Biarritz (AFP)
Some 80 local and international organizations and associations will hold a "counter-summit" of the G7, marked by a large demonstration and actions "occupation of public squares".
A few kilometers south of Biarritz where the leaders of the richest countries of the world will gather from 24 to 26 August, the "summit of alternatives" will be straddling the Franco-Spanish border, in Hendaye (France) and Irun ( Spain).
From 19 August, the anti-G7 will take up residence in Urrugne, a neighboring town of Hendaye, then conferences and workshops, in Irun and Hendaye, will be held from 21 to 23 August. 12,000 people are expected.
On the 24th, the first day of the summit, the "anti-G7" plan a big demonstration in Hendaye. And the next day, they intend to conduct actions of "occupation of public squares" around Biarritz, inaccessible city because transformed into entrenched camp with an "exceptional mobilization" of the police, according to the authorities.
These anti-G7 platforms include two platforms: G7 Ez (No to G7, Basque language), located on both sides of the border, and Alternatives G7, which brings together national and international organizations.
"Some of these organizations have a foot in the official summit, because it is necessary to keep in touch with these governments to advance proposals, even if it is at the comma, and another in the counter-summit because they are aware that today's alternatives will come from citizens, "explains Sébastien Bailleul, General Delegate of the Center for Research and Information for Development (Crid).
- "ideological battle" -
Among the organizations announced will be:
- Antiglobalists: we find in particular organizations such as CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Crid or Oxfam or Attac, structures that have "a collective culture of citizen mobilizations" according to Mr. Bailleul. "We are very involved in the counter-summits, the world social forums, according to three axes of reflection: migration, climate justice and, it is more recent, the criminalization of protest movements and repression (police)".
- Ecologists: They are found among Friends of the Earth, Out of Nuclear or Bizi !, a local group affiliated with ANV-Cop21. "We will notably train nonviolent action and denounce the inaction of governments in terms of climate, including that of Emmanuel Macron who claims to be climate champion but is only the champion of the climate discourse" , assures Barthélémy Camedescasse, of Bizi! This group has been talked about this year by collecting portraits of Mr. Macron in the town halls of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
- Political parties: Insubordinate France, Europe Ecology The Greens, the NPA or the Communist Party will be Basque meeting. There are also leftist nationalist leftist parties like Euskal Herria Bai and his counterpart on the Spanish side, Sortu, as well as the Basque branch of the Spanish party Podemos.
- Trade unions: the local branches of the CGT, the FSU or Solidaires will be represented, as will the peasant world with the peasant Confederation (and its counterpart in the Basque Country, ELB), as well as Spanish Basque unions.
- Social and radical left organizations: anarchist and antifascist groups, women's rights activists, LGBT and refugee groups and even a small group of "yellow vests" have joined the local platform.
- The unknown "black bloc": the presence around the "counter-top" agitators from libertarian movements and violent mode of action that are often at the rendezvous of major international summits, is considered by the authorities. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner warned that any violent demonstration would be "neutralized".
"We are planning an ideological battle, violence is not included in our program, said Danielle Mesplé, Solidaires union.But if it comes from outside groups, what power do we have, who can control it? She regrets that "everything is done to raise this fear of violence, the only way to keep the people".
© 2019 AFP