Violence and repression in the march of May 1st in Paris – 01/05/2019

A violent, wild and atypical May Day Paris, with strong police repression, tear gas clouds, strong confrontations in the demonstration, where the "yellow vests" were surpbaded by the traditional unions and anarchists Black Blocks applauded by the demonstrators of the march.

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A frustrated convergence between trade unionists, the impoverished middle clbad of "yellow vests" and the anarchists of the Black Blocks, They tried to spoil the presence of the CGT, the union of French workers, at the head of the mobilization of a traditional parade of workers, and forced their leader, Gerard Martinez, to leave the parade. The most radical "vests" took Labor Day hostage with their demands.

The Black Blocks appeared as a mushroom in the middle of the march, dressed in black and made their way to the beginning of the march at 1 pm. Police responded forcefully on the boulevard Montparnbade, your place of departure. Grenades and tear gas, thrown by the security forces on the globe of the CGT and the truck of the French work center, forced the general secretary of the CGT, which was inside, to be evacuated from the demonstration and to suspend his discussions with journalists.

Absent from the head of the march, with dark glbades because his eyes were touched, Martinez returned to the mobilization at the back, to denounce the government and conceal the crisis of representativeness of the CGT, in front of the force atypical "vests".

"It is serious, the police accused the CGT," denounced Martinez, May 1, traditionally a day of walking. "The fracture has existed for some time but it is necessary that the president changes method, with the grenades that will solve it, they created a climate conducive to the incident, which is the Minister of the Interior , who is the prefect, it is not the CGT, we know that there are some who break but 99% There is a desire for convergence, but we get to know each other because we have them same requirements, such as the increase of the minimum wage, the tax justice is good and must continue, "he said, uncomfortable and furious, union leader

The march of May 1st was the traditional concentration of trade unionists in France. The social crisis and the division that generated the "jackets" showed the loss of the convocation of the CGT in the working clbad, its eclipse and the indifference of the middle clbad impoverished and furious against its preaching. The trade unionists of the former Soviet Union have abandoned the march to differentiate themselves from the violent ones. Other trade unionists, such as Fuerza Obrera, have joined the government's criticism for preventing them from demonstrating safely and without repression, harbaded by the police.

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From beginning to end, there was violence in the march, in a desert Paris. The neighbors of the road between Montparnbade and the Plaza de Italia entrench in their houses, the terraces of empty cafes, restaurants and shops with their glbades covered with wood, as prepared for a hurricane. They were not mistaken.

The incidents began one hour before the start of the march. A group of demonstrators, in the center of the parade, opened their backpacks. He dressed in black in the middle of the march, covered his face with hoods or put his motorcycle helmets on his head, took out his stones and hammers and they advanced towards the corner of the Boulevard Montparnbadse and the Rue de Lambre, where the head of the march was. The Transformers were nothing but the Black Blocks, which then disappear with other clothes. Others were stoning a blue van, which the security forces miraculously prevented from burning.

La Rotonde restaurant, with its red awnings, the place where Emmanuel Macron He celebrated his presidential triumph, was divided into wooden and surrounded by security forces. The vests seized these protections with hammers and broke the windows of their terrace. But they could not get into the favorite restaurant of the head of state.

The rumor reached the CGT truck: "The Black Blocs want to expel the CGT". Nervous, the service of the order of Martinez began to organize his evacuation and suspended contact with journalists. At that time, police repression began. The truck was stuck in the gas and in the middle of dangerous mutilating grenades. The head of the CGT was evacuated nervously.

When the march began, there was already a split between the remaining trade unionists and the majority of the "yellow vests", which doubled. At least 40,000 people have been broadcast, according to the Ministry of the Interior, and 80,000 according to the CGT. They acted quickly but in a climate of high tension, with songs against the police and posters denouncing the tax burden, written by hand.

"Revolution," sang the crowd. "Macron resignation," they said. "Live yes, do not survive," they asked. In the second response to the French president, after his press conference last Thursday announcing measures in favor of the social crisis, The only thing that makes up the jackets is their resignation and the dissolution of the National Assembly.

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Fly Rider is one of his figures in this amorphous movement without leaders. He walked with his jacket on his back. "They want to stop us from demonstrating, the march is dispersed because of police charges, they want to cut it in half, we will continue today and every Saturday," he promised.

The procession was cut in half and broke its trajectory, in an open battle between the Black Blocks and the police, in an urban guerrilla. The end of the march was marked by chaos, violence, tear gas, 240 arrests and 145 detainees.

The Blacks Blocks in front of the demonstration and in full confrontation with the riot police. The procession dispersed towards the boulevard de l'Hopital, near the hospital La Salpêtrière. Bottles, stones, street furniture, bins burned to cope with security forces, which reached 7800 in Paris.

Protesters hammered the wood protection of banks and businesses and destroyed it. Eventually, the two protests drew closer and the police tried to take them to the Plaza de Italia amid tensions and violence. Many protesters wore masks of Alexander Benalla, former security chief of President Macron, disgraced by the violence committed on May 1 of last year.

At least one police officer wounded in the head is admitted to the hospital of Pitié Salpêtrière. A woman was injured in the face at the beginning of the walk. There are wounded miuchos. At least 300 independent journalists and photographers have denounced the government and the security forces, preventing them from participating in the marches and targeting them. According to Reporters Without Borders, 90 of them were wounded.

On this unusual 1st May, there were 225 marches in France, which brought together 210,000 people according to the CGT and 143,500 according to the Ministry of the Interior. Another 206 people are in pre-trial detention. In Bodeaux, there were 6000 people, including 1300 Yellow Jackets, in Grenoble, there were 4200 people and 6000 in Lyon. In Besançon, there were overflows: 300 yellow jackets tried to enter and take the local police station without seizing it.

Paris, correspondent