Dressed in black, with masked faces, those commonly called black blocs set their rhythm on the demonstration on 1 from the start.er-May. They replayed the score of numerous Nantes demonstrations, notably that of 1er last May, in 2023. In a smaller model. These radicals and autonomouss numbered around 200 compared to 900 last year. There were breakages, clashes with the police, and numerous tags for “ denounce the violence of society ». “Capitalism is war” they notably wrote on the walls.
Beyond that, the vast majority of demonstrators, 4,000 in total in Nantes, had a message to convey: to defend the internationalist ideal and therefore reconnect with the roots of this workers’ day born in 1889 in the bosom of internationalism socialist.
This dimension, often forgotten in these processions, has resurfaced with force. On banners or signs: “Workers have no country, no borders” ; “Their wars, our deaths. Against imperialism , workers, let’s unite! » This call brings us back to Trotskyism, for example to the anti-Nazi worker and internationalist resistance recounted in a book: “ From Nantes to Brest, the Trotskyists in the war (1939 – 1945) » (1) .
Gaza, Ukraine
Unsurprisingly, the conflict in Gaza found its way into the parade. Activists, Palestinian flags displayed, remind the ongoing genocide…”. Members of LFI, present in the procession, took the opportunity to recall their “support for rebellious elected officials Mathilde Panot and Rima Hassan”summoned by the judicial police as part of an investigation for “apology of terrorism.
“The aggression of Ukraine by Putin’s Russia” is not forgotten in the ranks either. “ She must be condemned,” underlines Jean Brunacci, member of Ensemble, trade unionist, former sixty-eighter.
Women and men standing in a truck take up the song of the Spanish Republicans. A little further on, the Internationale is also sung. At the very end of the procession, around ten peasant tractors roll in reverse, to denounce “this world that works backwards. »
The international struggle gave the “La” of this 1er -May, without masking the more national demands either. Those of social, medico-social and health, those of teachers (abandonment of the shock of knowledge), wages, the repeal of the unemployment insurance reform, the defense of the right to strike and union freedoms… The list is long.
(1) a book by Robert Hirsch, Henri Le Dem, François Preneau published by Syllepse
Philippe GAMBERT.
