Quelle: Calais Migrant Solidarity
On the 23rd of January, a sizeable demonstration took place in Calais. The protest was called by many groups outside of Calais who wanted to show solidarity with the plight of the refugees living in the Jungle. The main organisations who called for and organised the demonstration were the CISPM (International Coalition of People Without Papers and Migrants) and the ATMF (Association of French Maghrebian Workers) but the call was supported by a vast array of different solidarity groups. Coaches to the demonstration came from all across France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and also a large contigent from the UK.
People gathered under the highway bridge at the entrance to the Jungle and began to march into the center of the town at 2pm. This body of support from outside Calais were little by little joined by a significant number of people who live in the jungle, people from Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, Kurdistan and many other nations. There was a massive police presence, with at least one company of CRS in attendance. The police also deployed water cannons, plain clothes officers, and anti-riot grills bolted to the front of police vans.
Along the march, there were some encounters with locals associated with fascists groups. One fascist goaded and provoked the crowd. When confronted by a large group outside his house, he produced a gun and brandished it at the people. After a flurry of projectiles were launched into this scumbag’s front garden, the crowd that had gathered in confrontation and self-defense returned to the main body of the protest.
The protest arrived in Place D’Armes at approximately 4pm. There were more than 2000 people present and speeches were made by members of many different refugee solidarity groups. At some point the statue of Charles De Gaulle was graffitied. One group of inhabitants of the jungle tried to motivate people in the crowd, making tentative efforts to approach the port. They finally suceeded in breaking the police line and moved quickly to the port. Loose estimates are that more than 1000 people participated in this action. This group broke through multiple security fences to approach the port zone, rapidly outmanouvering the hapless police. 500 people then succeeded in breaking into the bording area inside the port, whilst those who remained outside the fences surrounding the port were treated to a barrage of rubber bullets and tear gas grenades from the CRS. Having pushed the crowd away from the temporary hole made in the fence, the CRS prevented any more people from entering the port.
Many in the group ran towards the ferry “The Spirit of Britain” and began to climb aboard. More than 50 people succeded in occupying the ferry. Port workers and Police Aux Frontières arrived but remained at a distance. A crew member from the ferry began to hose the occupiers with a fire hose, which they kept up until the end of the occupation.
A short while later, the groups of people remaining in front of the ferry began to walk in the port zone and were quickly attacked by the CRS. Once all those occupying the port had been forced out, the local police pushed the group all the way back to the jungle in all the city.
In the end, it took until around 8.30pm for the removal of the occupiers of the port. After the security service’s momentary loss of control, people inside the port were forced back to the Jungle. After yesterday’s events, Calais Migrant Solidarity is offering legal support and monitoring arrests, at present we know of 3 Italian nationals who are being detained and will be subject to a OQTF (Obligation de Quitter la Territoire Francais) and must now leave France. 4 people have been released after being detained for a ‘Garde a Vue’ with no charges. Around 100 people without papers were held over night in migrant detention centers. Maybe some are still there, although we think that most have been released. We also know that 8 people with and without papers will appear at the Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) in Boulogne-Sur-Mer tomorrow at 2pm. We will be there to observe the hearings and offer support to those facing criminal procedures.
In a familiar turn of events, the muck spreading media has gone into overdrive to denounce yesterday’s events as the work of the British anarchist group ‘No Borders’. This couldn’t be further from the truth but the truth has never really been the concern of the UK media machine. The truth doesn’t sell newspapers and the idea that ‘refugees’ could autonomusly and easily board a boat in the Calais habour is incomprehensible for the British press. There is only one outcome for a shit eating journalist who has to balance explaining militant direct action against the UK border with the need to continually portray refugees and people without papers as poor, receptacles of charity, devoid of political agency, and helpless, they choose to blame the ‘Europeans’. This rhetoric and discourse is deeply racist and is one Calais Migrant Solidarity has been fighting since 2009. To reiterate, this was an action autonomously organised by people living in the jungle, people without papers, and refugees, these people were supported by activists from countries across the world. To claim anything different is to deny the reality of the situation, that the people of the Jungle are willing to disrupt, occupy, and fight the institutions that keep them from their freedom!
Calais Migrant Solidarity call out for everybody to come monday at 1:30pm in front of the TGI of Boulogne to express our solidarity with all the people who are being criminalized by the border regime and to support the action of last saturday.
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siehe auch: Taranis News