The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.
Banners read"Nuit Debout" or "Rise up at Night," "The conservative bourgeois treat us like dogs, it is time to bite", Place de la Republique, Paris, April 4, 2016. Francois Mori/ Press Association. All rights reserved.Since Thursday, 31 March, thousands of people have gathered every evening at the ‘Place de la République’ in Paris to share their disillusionments with institutional politics and to put into practice forms of direct democracy in popular assemblies and hundreds of small group discussions. Up to 80.000 people followed Sunday general assembly online on Sunday, and over 5000 on the square on various days. The “Nuit Debout” (“Standing Night”) has now become a national movement, with gatherings in 15 French cities, and even as far afield as Brussels, Barcelona and Berlin.“Nuit Debout” (“Standing Night”) has now become a national movement.
The rise of the movement in France is not casual at all. Since late February, all the ingredients have been united for the emergence of a movement similar to the Spanish ‘indignados movement’ and the ‘Occupy’ in 2011. Following a public talk on 23 February organized by the left-wing activist magazine Fakir, an informal group of a dozens of citizens imagined a square occupation after the 31 March large public demonstration against the government labour reform proposal. They successfully diffused their initiatives. Since that day, a crowd has gathered every single evening. They share their claims and projects in popular assemblies, talk and celebrate together, and organize horizontal “commissions” to organize their movement, to prepare action, communicate, sing and work on specific topic (migrants, a new economy, a new constitution…). They share their dreams of another society and call for a confluence of struggles.
