Accueil

Paris' Black Thursday

Article publié le 01-04-2009 par FRANCHINEAU Hélène

Marianne, the female symbol of France, dominates the Place de la République, a common meeting point for protests in Paris. She has a Phrygian cap, a sword and a four-meter crowbar. At least she did on March 19^th, when young activists from the Jeudi Noir collective climbed the Marianne statue to place the fake crowbar, made of silver duct tape, at its feet.

By Paolo Bosonin.

It was meant to represent the need to force open the doors of some 136,000 flats which are abandoned by their owners in the capital of France, where real estate prices have risen by 140% in the last ten years, according to the National Association of Real Estate FNAIM.

According to Jeudi Noir, there are 350,000 scholarship students in Paris, but only 30,000 rooms in student residences offered by the university association CROUS. For those still waiting for a room, the average price for a square meter in Paris goes up by 55 euros a month, according to French newspaper Libération.

Finding a flat has became so difficult that Jeudi Noir members are taking the law into their own hands by squatting unoccupied buildings. Jeudi Noir, or "Black Thursday", refers to the fact that classified advertisements for flats come out on Thursday morning in Paris, and on the day, hundreds of people wake up at five in the morning to be the first to act on smart deals. One day, some students decided to stop looking for what they could not find. They instead decided to visit some flats for rent at astronomical figures to occupy them symbolically, as a protest against the consequences of such a real estate bubble. Over three years, they squatted and have been evicted from unoccupied buildings at least five times.

Jeudi Noir militants all have some points in common: they are young, they do not earn much money, they are all waiting for a low-rental apartment subsidised by the State, and they all have a qualification. Julien Bayou, co-founder of the collective, explains that "most people think that in our society, the coming of age happens at 18, but in fact autonomy comes much later for young people, who are not economically independent until they are 28 or 30. University graduates have to work as an intern for years and years, because companies rarely hire young people. So, if you do not have rich parents, you do not have any chance."

Their tactics are controversial, and some of their squats have become notorious political causes. Several official social associations that fight for similar housing rights do not feel comfortable with the collective's methods. Jeudi Noir's actions are illegal and its fight concerns a very small part of the population. François Brégou, who is responsible for strategy and partnerships at FNARS, the National Social Associations Federation, personally thinks that "students have problems, but they are not the only ones! I hope that that their action will not create a conflict of interest among the social categories."

The young people argue that they have no choice. "Know where to sleep to be able to dream" is one of the group's most famous slogans. The activists have been squatting houses since October 2006. There were five founding members in the beginning and now there are twenty official members of the group. Jeudi Noir currently supports five squats in the city centre, in which about forty people live. Simon Cottin-Marx is a co-founder. He is a 23 year-old researcher in Political Science with a sparse black beard and round glasses. He works for an association to earn some money, but explains that "once I paid the rent, I only had 150 euros left for living. It's not much, is it? So I decided to requisition buildings."

"Harpe" is the name of a squat in the 5^th district, thirty meters away from Boulevard Saint-Germain. This three-storey house in the heart of the Latin Quarters used to be the medical centre of the university association CROUS - which is in charge of improving the living conditions of students. But it has been unoccupied for four years now, so that nine youngsters decided that if CROUS, which is under the Ministry of Education, could not help them, they would help themselves. "We had cased the building before, it was really deserted. One day, we saw that a window at the back was open, so we came in and we found all the furniture in the offices; there were even the doctor's family pictures and desks full of documents! It was like they had left suddenly... it was wonderful for us, because from the outside it looked really bad," reminisces Victor Porcel, 34, an audiovisual technician who studied at the prestigious Art Academy "Beaux Arts" in Lyon and now lives in the house. On the ground floor, there is still the reception counter of the medical centre. Just in front of the kitchen door there is a notice warning visitors that the clinic will temporarily close in order to renovate the space. The date at the bottom of the page: March 2005.

