NUIT DEBOUT started as a protest against the weakening of labor protections. It’s grown since March 31 into a pan European movement driven by students who resume daily protests every night at six.
What’s being lauded as a Paris Spring is also being likened to Occupy Wall Street because the assemblies have no leaders nor do they make any demands. They do present an ultimatum. The month of April will not begin until economic policies are reformulated.
Until then the Nuitdeboutistes are counting successive days against March, not April, so today is March 51. If you think mainstream media is ignoring #DemocracySpring it’s unanimously mum about this spontaneous uprising spreading across French cities and European capitols.
The non-hierarchical education of the Zapatistas cries dignity and suggests that the suffering of the neoliberal university can be withstood and overcome. by Levi Gahman
I’ve said it before—in contrast to those traditional stories that begin with ‘Once upon a time…’ Zapatista stories begin with ‘There will be a time…’
— Subcomandante Galeano (formerly Marcos)
Excerpted from Levi’s chapter ‘Zapatismo versus the Neoliberal University: Towards a Pedagogy against Oblivion’, in the forthcoming book The Radicalization of Pedagogy, edited by Simon Springer, Marcelo Lopes de Souza and Richard J. White.
byJulius Gavroche en español abajo) In Spain, the “La Esperanza” okupation on the island of the Gran Canaria is an amazing example. In early 2013, at the initiative of the Federación de Anarquistas de Gran Canaria (FAGC), some twenty apartments were occupied, providing housing for dozens of people unable to meet their most basic of needs; today they are some 71 families, made up of 250 persons, the majority of which are minors, occupying a residential complex baptised “La Esperanza”/”Hope”, the largest residential okupation in spain and the largest experiment in libertarian self-management in the country, carried out by people who are not for the most part anarchists.
On March 14 twenty residents of the 250 in the Community “La Esperanza” (the state’slargest occupied and self-managed community) received an administrative notice in which they were informed of the decree of the mayor of Guide Pedro Rodriguez: This decree gave them one month to leave their homes and threatened them to cut off water and light.
The community has always demanded the comples become public housing with a social rental scheme to compensate the dozen buyers who have invested in the building. We have also claimed that the electric supply be regularized, so that we can put a counter and pay for the electricity, and running water be connected so as to stop paying expensive barrels daily. Since mid-2014 we have put on the table these claims the mayor Pedro Rodriguez has always turned a deaf ear…
They can not evict 77 families, 202 people, with more than 100 children without guaranteeing us decent and affordable housing as a low-income alternative. Their policies, which have left us for years unemployed, have made it impossible to access to housing….
We will not allow them to take our homes with impunity. We demand that we be given a housing alternative and or let us stray where we are. Until either thing happens ..the Streets will keep on Shouting!
Let no eviction go unanswered.
In early 2013, unemployment on the Canary Islands stood at 35%, with house evictions during that same year reaching 4,000. Today, more than 30% of the population of the archipelago lives below the poverty line, with some 16% of the Islands’ families having all of their active members unemployed. This poverty then manifests itself at various levels, among which housing; on the Islands, there are 130,000 unoccupied houses and some 21,000 families in need of homes. The role of the FAGC has nevertheless been central throughout this whole process and this in a context of extreme economic hardship…. La Columna.Cat 27/12/2015)
The Nuit Debout movement in France takes on no single form, even behind the ritual of the general assemblies in Paris and now other cities. It is plural, chaotic, fed by the multiple protests against the country’s new proposed labour law and a diversity of organisations and collectives coming from other social movements. Yet it is precisely in this absence of order that the square occupations become spaces of convergence and of proliferation (rather than of enforced collective decision making), susceptible of generating lines of resistance/creation beyond State-Capital.
The events multiply and the voices speaking also become many. We share below two texts that contribute to further understanding, the first from The Acorn (number 23 – 08/04/2016) and the second from open Democracy (08/04/2016), by Geoffrey Pleyers …
1. March 39 and counting… Nuit Debout and the new French uprising
Protesters amidst the teargas in Nantes on April 5 – otherwise known as March 36
The spirit of resistance has captured the imagination of a new generation in France, as youth-led opposition to neoliberal labour “reforms” has spiralled into full-on rejection of the whole capitalist system on the street and squares.
