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I went to see the Reds march to the St. Lazare Train Station.
May Day on the continent, in Paris, between the first round of the Presidential elections and the winner-take-all runoff.
A straight left-right split. Whites against Reds. Okay, despite serious social problems in France, in Europe; nothing is quite so stark as that. Let us say: a contest between the 'light blues' and the 'pinks.'
On the fringes of tha main combat, are the blacks - as in facists or nazis - and the very reds. There are not enough yellows or greens to count. No proper rainbow.
Watching Nazis parades is disgusting. So I choose to go and see the Reds.
Reds are like Christians; they are supposed to have better morals - especially now that they are free to have them. The blacks; representing the absense of light, Nazis, have the morals of your basic seagull: anything is food. May Day is supposed to be a sort of hopefull day, perhaps a bit of a reminder that work is not only good for you, but for society as well.
The citizens of night and fog think that society should belong to them and you should do whatever work under any conditions they decide. If what you believe interferes with your usefulness, then you can be gotten rid of.
On Monday, I didn't go all the way to the Place de la Republique to see the Reds - as represented by the union CGT - assemble and start off towards the Gare St. Lazare.
CGT poster - ``Win with the CGT''
There are slight rises on the boulevard Montmartre, where one can see more, without being higher than the sidewalk, but because of the little hills, a few thousand people filling the wide street can look impressive.
The cops, the CRS riot police, came first - as they always do in a town were street demos are licenced and often - and just as they were doing in several other Paris locations at the same time.
The CRS were followed by the press, not greatly fewer in number, and by the plain-clothed cops. No doubt there were plenty of discrete TV cameras quietly whizzing away someplace as well.
After the 'watchers,' came the real parade: the Reds. A phalanx of blue jeans in front. But where were the red flags? How can you be militant and red without a red flag?
Instead, balloons. Unmilitant drums. Anti anti-social placards and banners. One small anti-Nazi poster on a stick. A sound car, third-hand, with industrial speakers on a roof rack; a French Joan Baez singing - live? - on tape?
The Reds, all sizes, shapes, genders, colours, ages - not singing much, not chanting at all; having a mild May Day parade in Paris with balloons. Sign in Japanese saying 'Air France Japanese workers unhappy.' Some signs saying three million unemployed also somewhat unhappy. But where were these three million? There's going to be a serious election in six days!
The ``Reds'' near boulevard Montmartre
A stroll without passion, drama. No tingles in the high overcast air. Routine for the police; for the press no urgency.
These were Reds?
The stroll continued past the big bank headquarters buildings; those tight-money banks with their high-interest, low-inflation manias. Past world-famous high-ticket department stores - where, presumably, Air France's Japanese workers can not afford to shop; but their travelling countrymen can. Onwards, to the St. Lazare station!
The ``Reds'' march past Printemps on boulevard Haussmann
At the station, they all made an acute right turn, without stopping, and marched away again down the rue St. Lazare, towards the east, just as the sun was peeking through the light western overcast.
No rally, no firey speeches, no cheers. The Reds marched, they came and they went.
It might have been a bit different if the estimated 15,000 had known that only a few hours before, around noon, not far away on the banks of the Seine, three skinheads, assumed to be participating in the march of the ultra-right-wing National Front, had pushed a Moroccan, Mr Brahim Bouarram, 29, into the river, where he 'sank like a stone.' Witnesses told police the three thugs got away by rejoining the passing parade, that was marching under immense banners representing Joan of Arc.
To the Kurds, Turks, and Moroccans who gathered at the Place de la Republique with the Reds and the CGT, this act was unknown. In fact, Agence France Press did not put it on their news wire until 6 pm - long after most marchers had dispersed.
This act, around noon on May Day in Paris, brought the total of assaults attributed since New Year to persons associated with the National Front, to four, with two deaths.
On the evening news broadcast on Antenne 2 TV, Jean-Marie Le Pen, President of the National Front, expressed no more than qualified regret, "For the unfortunate who drowned," adding, "In a metropolitan area of 10 million inhabitants, this type of random act happens."
Sure it does. On May Day at noon, on a walk on the banks of the Seine near the Pont du Carrousel, in downtown Paris - just as the National Front happens to be passing nearby.
Sources for death report and Le Pen quotes : Radio France, Antenne 2 TV; Liberation (Libé) and International Herald Tribune (IHT), May 2nd editions. According to Libe, there were at least six witnesses who were questioned by the Judicial Police at 1 pm, May 1st. By 8 pm, there was no autopsy report, nor had any indentikit portrait been made. Other incidents involving the FN in 1995:
-Final note : while Le Pen was speaking on steps of Opera, some dirty Reds up on roof hung down two yellow banners, denouncing racism. Showed up fine on TV behind Le Pen's head. Photos today (2 May) in Libé: and IHT very effective: showing Le Pen surrounded by flowing Joan of Arc banners. Very impressive looking; not at all like swaztikas. I wouldn't have ever used those photos, no matter how dramatic.
Return to Richard Erickson's Paris Journal
Updated 05/95