But the nine squatters will have to leave soon, as the CROUS have decided that renovation works will start immediately. Simon Cottin-Marx speaks ironically. "There was no project, before. But now, suddenly, they have to start the works." Of course, he is quite sad to leave his spacious and well-lit room - which would be a dream for a great number of students living in a nine square meters - even if they are still there and will not leave until the police forces them out. On another hand, the inhabitants are all satisfied with the fact that, at least, their occupation has morally forced the CROUS to start its works: the 24 rue de la Harpe building will finally become a residence for handicapped students, a stone's throw away from the Sorbonne University.

In fact, Simon explains that Jeudi Noir particularly concentrates on two kinds of activities. "One is a socially-engaged movement. We try to help young temporary workers, students and people on internships find temporary accommodation. About four hundred people contacted us to help them find a flat! But we also have a very intense political activity, which is aimed at spurring the renovation of empty buildings."

Nevertheless, squatting is an illegal action. And there is rarely a happy end to occupations. The CROUS announced on February 24^th that it would file a lawsuit against the squatters of rue de la Harpe after a month of inconclusive negotiations. Jeudi Noir says that CROUS' action is revenge against the collective after the students denounced the abandonment of this 300 square meter building in the heart of Paris. "Our action is not good for the image of an association in charge of helping students to live better!" exclaimed Victor Porcel. The house has received support from several top politicians; including Benoit Hamon, Socialist Party spokesman, and European Green Party Deputy Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who visited the house to support their initiative.

Recent developments at another squat, at 69 rue de Sèvres, have shaken the group's confidence. Three weeks ago, the nine squatters at the house were taken to court by the owner - a old women who refused to negotiate even when the inhabitants offered to pay a rent of 300 euros each per month. They lost the case and were condemned to pay a 53,525 euro fine. Because their entire savings represent just a small part of that sum, their slim bank accounts have been frozen. The inhabitants underlined the fact that they did major renovation and asked to get at least the strict minimum necessary to eat.

29 years old and with very long curly hair, José-Xavier Morin is one of the squatters who will have to pay this debt. He studied at university for five years: first Finance at the prestigious Paris Dauphine University, then he specialized in Management of New Technologies. After that, he decided to embark on a career as a web designer. He succeeded after six years of hard work: he now manages websites for Parisian museums and international companies. Now, he finally has enough work to be totally independent. But there is this small problem with justice... a 60,000 euro debt (including legal fees) which is compromising his ability to start an independent life. "I found some flats which could be really good for me," he says, "but the problem is that they all want me to leave a deposit, which is around 2,000 euros. But my bank account has been seized and I cannot put more than 450 euros on it, so it is impossible for me to rent any flat! I am stuck in a vicious circle." The Paris Town Council offered to buy the building in order to turn it into subsidized apartments, but the owner refused. The case is at a standstill. The winter truce finished on March 15^th, which means that the police can come and evict all the inhabitants at any given moment.

Jeudi Noir is continuing to campaign despite the court setback. It organizes dozens of demonstrations every week. On March 24^th it launched an online appeal to help collect money for the rue de Sèvres inhabitants. The Minister of Housing, Christine Boutin, who is the only one who can really help these young people, had said that there would be no eviction without a new accommodation solution for the squatters and asked Jeudi Noir for a list of deserted buildings in July 2008. Since that time, Jeudi Noir has already been evicted from two different buildings without the promised accommodation options. The collective reviewed about fifteen empty buildings, but so far there have been no developments. The activists are still waiting for a law in favor of their cause against negligent owners. Some of them, "the law experts of the group" as their companions describe them, wrote a list of "11 suggestions to take young people out of the housing crisis" and some proposed laws. To promote their cause, they will publish a "black book of the housing crisis" at the end of April.

Jeudi Noir relies more and more external volunteers - "impossible to count them as we are a collective in which people freely come and go," members say - on a very broad media coverage and on collaborations with other associations which promote similar actions, like Macaq and DAL, the Association for the Right to Housing. The associations' activity has been particularly intense during these hard times. Researcher Florence Bouillon, who worked on the instability of the squatters' conditions of living, underlines an important aspect: "Squatters are witnesses of the public assistance's limits and of the public intervention's weaknesses." Considering the importance that citizens as well as the media have placed on the adventures of Jeudi Noir, the government should start to interpret the squatters' testimonies as an urgent warning.

Paolo Bosonin.

Commentaires

Ajouter un nouveau

Rechercher