In Backlash to Campus Pro-Palestine Protests, Echoes of Standing Rock and the Global Crackdown on Climate Protest

This episode contains depictions of police violence, explosions and injuries.

There is also some medical content. Please take care as you listen

 Ouais qui je suis? Ben Nathalie Duval, Hein? Hein,

 In 2018, Nathalie Duval was living in a small town near the Loire Valley in central France. It’s known for its rich history and landscape… Its picturesque vineyards and castles. Nathalie and her town are working class. She’s a mother of five and a grandmother, and at the time she was working a temp job at the post office, sorting the mail. Things were always tight. She never seemed to have enough money to take care of everyone.

 ma ma vie ressemblait comme tout le monde, hein? hein?

My life was like that of everyone, right?

This is Nathalie – speaking through a voice actor.

Euh, à un peuple lambda, tout simplement hein, je travaille, j'élève mes enfants.

en fin de compte c'est travaille, consomme et ferme ta gueule.

Like the average person, I simply work and raise my kids. At the end of the day, you just have to work, consume and shut your mouth.

 The working class is always struggling, but this particular moment was especially hard.

French president Emmanuel Macron was newly elected at the time. And while so many people were struggling to make ends meet…he told people that it was 

 fault they couldn’t make it work. That if someone really wanted to find a job…all they had to do was cross the street and go look for one. And that 

At the same time…the price of everything was going up…food, clothes…and gas. Which Nathalie needed to get to work everyday. It was more than living paycheck to paycheck…it was shift to shift. She could only afford to get 10 or 20 euros worth of gas – or petrol – at a time.

So when Nathalie heard that there was going to be a new tax on fuel? She was furious. She was worried about climate change -- but she also wanted to be able to pay her bills. So she decided to go to a protest in her town.

 j'allais dans des manifs. Mais voilà, c'était pas c'est pas des des manifs qui me touchaient réellement. donc euh, là là, quand je suis sorti, oui, c'était pour le carburant, parce que là, ça touchait tout le monde. C'était pas trois, quatre personnes dehors, c'étaient des milliers de dehors c'est ça qui était beau.

I was going to protests -- but they weren’t protests that really affected me. So that time, when I went out, yes, it was for the petrol, because it affected everyone. It wasn’t three or four people out, it was thousands. That’s what was beautiful

 Nathalie was going with her son, Mickael, who is in his thirties and also had a temp job as a postal worker. Together, they’d suit up in these - bright - yellow - vests - and head to the streets – where they’d meet up with a sea of protestors…ALL wearing - bright - yellow - vests -.

They’re the kind you might see construction workers wearing. In France, everyone has to keep one in their car. If they break down, or if they have some kind of emergency, they put it on.

And in a symbolic sign of collective distress…the yellow vest has become the distinctive uniform for this ragtag group of protesters. In fact they’re now simply known as: The Yellow Vests. Les Gilets Jaunes.

Nous les gilets jaunes, on se battait pour le carburant sans carburant, on ne peut pas travailler, on ne travailler, on n'a pas d'argent. on d'argent, on fait comment pour faire vivre les enfants? on fait comment pour payer nos factures?

Us Yellow Vests, we were fighting for petrol, because without petrol you can’t go to work, and without work you don’t have money. Without money, how do you provide for the kids? How do you pay your bills?

The Yellow vest protests started as a reaction to a rise in fuel prices. So at the beginning…they were supported by notorious climate deniers… like Donald Trump. And they got a reputation for being opposed to climate action. But in fact, most of the Yellow Vests actually wanted better climate policies… they just didn’t want to do it at the expense of the working class.

And quickly, their demands came to be about much more: social justice… taxing the rich, environmental policies that don’t leave workers behind…  and… ultimately, getting the President to resign.

The movement is made up of mostly working class people, who live away from large urban centres. People who bear the brunt of the cost of living crisis and rely heavily on their cars. So…they protest by occupying roundabouts. There, you can see people from all over the political spectrum -- far-right, far-left, and people who refused to vote at all. And a lot of these protesters were women. Women like Nathalie.

At first, when Nathalie and Mickael went to all of these demonstrations… for higher wages… against pension reform… for workers rights… they expected pushback from the police. That’s because they were seeing so many officers, in riot gear, deployed for the protests. They’d brought single-doses of saline solution in their bags to wash tear gas away from their eyes -- just in case.

Instead, the police seemed indifferent, even benevolent at times. It almost seemed like they were on the side of the protesters.

 j'avais été une manif à Paris je sais plus laquelle c'est et sur une manif à Paris. Il y d'un côté tous les tous les CRS et de l'autre côté il y avait aussi des CRS et tout côté droit. Je me rappelle les CRS, ils avaient enlevé leurs casques et ils nous souriaient, ils faisaient rien du tout, rien du tout, quoi. ils étaient là, ils ne bougeaient pas, ils nous surveillaient quoi

I went to a protest in Paris - I can’t remember which one anymore. At this protest in Paris, on one side you had all of the riot police, and they had taken off their helmets, and they were smiling at us. They weren’t doing anything, they weren’t moving, they were just watching us.

