"Be water": the formula is borrowed from the hero of Hong Kong cinema Bruce Lee. In 2019, during the popular uprising in Hong Kong against a law to allow extraditions to China, protesters used the phrase to refer to a fluid and unpredictable way of getting around. A method that is now seized by young opponents of pension reform in the streets of France. The goal, to escape police repression. In Hong Kong, protesters eventually got the law withdrawn. Something to inspire some in France.
"We are 'be water' like in Hong Kong... Well, we try to be," explained Romain (first name changed) on Monday evening in an alley in the Les Halles district of Paris, the police on the heels. "We must renew our actions, to maintain the pressure", slips this student. The two motions of censure have just been rejected, leading to the adoption of the pension reform, and groups of young people with anti-Macron slogans move from one district to another, setting fire to garbage cans.
They march quickly, sometimes in clusters of dozens, sometimes en bloc, in yet another undeclared action - Beauvau has counted 1,200 since Thursday. But the mass evolves "like water": as soon as the forces of order are near, it bursts into a swarm of mini-groups which slow down once out of reach of the truncheons and reform en bloc a few blocks away. The recurring "where do we go now?" heard between two charges or clouds of tear gas attest to the absence of a target. "We just want to show we're here," said Romain. They were "about 2,000", in "small scattered groups" which "never exceeded 2 to 300 people", assessed Tuesday the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez.
In Hong Kong, the demonstrations, monsters and peaceful, took place every day. To defy the prohibitions, of the mask or to demonstrate, the opponents had competed in ingenuity to defend in the street the freedoms promised to this small territory during its retrocession to China in 1997.
“They were super organized: they made bows out of everything and nothing. There were other protesters hiding clothes in the streets for those on the front lines. We are not there here, but we are trying to diversify, hoping that it will take, ”summarizes Romain. Monday evening, in addition to the fluidity and the absence of stones from windows or bus shelters, the demonstrators applied another technique: strewing the streets with obstacles to hinder the motorized progress of the police.
Velib, garbage cans, wooden pallets were used to erect makeshift barricades, sometimes set on fire. Elsewhere, such as in the Marais or in front of the Louvre, more elaborate barricades with site barriers block the passage for several tens of meters. “The architecture of Paris is not conducive to insurrection, it is designed for”, underlines Flora (assumed first name), in reference to the wide Haussmanian arteries. "So we adapt."
Exit therefore the vast Concorde, the former Place de la Révolution where the anger of a few thousand demonstrators was expressed last Thursday in reaction to the recourse to article 49.3 of the Constitution which allows the adoption of a text without vote. The occupation did not work, 252 people were placed in police custody, according to a latest report from the Paris prosecutor's office. More venue ideas are circulating online, along with a host of Hong Kong-made "good tips", videos and infographics.
In Hong Kong, protesters had tried to paralyze the business district to take the financial center, crucial for Beijing, by the throat. The idea of "attacking the government in the wallet" is also running through the ranks of protesters in Paris and other cities in France, blocking factories, roads and transport.
