INTHEFRAY Magazine, MA
May 1 2005

Anti-imperialism at the laundromat
PULSE (Web Log)

This afternoon I was walking to the laudromat when I ran smack into a
social movement – or make that several. Parisians were out on the
street today in the tens of thousands to voice their opposition to
the European Constitution, which will be voted on in a country-wide
referendum on May 29 (as described in a previous post).

It was quite a spectacle. There were enough flags to arm several
dozen color guards – from rainbow-colored ones calling for “Peace” to
martial-red ones printed with Che Guevara’s mustachioed face. There
were banners with slogans in angry capital letters, inevitably with a
“Non” slipped in somewhere between big, scary words like
“délocalisation” (outsourcing) and “impérialisme” (imperialism). And
there was an endless procession of flatbed trucks, each with its own
sound system, broadcasting anything from anti-Chirac, anti-Bush
chants to festive reggae music.

I waited nearly two hours – through pre-wash, wash, rinse, and dry –
as the protesters filed by on Voltaire Boulevard. Every time I
thought I could go back to folding my underwear there was another
brigade of flags and banners, another eardrum-rattling chant, another
left-wing group with a cause to publicize.

The CGT, a confederation of unions aligned with the French Communist
Party (a relatively mainstream political faction here in France),
seemed to have the largest delegation on the streets. The trade
unionists were there mainly to protest the privatization of public
services, which some believe will be imposed on France if it cedes
more of its sovereignty to the European Union. There were also plenty
of signs – some held by a group of Armenian activists – declaring
that Turkey should be kept out of the European Union (another popular
rallying cry for the anti-constitution crowd).

That said, a whole set of grievances completely unrelated to the
coming referendum were also being aired. Students protested
educational reforms proposed by the French government. Immigrants
rallied for the rights of the undocumented. Hindu nationalists voiced
their support for the Tamil Tigers, a pro-independence group
responsible for terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. Communists hailing
from “Turkey and northern Kurdistan” railed against the Iraq
occupation. Expatriates from Togo decried the lack of attention being
paid to their country, where violence has broken out since last
week’s disputed presidential election (“After Rwanda, Togo,” said one
sign).

There were plenty of unflattering references to American foreign
policy. The majority of protesters stuck to the kind of anti-Bushisms
one finds back in the States, but near the end of the procession I
saw a truck drive by dragging a puppet on the ground behind it. It
was Uncle Sam, wrapped in an American flag.

I suppose it should be expected that every lefty (and not-so-lefty)
organization under the sun comes out for the Big March. As academics
like to say, today’s media-savvy protesters often “shop around” for
the best venue to get their message across. Still, I was surprised by
how international the demonstration was, especially for one
ostensibly about strictly European affairs. Many of these protesters
dislike the globalization of markets, but they represent the
globalization of protest: local issues become global, global issues
become local.

The one sign I saw in English, as it turned out, mentioned someone I
used to hear a lot about back in Philadelphia, near where I grew up.
Nestled among the anti-neoliberals and anti-imperialists was a small
group of protesters with a banner that read: “Free Mumia Now.”

– Victor Tan Chen