The scene has covered television news and social networks. Dozens of members of the ecologist movement Extinction Rebellion (XR) trying to block the Pont de Sully in Paris, were violently dislodged, Friday, June 28, by jets of tear gas CRS. The images, widely shared during the weekend, shocked and made the opposition react and even to the ranks of the majority. In parallel, the Paris prosecutor's office opened Monday, an investigation entrusted to the IGPN (the "policy police") to determine the terms of this intervention.
PARIS - Climate activists block bridge in capital to warn of climate emergency pic.twitter.com/IwvQicDaqV
Clément Lanot (@ClementLanot) June 28, 2019Benjamin, 33, was on the front line of these blockers on June 28. While he is pleased that the images may have shocked public opinion, the demands of the collective deserve just as much to be in the spotlight, he believes. "So much the better if many have been touched by these images, now we must not turn away from the urgency of our fight," he told France 24.
Time is running out to fight against the ecological collapse, insists the movement created in October 2018 in the United Kingdom at the initiative of the environmental group Rising Up !, which now extends from the United States to the New Zealand, via Germany and Australia. A grueling race against the clock as symbolized by their logo, an hourglass stuck in a sphere representing the Earth.
Beginnings in France
For now, the French branch of the environmental movement is in its infancy. Its official launch dates back to March 24, 2019 in Paris, where several hundred militants had declared themselves in rebellion on the Place de la Bourse in Paris. A mobilization that took place after the publication of a platform entitled "Environment: there is urgency", published by the newspaper Libération on March 22, and signed by more than 600 people.
Their demands are articulated in four points: the recognition by the executive of the gravity of the ecological crisis, the reduction of CO2 emissions in order to reach carbon neutrality in 2025 [and not in 2050 as the government proposes], the immediate cessation of the destruction of ecosystems and finally the creation of a citizens' assembly to achieve these objectives.
A principle of "civil disobedience"
Faced with the "inaction" of political leaders, Extinction Rebellion calls for "civil disobedience," a form of revolt theorized by the American Henry David Thoreau in the nineteenth and applied to the next century by Gandhi in India, Martin Luther King states Or Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
Illegal by definition because it refuses to submit to the law or a regulation, this practice is in principle non-violent. Many associations working in ecological or social struggle, such as Greenpeace or the Right to Housing (DAL), have already used this form of pacifist resistance.
In turn, Extinction Rebellion claims "radical but nonviolent actions". Some have already had some resonance, like the spectacular spill of fake blood Trocadero, May 12, 2019. That day, 300 liters of food coloring had flooded the steps of the chic esplanade overlooking the Eiffel Tower under the dumbfounded gaze of tourists and policemen.
PARIS - Action of environmental activists @XtinctionRebel:
- The #Trocadero was covered with fake blood
- They want to alert on the 6th mass extinction
- Police quick response pic.twitter.com/tFompmVSw5
"Kind actions do not pay"
A month earlier, activists blocked London, disrupting Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and Parliament Square. After four days of disruption, police reported 428 arrests. Actions that finally pushed the British Parliament to declare "the state of ecological and climatic emergency".
"We do not have time for symbolic marches or repeated petitions, as we have seen in the past, that is not how we will move the lines. Judge Benjamin who has several years of environmental activism behind him. The bitter report of the young man is not an isolated case. For François Gemenne, professor-researcher in political science at the University of Liège and Sciences Po Paris, interviewed by L'Express, it is indeed "difficult not to see in the emergence of movements like Extinction Rebellion, the failure previous mobilisations ".
No spokesman or leader
The resignation of Nicolas Hulot in the autumn of 2018 which had recognized the inadequacy of the government action could alert some also, according to Benjamin: "His departure shows that even if we are engaged in the ecological fight, we can not act in a traditional political structure ".
As a result, the movement favors decentralized and horizontal operation. "We are in a less institutional sense, we do not have a spokesperson, let alone a leader," said the 30-year-old. For the rest, the organization is established locally and in groups. "The discussions are thematic on an online platform and everyone can propose an action, provided that it corresponds to our principles".
Six thousand registered in France
A system that seems to seduce. For now, the association claims its presence in 58 countries, with already more than 6,000 registered in France. "A figure that only grows since the dispersion of the sit-in, Friday," says Benjamin.
Among the new activists are "people who have never campaigned", but also "a lot of women" and "young people in their twenties". Proof that the youth, driven by the charisma and determination of the Swedish Greta Thunberg, risks going down the streets again to defend the future of her planet. For now, Extinction Rebellion has already included in its agenda new actions, in the coming weeks, in Paris, as in all of France.