Aux arts mes citoyen-ne-s! That play on the chorus line in France’s national anthem, “To arms, citizens!”, was on the banner hanging over a general assembly of the artists and theatre workers of Marseilles, who have been occupying two of the city’s main theatres since mid-March. On 25 March, more than 80 theatres and cultural centres around France were being occupied in a movement kicked off at the start of the month in Odeon Theatre in the heart of Paris by members of the left-wing trade union confederation, the CGT.
In a handful of cases, the authorities have intervened to end the occupations. As they have done so, other theatres have joined the movement.
For the assembly, some hundred-plus activists had come together from the Criée, in a former fish auction house on the waterfront of the Marseilles’ Old Port, and the Merlan theatre, created some 40 years ago in one of the city’s densely packed neighbourhoods of concrete flats after the police killing of a local man.
