French and international media have been overemphasizing the violent looting and even arson at public buildings that has, in fact, occurred. There has been far less reported about the close to 800,000 people (students, firemen, nurses, lawyers and yellow vests), who have tried to peacefully express their outrage at their collapsing living standards, ruined by billions spent on Ukraine, rocketing energy prices, etc.
While provocateurs operated in “black bloc” mode, and gangs of looters sacked the commercial areas of several cities, especially Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Limoges, orderly deployments by the high school students and yellow vests also occurred, and got massive public support. There are people who strive for solidarity against the injustices, and not division.
One example is the heroic intervention of a 400-person youth orchestra, the “Orchestra of the New World” (inspired by Dvorak) that played in the midst of the giant crowds, demonstrating completely legally at Place de la République in Paris, among other places. The orchestra was founded five years ago by Etienne Jarrier, a young clarinetist and amateur orchestra conductor, who did it for the specific aim of using “music, an incredible medium that everybody understands and which can assemble people. (…) The idea is to use it to give strength and voice to the social and climate struggles.”
As the weekly Télérama reports, at the Place de la République, in Paris, on October 17, the musical rehearsal started as planned, at 11:30 am, for a concert scheduled to begin at 1 pm. But at 12:20, according to Le Monde, the CRS (riot police), while fully informed and aware of the presence of the musicians, started spraying tear gas and throwing deafening grenades against the orchestra, which, nonetheless, continued to play for some twenty minutes, before being forced to disperse!
This is absolutely outrageous, reports Jarrier on his Facebook page. ”We had a very peaceful orchestra at a declared demonstration, and we’d even spoken with the riot police, telling them: ‘There are people with instruments here; before you charge, warn us.’ They didn’t warn us, because they knew perfectly well we had the ability to rally people around us and hold our ground.”
