ORIGINAL FRENCH ARTICLE: Insurrection citoyenne du
peuple de gauche à la Bastille

Citizens' Insurrection by the People of the Left at the
Bastille

By Mina Kaci and Marie-Jose Sirach
l'Humanite (France)
March 20, 2012

http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1996

    120,000 persons launched an assault on the
    Place de la Bastille in Paris, this Sunday 18
    March, at the call of the Front de gauche.
    Never before seen in a presidential campaign. A
    bet won by Jean-Luc Melenchon.

The people of the Left is in the streets. This is
perhaps the first political lesson to be drawn from
this day, a turning point in the presidential campaign.
Live from the Place de la Bastille, the first
participative demonstration to pound the paving stones
of Paris, the first popular meeting in open air.
Workers, teachers, employees, managers, researchers,
railway workers, students, people with marginal
employment, unemployed, retired ... they have come, and
they are all here. From Paris and the suburbs, from the
Var (in the south-east) or from the depths of the
Ariege (in the south-west), from the Vendee (in the
west) or from the North, en passant par la Lorraine [1]
(in the east). On scooters, bicycles, by car, by train,
car-sharing, some wearing Phrygian hats, others with
women's revolutionary white hats, waving red flags or
the French tri-color flags.

"Even in pouring rain, we'd have come all the same",
Jacqueline, from Orleans, says. The number of
demonstrators keeps growing by the hour. At 2:32 pm the
first demonstrators enter the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
Joy is in the air, with young people, old-timers, and
kids. "Let's reinvent happiness", one woman has
scribbled on a piece of cardboard. At 4 pm, "We are
already more than 100,000", a voice cries from the
podium, where musicians and comedians follow one
another in a quick succession of acts, leading to the
speech by Jean-Luc Melenchon. It is a long human chain
preparing "a citizens' revolution".

History never repeats itself. But this Sunday has an
air of Spring, reminiscent of the Popular Front, of the
Commune de Paris, of the French Revolution. "Who would
have bet as much as a kopek six months ago on the
success of such a meeting", an old Communist on the
Faubourg Saint-Antoine whispers to us.

Is Jean-Luc Melenchon in the process of meeting the
challenge he set for himself, namely, "to set the whole
of society on fire", staking his all on the political
re-awakening of the blue collar class, to whom he
addressed his early meetings? The extent to which he
has succeeded can be measured by the presence of
contingents of workers from many companies sacrificed
to their owners' greed: Fralib, Thales, Sodimedical,
ArcelorMittal, Still-Saxby, Petroplus, M'Real, Arkema,
... [2]. These workers have come to "set fires", as
Fabien says gayly, one of the guys from ArcelorMittal
in his blue overalls, walking beside his buddies.

But the Bastille rally far outnumbers its blue collar
core. One demonstrator whom we happen to meet between
Nation and the Bastille, called Patrick, a teacher from
the Haute-Savoie, is convinced that "A citizens'
insurrection is absolutely necessary. In my profession,
people suffer from a loss of meaning of their work. We
labor under a kind of collective schizophrenia. That's
why the citizens' insurrection is what is needed."
Caroline, a 20-year old architect, says to us: "People
of my own generation find it hard to find their place
in society, no matter where you look. We just can't
wait years for change." And yet this young woman has
joined the march out of curiosity, not being sure for
whom she will vote, but "to see for myself this much
talked-of movement". The same is true of Andre
Manoukian, a musician who has come with his family. "It
is a fine day to march, I intended to cast a 'useful
vote' [3], but ... I wanted to see with my own eyes."

In our own hands the political future lies

Farther on a demonstrator named Luc, who took the 5:20
am train from Toulon, declares, "We are the French
early-risers [4], gathered here to take part in a
citizens' insurrection". A seventy-five year-old woman,
Jacqueline, has also left home in the mountain peaks of
the Savoie to take part in the storming of the
Bastille. Guillaume Kervern, a film maker and citizen
of Groland [5], is also in the march: "I like Melenchon
a lot. I have fallen under the charm of his oratory, of
his humor, of his ideas. In Groland we are divided
between Hollande and Melenchon, and I'm for Melenchon."

How has this happened? Jean-Philippe and Annie-Pierre
left by automobile at 3 am from the Lot-et-Garonne (in
the south-west). In 2007 they believed what Sarkozy was
saying, and even campaigned for him. Today, they define
themselves as "the disappointed lot of Sarkozism.
Sarkozy has left people to die of hunger." So when
Melenchon calls upon the people to wake up, they are in
100% agreement: "It is in our hands that the political
future lies. The insurrection, for us, is to take
political power. We are not afraid." As if echoed by
the sentiments of Pierre Laurent, national secretary of
the French Communist Party [6], some minutes later:
"This march is not a demonstration of force. It is
above all a call to those who have not yet joined us,
to say to them: Look at what has been set in motion. It
is the people. Citizens who, for the most part, have
come to play an active role in the campaign. And we
don't say 'support us' to these citizens , but 'prenez
le pouvoir' [7].

