5.8.3. THE LEFT HIJACKS STREETS AND SPACES

THE HUGE VOIDS BUILT FOR MASSING TROOPS HAVE BECOME SITES FOR PROGRESSIVES' DEMONSTRATIONS

Gone from the web

Place Saint-Michel 

Zoom

Place de la Nation

YouTube

Place d'Italie

            Collectif des jeunes du parc de Belleville, 2025

Place de l'Hôtel de Ville

Those events often culminate at place de la République. Demonstrators reach it by crossing the overpass over Canal Saint-Martin, built to let troops assemble in that void:

Les Indignés (like Occupy)

In 2012

Victor Locaturolo

Claude Abron 

Heart of the giant demonstration after the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack (January 2015)

AVAAZ / zoom

Alternative to a climate march that threat of terrorism had cancelled (December 2015)

Nuit debout ("Up all night") / zoom

"General dream"

Epicenter of a nationwide movement of occupation of public spaces (March-May 2016) 

 The New York Times, July 7, 2024 (cropped)

Epicenter of the mobilisation against the xenophobic far right before the legislative elections of 2024.

               L-214, after the legal code that is supposed to protect animals / zoom

March for animal rights, 2026

*      *

For the first time, a fashion show. Its anti-capitalist message fits the site today.

                                                                                                                                  Zoom

"Fecal Matter Dreams a Fashion Dream": pregnant women, body-builders, punks, families — a heartfelt fashion show jolts Paris. - review in The New York Times

 

A design meant to repress insurrection

has become a progressives' tool.

*    *    *
Next,

5.8.4. 

A market replaces the army