Ils avaient le bouclier à la main, leur casque dans les mains. J’ai dit bravo à vous, pour une fois, ça fait plaisir. On s'est dit tiens, ils ne sont pas tous pareils.

They had their shield in one hand, their helmet in the other. I said well done to you, for once, that was nice. We thought -- huh, maybe they’re not all the same

 ils avaient enlevé leur casque comme pour vous dire, vous n'avez pas à avoir peur de nous?

They had taken their helmets off as if to say -- you don’t have to be scared of us?

 Over the next few months, the protests kept getting bigger. Until eventually it wasn’t just thousands…but 

 of people descending on the streets every weekend. [beat]

And the police were not as supportive as that first experience Nathalie described. At all.

The French police were systematically using force, and illegally corRAHling protesters. Dozens of people were blinded by rubber bullets and at least five had their hands ripped off by tear gas grenades. But this didn't deter Mickael and Nathalie.

Over the years, the protests became a way of life for them. They made lots of friends in the Yellow Vests. By March 2023, they’d been to dozens of these demonstrations. So when they found out about one against the privatisation of water in this small town called Sainte-Soline…it made sense that they’d go.

Mickael got out of his night shift, he took a power nap, and then a friend picked him up to go meet the rest of their group. Nathalie had her own late shift the night before, and she was exhausted. So before Mickael walked out the door, she said the thing that any parent would say to their kid…

Mickael and his friends drove two hours to Sainte-Soline. When they got there, the police stopped them and checked their car. Then they let them through to this big, open field where the protest was taking place.

At home, Nathalie was easing into her morning after her long night shift. She was drinking her cappuccino and had the TV on in the background. And then out of the corner of her eye…she noticed something unsettling… Clashes between the police and protesters. [beat/pause] There was tear gas and people in gas masks and smoke billowing from torched police cars

She tried calling Mickael… but he didn't answer. Which isn’t that unusual for him…

 Mickaël et son téléphone, c'est tout un art, il en perd tout le temps, à chaque fois qu'il va manifester

Mickael and his phone… it’s a whole thing. He always loses one, every time he goes to a protest

 Eventually she managed to get through to one of his friends. When she talked to Mickael, he said they'd just parked the car. They could see protesters in the distance, but they were still far from the reservoirs. They decided to go in anyway. From where they stood, it didn't look that bad, and they had come all this way. So Nathalie told him again, just in case...

 tu fais attention, il me fait je fais attention maman promis OK, d'accord

I said be careful, he said yes mum, I promise I’ll be careful, I said ok, fine

Mickael and his friends start walking towards the crowd. It’s a big field, and there are cars parked all around them. New groups of demonstrators are still arriving from all sides in their rain boots. They can see different convoys making their way to the reservoir, and they decide to follow one of them.

And then, as they get closer, they start seeing what Nathalie just saw...

[beat/pause + news clip as a transition?]

Around 1PM, a national news network announced that two protesters were in critical condition.

And under her breath, she started repeating to herself, like a slow, soft prayer :

pourvu qu'il n'y ait pas mon fils, pourvu qu'il n'y ait pas mon fils, pourvu qu'il n'y a mon fils

Please let it not be my son. Let it not be Mickael.

I’m Anna Pujol-Mazzini and this is Drilled: The Real Free Speech Threat.

France prides itself on being a country of protest. After all -- that’s how we got rid of the monarchy and why we have workers’ rights -- and it wasn’t always peaceful. But over the years, protest has gotten more dangerous, and the government started using anti-terror laws to target climate activists. Then, everything came to a head over one bloody weekend, in March 2023.

At the same time that Nathalie and Mickael and the yellow vests were taking to the streets … there was 

 movement rising up in Europe. One that was staging dramatic climate protests in London – blocking bridges, jumping onto trains during rush hour and glueing themselves to the gates of Buckingham Palace – all in an attempt to force the government to take action on climate policy. Their name:

[news montage of reporters saying “Extinction Rebellion”]

While the yellow vests were mostly working class people from rural areas… Extinction Rebellion was largely middle class, college-educated activists in cities – people who could get away with taking big risks.

“Face à l’extinction -- la rebellion! Face à l’extinction -- la rebellion!” 

This is Alice. Well – I’m going to call her Alice, for her own protection.

Alice spent her childhood moving around, mostly in France. But wherever they settled, Alice and her family would take long nature walks, trying to guess the names of the birds, or taking pictures of the landscape.

Now she’s in her mid-thirties, she’s an engineer with a master’s degree, and she’s been a climate activist for much of her life. She spent years signing petitionS, handing out flyers, going to protests and volunteering abroad. But she got frustrated : the climate crisis was looming, and she felt like she was doing too little… that things weren’t moving fast enough.

So in late 2018, when she heard about Extinction Rebellion…she decided she wanted to bring their tactics to France. And she wasn’t alone. With about a hundred other people, she started a chapter in Paris. And pretty soon…

 We started occupying for more than a week one of the sort of central public square in Paris, and it just happened really smoothly.