How has this happened? The people who won the "Non"
vote on the European Constitution in 2005 have been
reawakened. 'Groggy' for a while, they seem to find new
hope and have a steel-like conviction as to their power
to weigh in the balance of forces. "The movement is
deep because it is not simply there to bear witness. It
is a battle that will have its effects in the middle
and long term", an analysis by Christian Piquet.
Spokesman for the Gauche unitaire, he explains: "We are
building a force indispensable for the defeat of the
right, and also for the redistribution of the cards on
the Left."

Melenchon cites Louise Michel, Jules Valles, and the
poet Antonio Machado

A movement all the more credible since the polls credit
the candidate of the Front de gauche with 11% of
intended votes, twice what was polled last autumn. The
Front de gauche has become the undeniable force on the
new political chessboard, because it has succeeded in
giving confidence to the people of the Left, who, this
afternoon, raise their heads and rediscover their
pride.

It is 5 pm when Jean-Luc Melenchon takes the podium.
The Place de la Bastille cannot contain the assembled
crowd, which squeezes into the nearby streets. "We are
the cry of the people," he launches, "the people
forgotten, despised, abandoned ... the cry of those who
wish to bring their intelligence to the common cause,
who refuse the moral positions of egoism. I call on you
to begin the springtime of the people!" Melenchon cites
Louise Michel, Jules Valles and the poet Antonio
Machado: "The road is made by walking" [8] calling on
the people to occupy all the public squares in all the
towns and villages of France. The Front de gauche gives
rendez-vous for the 5th of April at the Place du
Capitole in Toulouse, and the 14th of April in the
square of the Prado in Marseille. Spread the word!!

Translator's note: We will make an effort to provide an
English translation of Jean-Luc Melenchon's address at
the Bastille, and will place the link here when and if
it is available. In the meanwhile, you can view the
event and listen to the French text at

http://www.placeaupeuple2012.fr/discours-de-jean-luc-melenchon-a-la-bastille/

Photos are simple screen captures from the web site of
the Front de gauche, from a video of the event made by
DailyMotion.

http:/www.placeaupeuple2012.fr/discours-de-jean-luc-melenchon-a-la-bastille/

Related articles (in English):

- An introduction to the event, "Storming the Bastille"
by Maurice Ulrich.

http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7288:storming-the-bastille

- An interview of Jean-Luc Melenchon by nine student
journalists working to produce one issue of the daily
newspaper l'Humanite.

http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article1993

[1] This taken from a traditional song.

[2] Companies that have recently announced plant
closings and delocalizations for economic reasons,
often in the presence of profitable operations. For
example, Fralib, in Aubagne, near Marseille, is the
sole factory of the group Unilever that produces Lipton
teas and Elephant infusions. The plant closing was
announced in September 2010. The layoffs were judged to
be unjustified, after a hearing by the appeals court of
Aix-en-Provence.

[3] Translator's note: The vote utile, the "useful
vote", suggesting that to vote otherwise is "useless",
is the idea that it is not safe to vote for a third
party because that might permit the extreme right wing
candidate to slip into second place, leaving a run-off
second tour guaranteeing the election of the right wing
(incumbent) candidate, as happened in France in 2002.
This concept is the foundation stone of "bipartism" and
"alternation", which has led, in many countries, such
as Germany, Italy, Spain, and the US, to the formation
of two increasingly similar parties with much the same
politics, a soft, merely nominal, alternative, and to
increasing scores for voter abstention. The Socialist
Party candidate started using this argument as his main
campaign theme, but has now backed off, asserting that
"Every vote is useful". The Front de gauche has pointed
out that this year it is virtually impossible not to
have a candidate of the Left present in the run-off, be
it Hollande (PS) or Melenchon (Fdg).

[4] "La France qui de leve tot", early risers, is an
allusion to Sarkozy's slogan in the 2007 campaign: he
boasted of being the candidate of all those whom he
called hard-working people, those who get up early in
the morning to go to work. So Luc can be counted among
the deçus de Sarkozy, those disillusioned by these last
five years of Sarkozy's anti-labor politics.

[5] Groland is an imaginary country, subject of a
nightly comedy routine for terse political ridicule and
commentary on the television channel Canal Plus

[6] The PCF, a leading element of the Front de gauche

[7] 'Take power'

[8] From the Wikipedia article "Antonio Machado":

- "Wanderer, your footsteps are

- the road, and nothing more;

- wanderer, there is no road,

- the road is made by walking.

- By walking one makes the road,

- and upon glancing behind

- one sees the path

- that never will be trod again.

- Wanderer, there is no road-

- Only wakes upon the sea."

from "Proverbios y cantares" in Campos de Castilla.
1912

Translated Tuesday 20 March 2012, by Henry Crapo and
reviewed by Isabelle Métral

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