The situation took on a new dimension after the general strike and day of action on Thursday March 31. There was a call for people not to go home afterwards but to stay on the streets, beginning a wave of overnight “Nuit Debout” occupations that has spread from Paris across France and into the Iberian peninsular, Belgium and Germany.
text from Crimethinc with thanks. The wave of rebellion unleashed in France in response to the El-Khomri labour law has been impressive. The fighting spirit and political acuity shown by many of those blockading their colleges, blocking the railway lines, looting supermarkets and distributing the goods, attacking police stations, and disseminating tracts against work itself is beautiful. But since 31st March, a new, friendlier-looking trend has emerged alongside the riots. On that night, people responded to a call for a ‘Nuit Debout’ (night on your feet) to occupy something after the day’s demos.
In Paris it led to a large and continuous occupation of Place de la Republique. People had discussions, partied, and even prevented the eviction of Stalingrad migrant camp (note: the camp at Stalingrad is populated by several hundred refugees, many of whom have fled police harassment and eviction in Calais, and it & other migrant squats in the city have has been evicted at least 18 times(!) since last June). The occupations grew in size and spread rapidly over France and into Belgium and Spain.
While Nuit Debout is a heterogenous movement without a particularly distinct identity, it is clear from its statements and the rhetoric coming from the Paris occupation that it is a populist, wavey-hand type citizen movement that emphasises its non-violent and legal nature, sees neoliberalism as the main problem, and set its sights on real democracy.
comment: typical sour grapes comment by some old lefty, the same type of rejection by anarchists happened with the indignados movement at first, then most jumped on board as it became the best opportunity to illustrate and develop our ideas in a generation. Continue reading “Riot Resistance and ‘Nuit Debout’ movement: Both are Brilliant!”
France -Since massive mobilizations swept the nation on March 31st against proposed Labor legislation, thousands of people have held nightly occupy style public assemblies coined ‘Nuit Debout’ or Night Stand to further a movement that has grown into a full-on rejection of the current systems of governance.
The Nuit Debout public assemblies released the following statement. (List of demo’s scheduled for Saturday below)
Our mobilization was initially aimed at protesting against the French Labour Law. This reform is not an isolated case, since it comes as a new piece in the austerity measures which already affected our European neighbors and which will have the same effects as the Italian Job Acts or the Reforma Laboral in Spain. This concretely means more layoffs, more precarity, growing inequalities and the shaping of private interests. We refuse to suffer this shock strategy, notably imposed in the context of an authoritarian state of emergency.
The debates taking place in the assemblies on Republic square prove that the general exasperation goes way beyond the Labour Law and opens a more global issue: the reconsideration of a social and political system stuck into a deep crisis and on its way out. We will not be the ones crying because of its end.
This movement was not born and will not die in Paris. From the Arab Spring to the 15M Movement, from Tahrir Square to Gezi park, Republic square and the plenty of other places occupied tonight in France are depicting the same angers, the same hopes and the same conviction: the need for a new society, where Democracy, Dignity and Liberty would not be hollow shells.
Supporting testimonies received from abroad warm us and strengthen our commitment. This movement is yours too. It has no limit, no border and it belongs to all of those who wish to be part of it. We are thousands, but we can be millions. Together, standing, awake. Let’s rise up together.
Current scheduled Nuit Debout solidarity demonstrations – click for event pages
Nuit debout protesters occupy French cities in revolutionary call for change
from The Guardian For more than a week, vast nocturnal gatherings have spread across France in a citizen-led movement that has rattled the governmentAngelique Chrisafis in Paris As night fell over Paris, thousands of people sat cross-legged in the vast square at Place de la République, taking turns to pass round a microphone and denounce everything from the dominance of Google to tax evasion or inequality on housing estates.
Vive la révolution: demonstrators gather in Place de la République for a nocturnal sit-in. Photograph: Ian Langsdon/EPA
The debating continued into the early hours of the morning, with soup and sandwiches on hand in the canteen tent and a protest choir singing revolutionary songs.
One of the demands is the repeal of the Jobs Law imposed last week
A handful of protesters in tents then bedded down to “occupy” the square for the night before being asked to move on by police just before dawn. But the next morning they returned to set up their protest camp again.
The Free 
from Autonomies and Red Latinas, with thanks