An alternative village for Montpellier: "Dance for Freedom"
"Life has to change. Might as well start now." They came to protest against the law LOPPSI 2, the law, as some say, guidance and programming for the performance of homeland security. - The law, like others say, to "monitor, punish, isolate, destroy". Instead events for pensions , those attending cons law LOPPSI 2 could not decide to go for a long time. Arriving at the end of the route of the demonstration, people stayed to discuss and, most among them, to feel united.
"Why I clear?" a young man responds to the question of the team People Montpellier . "Because I'm afraid. This is not the surveillance cameras that will solve our problems." A young woman who stands beside her nodding. "There is evidence that surveillance cameras do not reduce crime. But they are expensive. The state has money to throw it out the window
..."
The number of demonstrators against the law LOPPSI 2 is not comparable to that of people who marched against the pension reforms. There is no more trucks union that play songs and slogans, we see fewer flags, and most signs are written by hand on a single carton. But some protesters of all ages, and they look serious.
"We're not in the street because it is nice in Montpellier," said another man ten years older than the first. "And we do not walk for pleasure. We are marching for our freedom." Freedom is also the reason why, at the end of the event, a few bands play for protesters and some girls - some wearing the Roma - begin to dance. "We dance for freedom," said one of them, and adds: "And for those of our children."
A man in his thirties LOPPSI 2 compares the law to the Franco regime. "My parents have lived in Spain, and they know what that means to live without freedom of the press. Do not dare tell his opinion. Be manipulated all the time. They have often talked about these years, and they are come here and never go through that. "
A woman of about forty years speaks of his fear of informers. "The French like to denounce their neighbors. We saw that under Vichy." - The new law does encourage people to betrayal? - "Yes. Everyone can denounce the neighbor whose lifestyle does not suit him ..."
But for most of the demonstrators nor the informer or Franco or the regime of Vichy as the main concern. "LOPPSI," said a young woman, "is a law against the homeless, against the poor." And a man in his forties said: "I'm poor, okay. And I have no fixed abode. I live in a squat. But I do not ask anybody anything, I chose my life. And now Suddenly, I no longer have the right to choose how I want to live? " Another young woman responds: "We are moving towards criminalization of poverty. "
However, for now at least, the poor are still not alone. At the end of the event, the group" remains to dock "has constructed a kind of alternative village. Catherine is among those who came to advise, to build a small cabin and hope to support the freedom to choose their lifestyle. For years, she lives in a yurt - and in the Pyrenees-Orientales department which is considered "pilot project" for the removal of cabins, yurts and other campers. She says that even people who build a shelter of canvas or wood on their own land have no right to live there. Her own project, however, survived - until now. She explained that past projects have some chance of escaping the new law ... yet. Because ... ... until now, as explained to others who have studied the new law, the municipalities had their say. In other words, if the mayor agreed, they could live quietly in his trailer and his yurt - provided they owned the land or the owner allowed it. At the time, by cons, where the law comes into force LOPPSI 2, mayors would have to denounce any attempt to live freely - under threat of paying themselves a big fine.
The mayor of Montpellier, anyway, is still on the side of the demonstrators: it was she who made them build shelters for the "Freedom Village" to show videos and, most importantly, make a kitchen vegetable and cake for everyone. Whoever wants to help participate in the preparation of vegetables, others eat the soup, in a context of solidarity.
"Loppsi," jokes a young man who stayed to support the manufacturers of the "alternative village", "how cute name. Lately, the government chooses pretty names for its laws. Perhaps, these names help that the People no longer interested in their impacts on the lives of the French. "
Photos and text are copyright Doris Kneller
Copyright: Doris Kneller, 2009 
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