And the authorities weren’t sure how to respond. They’d basically never seen this sort of protest before… One that was so big, and flashy, and so ripe for media coverage.

And what we knew at the time, um, is that there was a conflict between the socialist mayor of Paris, and then the head of the police department in, in Paris, and, um, where the mayor wasn't going to Um, actively say that she was against, uh, uh, climate, uh, militants and the climate movement.

So that was kind of the first time where you could really feel that there was going to be a fracture between police and then, uh, a mayor or president or prime minister.

 The movement grew quickly to dozens of local chapters with thousands of members. They weren’t just in Paris, but also in smaller cities like Strasbourg and Bordeaux and Annecy. And lots of people were taking notice. Including… the police…

 the more... Occupation and actions, uh, the more we were also infiltrated by, um, surveillanc

 Just two years later, Extinction Rebellion and yellow vest activists like Mickaël were showing up together, marching side by side at Saint-Soline. Which…might sound really surprising to anyone who knows anything about the climate movement. That unity didn't just happen.

In January 2021, hundreds of people came together… there were old anti-nuclear activists… some farmers’ unions… and younger activists from Extinction Rebellion and the like.

They gathered in a makeshift community hall in a wetland area called Notre-Dame-des-Landes to create a new, more integrated movement.

Notre-Dames-des-Landes is a historic place for climate activism.

In the 2000s, hundreds of people moved to the area to try and stop the construction of a new airport.

They built an entire town made out of wood – complete with houses, a bakery, and shops…  And they lived there. It became a sort of social experiment.

, a zon to defend. And since then, dozens have sprouted across France. The government is so concerned that it put together a special unit to prevent their expansion. It’s a team of legal experts that helps local officials dismantle these zones as soon as they pop up.

And in this place… all these activists from very different movements, some of which had historically clashed over class and ideological differences… they decided to create a coalition of grassroots groups from all across the country, under one banner: Les Soulèvements de la Terre. The Earth Uprisings.

Their slogan: we are the earth defending itself.

In their founding text, one of the things they emphasized was that they want to get rid of the class divide that has plagued the climate movement – not just in France but all over the world. They wrote: "We do not believe in a two-tiered climate activism in which a minority prides itself on eating organic and driving a hybrid SUV while the majority is stuck in jobs they don't want to do, long daily commutes, and low-cost food."

Their goals were to take back the land from polluting industries... occupy and disarm ecocidal projects... and bring everyone together…  the farmers… the unions… the urban social justice organizers, the anarchist groups, and the people fighting against projects in their own backyards.

They decided to focus on one issue in particular: water. Which is how we end up with Mickael heading to the Sainte-Soline protest in 2023.

Across France, there are these things called “mega-basins” being built. They’re huge reservoirs that capture and store groundwater in the winter… so that farmers can irrigate their fields during summer droughts.

Thanks in part to climate change, France has just been through back to back droughts…including our first ever winter drought last year.

The problem is… pumping water from underground actually makes droughts 

. And… the reservoirs can only be used by a handful of large agribusinesses, which are mainly focused on corn fields and other irrigation plants for export. Activists say the megabasins are effectively privatising water and putting small, more sustainable farmers out of business.

 so the sort of movement against these had been growing over the months and And and I guess it became a real realization for a lot of people, what the fight for water meant and access to water. And so I think that kind of resonated for a lot of people. And it meant that a lot of people came from all over France.

 The first big protest was organised at the site of one of the basins in October 2022 in Sainte-Soline – just five months before Mickael went there with his friends. It's a small village in western France of about 600 people… Thousands showed up.

 des modes opératoires qui relèvent je n'ai pas peur de le dire, de l'éco-terrorisme que nous devons absolument combattre.

 That’s French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin. He said: the protestors used “methods which, I am not afraid to say it, amount to eco-terrorism, which we absolutely must fight.”

It was really unusual to hear a French government official use the word “terrorism” to talk about climate activists.

 And so the more the actions went on over the months, the more people would actually come. And because it's over the weekend, it means that a lot of people can travel to spend a few days there.

 Five months later, activists re-convened in Saint-Soline. People gathered in the fields on Friday night for discussions… shared meals… an evening of fun before the big day. Hundreds of brightly coloured tents popped up around the activists' camp.

 You had a lot of families and of people coming from all over France, of farmers unions political movements a lot of people who were not essentially in climate movements, but heard of what was going on and so would come there also as their first big action or yeah mass actions.

Transcription

In France, the unthinkable has happened for polluting industries: the working-class Yellow Vest movement, racial equity movements, and progressive climate activists have joined forces in a multi-racial, cross-class coalition called Earth Uprisings. The response has been shockingly violent and extreme. Reporter Anna Pujol-Mazzini takes us there.

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Sainte-Soline, the Government Effort to Disband a Movement in France, and the Radical Solidarity of the Earth Uprisings

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