (the formerly state-owned electricity company), BNP Paribas (one of the country's biggest banks), Air France (the formerly state-owned airline), GDF Suez (the formerly state-owned gas company), all of them sponsors of the COP 21, are among the biggest polluters worldwide. Dictators from around the globe are welcomed with honors by Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius and President François Hollande, but the people who want to protest for a better world are being repressed. The November 13 attacks revealed a world in decay.
Change the System, Not the Climate! Stop the Polluters, Not the Demonstrators!
Hundreds of anti-COP 21 demonstrators are currently surrounded and being arrested in large numbers by police on République Square in Paris. Among them are NPA spokespersons Christine Poupin and Olivier Besancenot and several dozens of other comrades from the NPA, Alternative Libertaire and Ensemble. These arrests are proof that the special measures stemming from the state of emergency are effective not against ISIS's terrorism, but against all those who exercise the fundamental right to demonstrate. While the heads of states will be meeting tomorrow in Paris at the COP 21 conference, all those who do not want to let them decide of the fate of the planet and humanity are being repressed. After targeting environmental activists with house arrests and searches yesterday and the day before, today, they are being arrested while demonstrating.
No More Police State! Free All Demonstrators Arrested in Paris!
NPA, November 29, 6 p.m., Paris
Free All Demonstrators Now! Stop the Repression!
The government has announced that 289 people were arrested and 174 were taken into custody. Among the NPA, we know that several dozens of our members were arrested while they were attempting to demonstrate peacefully on République Square. Members of Ensemble, Alternative Libertaire, Solidaires and other organizations were also arrested. Most of them are in the police precinct of Bobigny (near Paris), with about a hundred other demonstrators.
Several activists seem to be in custody, without our knowing where or why. The gathering was attacked by the police, to the point where hundreds of demonstrators, beaten or teargassed, had to seek refuge in the adjoining streets. The government denounced "unacceptable violence" from the demonstrators. This lie is shameful.
The NPA commends the success of the demonstrations in many towns. The NPA denounces the special measures implemented by the government, in particular in Paris, where the whole city will be locked down, supposedly to protect the leaders invited to the talks of the COP 21, the leaders who bleed and pollute the world.
We demand the immediate release of the demonstrators and that no one be charged.
NPA, November 29, 10:30 p.m., Paris
