This Friday 24th May, 2019, for the second big day of the global climate strike, thousands of high school students and young people marched through the streets of France.
Thousands of young people, including around 15,000 in Paris, were again on the streets of France on Friday 24th May, 2019, as part of of the global climate strike, calling on leaders to take action against global warming .
This second big day of strike for the climate however mobilised less people than March 15th.
“I’m dry like the planet”
In the capital, 14,800 people marched, at a brisk pace, from Opera to Republic, according to a count of the firm Occurrence for a collective media including AFP. In March they were between 29,000 and 40,000 according to sources.
“Sorry mom, I’m dry like the planet,” summed up a sign.
Walking for the future
In the crowd, Pauline, Franco-German 16 years old, high school student in Versailles, already there in March. She shows her “make no CO2” sign with an EU flag: “the European elections are very important because it is the last Parliament that can do something”, before it is too late for the climate, she says.
Maxence, 19, a sports studies student, from Aubervilliers, explains walking “for (his) future, to say that one can have one”. He says he has scrutinised party programs and looks at those who talk about “climate and education”.
Stall Portrait of Emmanuel Macron
At the head of the procession, anti-capitalist militants chanted “ah ah anti capitalists” while passing in front of a building of BNP Paribas. Insights too, anti-nuclear activists, anti-publicity picking up posters, a handful of “yellow vests” …
Two days before the European poll, France insubordinate, leaflets in hand, Europe Ecology (EELV) or the Young Communists are there.
Before the departure, some demonstrators had gone to the town hall of the nineteenth arrondissement to remove the official portrait of the president Emmanuel Macron, in a campaign of “stall” led for three months to claim more action against the warming.
“Hot must not go on”
In Lyon, the day gathered 3000 people according to the organisers, 2000 according to the prefecture, with the banner “6th extinction, all and all in action”.
The mobilisation was lower than in March (12,000), but the organisation showed its satisfaction after the holding of several civil disobedience actions: 60 trees planted, and 6 sections of bicycle paths painted with the bomb. According to the association Alternatiba, two minors were arrested for tracing the false tracks.
In the procession, Fleur, a high school student of the first year, had drawn two green lines of climate warrior on her cheeks: “I am here to encourage people to vote Green Sunday because we can not do it”.
Pauline, 13 years old, was watched from afar by her mother who allowed her to come for her second climate demonstration: “If we all make efforts, we can save the planet”.
Boxer shorts and grape leaves
In Montpellier, 1400 (prefecture) to 3000 (organisers) young, accompanied by a few adults including teachers, trade unionists and yellow vests, paraded with energy. “State of climate emergency”, “Do not worry about your sea”, “No nature, no future”, said their banners.
“Greenhouse gases, plastic in the seas, this society, we do not want it! “De Rugy is f**king you, the youth is in the street”, chanted the crowd, also hugging copiously of the electoral signs installed for the European of Sunday.
Several teenagers paraded in underpants with grape leaves. “The Hot must not go on”, “Keep the Earth before aiming at the Moon”, could be read on the signs. A strike notice had been filed by a large inter-union at the University of Montpellier.
“What’s cooking for the planet? “
In Tours, about a thousand high school students also demonstrated, with their panels “What’s cooking for the planet? “.
In Lille, 850 protesters participated in a “die in”, for some equipped with cardboard gravestones saying for example: “Daphne, 2003-2019, killed by Monsanto-Bayer”, “Marika, 1994-2019, died of cancer due to fine particles “.
Elsewhere, there were about 500 in Rennes, between 750 and 1500 in Dijon, 650 in Angers according to the police (3600 on March 15), 500 in Clermont-Ferrand, between 300 to 400 in Bordeaux, ditto in Toulouse.
