Nîmes (Gard), report
Along Boulevard Gambetta, the terrace of the Bar du Midi fills up quickly on this sunny Wednesday. Everyone is looking for shade by moving the tables which eventually end up forming only one. The free-price meal, served in solidarity with a refugee family, was unanimously welcomed by « yum, it’s really good ! », « What do you think spice is? ? ». « Nothing like food to loosen tongues and spark discussions »comments Romain, 37 years old, independent researcher in social history and co-manager of this bar PMU with a social vocation.
The desire of the three friends, when they bought the place in December 2022 thanks to a bank loan, was to succeed in mixing social groups who until then had not rubbed shoulders while retaining the original flavor of the place. PMU installed there for 60 years. Thus, the bar’s former customers, rather poor and racialized, stayed and saw students, trade unionists and activists arrive at their table. « Many didn’t believe it, told us it wasn’t going to work because of the neighborhood’s reputation. »remembers Clément, 35 years old, co-manager.
Noumina and Messaouda, from the collective of organized residents of 3e district of Marseille, as well as Kamel from the Après-M restaurant present their actions to fight against food insecurity.
© Estelle Pereira / Reporterre
Concretely, we go there to have a drink or to go to an activist meeting, attend a screening or listen to a conference. At the beginning of June, they even launched the first popular ecology festival Les Vers du ter-ter, with a question: « How to regain power over our food ? » « Food is a highly political issue »summarizes Romain.
Their ambition: to create popular ecology. And this begins above all, for Romain, by breaking down the symbolic and geographical barriers between the Nîmes neighborhoods by allowing residents to meet up, discuss, and exchange ideas. If the bar makes its premises available for the early legislative campaign, Romain insists: « Even if we are against the arrival of the National Rally in power, we do not want to be used by a political party. Rather, we intend to encourage the social movement, the organization of citizens themselves so that they can in turn put pressure on elected officials. »
Neighborhood cut off from the rest of the city
The Gambetta-Richelieu district is classified « priority district of city policy » for its level of poverty (according to INSEE, 43 % of its population living below the poverty line in 2022). Although located on the edge of downtown Nîmes, the district is cut off from the rest of the city — Nîmes is one of the ten most segregated cities in France [1]. In other words: income determines where people live, and the rich and the poor can live 100 meters apart without ever crossing paths.
Romain Duplan, 38, an independent researcher in social history, bought the Bar du Midi with two friends with the ambition of making it a place of politicization and convergence between social and ecological struggles.
© Estelle Pereira / Reporterre
« The most precarious people are also the most confronted with the effects of climate change, the rising cost of energy and food and they are also those who are heard the least on these issues. However, they practice an ecology “suffered” : take public transport, consume less, working-class neighborhoods already do this on a daily basis »he insists.
« The precarious are the most confronted with the effects of climate change »
Creating bridges after years of segregation and the trivialization of racist ideas: the challenge is immense. With his cheerful demeanor, Mohsen, 72, is delighted with the opening of the bar. « France’s policy is to put immigrants in ghettos. A place like the Bar du Midi breaks this spiral of separation. But to get people out of a ghetto, it takes time ! There are immigrants who go to the bar, who don’t necessarily chat at first, because they have language difficulties, but at least there is contact. Little by little, people forget their apprehension »observes the hopeful retiree.
The arrival of the Bar du Midi, which provides a meeting room, is a breath of fresh air for many people in Nîmes.
© Estelle Pereira / Reporterre
« The meetings made at the Bar du Midi allow us to touch ground », reacts Odessa, 35 years old, member of the Gambetta-Révolution neighborhood committee. The association responsible for bringing the voice of residents to the public authorities does not have premises to meet. The arrival of the Bar du Midi, which provides a meeting room, is a breath of fresh air according to Isabelle, 62, co-president of the committee: « People are becoming more and more closed in on themselves. They are caught up in screens and this has been accentuated with Covid. Our fight is to get them out of their homes, to see that there is something other than money and the consumer society and that we can act on our own scale for our neighborhood. »
A place to talk politics
« In other working-class neighborhoods of the city, there is no place to discuss politics », deplores Madani, 55 years old. Leaning against the entrance to the bar, this long-time activist for the right to housing in working-class neighborhoods believes he has « solved more problems here than anywhere ». A childhood friend, like him from SOUP North, the popular district of Valdegour, approaches it, eyes swollen with fatigue. He tells her that he was subjected to a police check in his grocery store the day before and shows her a video of his ransacked back room. « Why were they forced to destroy everything ? », he rages. As he empties his bag, people pat him on the back in support.
The popular ecology festival Les Vers du ter-ter offered a free workshop on composting and sowing at the beginning of June.
© Estelle Pereira / Reporterre
Madani rebondit : « Doing popular ecology also and above all means feeling concerned by the difficulties of neighborhood residents: racism, police violence, poor housing. So many subjects which also require political action and solidarity. »
Behind the bar, all smiles, Clément, a former social designer, serves coffees and beers in turn. A customer pays his neighbor for his round. A custom according to the table where the « hanging cafes », paid by some for those who could not afford it. The co-manager finds his role in social relations more important in such a place than when he worked for ministries: « We see friendships being created, solidarity being established. »
« We see solidarity being established »
On a kiosk, around twenty independent press titles and books are available. Conferences and screenings are regularly organized. The three partners wanted a bar where access to knowledge was facilitated. But also a place where you can find out about local initiatives. « The city of Nîmes has a lot of associations, but each works in its own corner. I see a lot of exhaustion among activists. The question is: how can we help each other, support each other? ? » explains Romain.
Mohsen, 72 ans : « To get people out of a ghetto, it takes time. »
© Estelle Pereira / Reporterre
Around a « cafe of struggles », local associations were able to share their fight: that against the western bypass of Nîmes – a 2×2 lane project over 15 km which threatens to artificialize 150 hectares of natural areas – or that of the neighborhood committee for the creation of a island of freshness in place of a building. The Gard Peasant Confederation and the Nîmes collective supporting the Earth Uprisings were able to announce their project to create social food security.
« There was a need for a place like this so that everyone could come out of their lethargy and their loneliness. », supports Odessa. A way of learning to live together again, to be a society, in short. « Talking about neighborhoods when you don’t live there, talking about agriculture when you don’t farm, if you don’t meet people and stick to theory, you inevitably miss things. », thinks Josépha, 24 years old. An activist and volunteer, she hopes that for its next edition, the festival will be held in conjunction with all the other working-class neighborhoods of Nîmes.
