Nuit debout

Nuit debout has been translated into English as "up all night", "standing night", among other variants. ==Background==

In 2011, in the wake of the Great Recession, several developed countries saw the rise of civil disobedience movements protesting against issues such as inequality and corporate greed. In Spain, the 15-M or Indignados movement saw large-scale demonstrations and occupations of public squares; the movement led eventually to the rise of the anti-austerity political party Podemos. However, these protests had a limited impact in the country before 2016. In an effort to reduce the unemployment rate, Hollande's government had embarked on a program of labor market liberalization. The largest of these protests, on 31 March attracted 390,000 participants nationwide, according to the French authorities (unions put the figure at 1.2 million). According to the Belgian sociologist Geoffrey Pleyers, these demonstrations gained traction not just because of the unpopularity of the proposed changes to the labor code, but because of widespread opposition to the government's policies generally: What distinguishes social movements from mere protests is that they have a larger purpose, not one specific demand. From the first meetings of university and high school students on 9 March the El Khomri law served as an opportunity to express general indignation. In protest leaflets, students called for resistance "against government policy" rather than just this one bill. During marches, protesters expressed their disappointment with the political left in general and the ruling Socialist Party in particular. ==Origins==

The Nuit debout movement has its origins at a meeting held in Paris on 23 February 2016 which was organized by François Ruffin, the founder of the left-wing journal Fakir and the director of the documentary film Merci patron!. Ruffin stated that the aim of the meeting was to bring together a number of active protest groups, including people protesting against a proposed airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes, factory workers protesting against the Goodyear tire company, and teachers protesting against education reforms. A retired delivery driver who attended the meeting was quoted as saying, "There were about 300 or 400 of us at a public meeting in February and we were wondering how can we really scare the government?. We had an idea: at the next big street protest, we simply wouldn't go home." ==Events==

Place de la République occupation Following the initial night of occupation at the Place de la République, protesters continued to gather over the following days, defying a ban on mass demonstrations under the ongoing state of emergency declared by the government in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks. Participants began gathering every night at 6 p.m. to conduct a popular assembly (assemblée générale), individuals taking turns to speak for two minutes at a time. A system of hand gestures was established, with crowd members waving their fingers above their heads to indicate agreement, and crossing their wrists to indicate disagreement. The occupation of the square had earlier been criticized by politicians from France's two main parties. Valérie Pécresse, the Republican President of the Île-de-France region, declared that the square should either be evacuated, or that the protestors should police the square themselves. On the evening of 14 April, President François Hollande participated in a televised interview, which was projected live on a giant screen in the Place de la République, in which he vowed to press ahead with the labor reforms. Following the interview, a group of protesters (300, according to the police) left the square in the direction of the Élysée Palace, the president's official residence. Occupations in France , 15 March 2016 Over the first week the protests spread to over 30 cities across France. The academic David Graeber, a leading figure in the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, said that the protests had spread much faster than those of 2011. In response to this concern, participants in Paris argued in favor of expanding the movement into the banlieues. An event organized in the northern parts of Marseille on 23 April likewise failed to greatly engage the local population. Activists suggested that the movement's message, such as its opposition to changes to the labor code, had little traction in the area because many residents there were already unemployed, and because such areas had for decades been marginalized and ignored by wider society. On 22 April 2016, around 200 people gathered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to conduct a general assembly. An event was organized in Glasgow, Scotland on 2 May; its organizers suggested that trade unions should get involved, stating that the movement "presents a great opportunity for unions to adapt to the twenty-first century". Nuit debout's organizers called for a global day of protests, under the name Global debout, to take place on Sunday, 15 May, a date chosen to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Spanish Indignados movement. Events were scheduled to take place in 266 locations in France, and in 130 cities outside France, across 28 countries. Turnout on the day was low: in Brussels around 150 people participated; in Berlin the number was around 100; in Paris's Place de la République around 1,500 people attended. ==Themes==

While the initial street protests arose out of opposition to the El Khomri labor reforms, the Nuit debout movement itself coalesced from the beginning around a much broader set of themes. amnesty for undocumented migrants and solidarity with refugees; and feminist issues including the gender pay gap and the safety of sex workers. Frédéric Lordon has argued that the movement should seek to rewrite the French constitution, abolishing private ownership of the means of production as enshrined in the existing constitution, and granting ownership instead to those who derive use value from capital. A discussion group was set up in the Place de la République on the question of what should be included in such a rewritten constitution; some suggested that government should be selected by sortition, or that elected officials should be subject to recall by voters. As with the French Revolution, the movement rewrote the calendar: all dates following the 31 March protest were renamed as a continuation of the month of March. 7 April, for example, is 38 mars, or 38 March. ==Radio debout, TV debout, and alternative media channels==

being interviewed by protestors, who set up their own TV station broadcasting over the Internet from Paris's Place de la République Protestors in the movement have declared themselves wary of mainstream media coverage, preferring to communicate via alternative channels. In Paris's Place de la République, activists set up their own radio and TV stations, broadcasting over the Internet. The initial set-up for Radio debout involved a table, four chairs, three microphones, a mixing desk, two computers, and a 4G USB stick. TV debout, meanwhile, was set up with the intention of broadcasting the general assemblies taking places in the square, interspersed with interviews and analysis. Buisine presents himself as independent of the movement, and as a neutral observer of events. ==Reactions==

Public opinion The movement received broad public support, with polls showing that a majority of the French public held a favourable view towards it. A survey conducted by the polling agency Odoxa on behalf of the television news channel i-Télé, and published on 9 April 2016, found that 71% of respondents had heard of the movement, and that 60% supported it. An Ifop poll of 18–25-year-olds, published by Metronews on 13 April indicated that 61% of this age group supported the movement, and that 47% declared themselves willing to participate in it. A later Odoxa poll, published on 15 May, found that the movement had lost some support among the public, with 49% of respondents saying they supported the movement. Media coverage The French media analysis organization Acrimed likewise criticized French media coverage of the movement, suggesting that many journalists were only interested in covering the movement in order to discredit it. In particular, the organization pointed to media coverage of an incident involving the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who was videoed being heckled by protesters at the Place de la République. Acrimed criticized journalists for reporting the incident without verifying the facts, and argued that coverage of the incident was disproportionate and that the media had failed to provide a similar level of information about the movement itself: about the movement's demands, or about its existence outside Paris. Politicians' reactions During its first month, the movement received support from politicians on the left of the political spectrum, while being condemned by parties on the right. The governing left-of-center Socialist Party broadly called for the movement to be tolerated. On 11 April, Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls met with the country's student leaders, offering concessions on the proposed labor reforms in an effort to defuse the protests, saying, "The government is listening. It understands the youths' worries." In a televised interview broadcast on 14 April 2016, President François Hollande vowed to press ahead with the proposed labor reforms. On 10 May, facing opposition to the El Khomri law from a group of his own MPs, Prime Minister Valls announced that the government planned to force the bill through parliament without a vote, using Article 49.3 of the French Constitution. Similar protests occurred in other cities in France. Nuit debout's organizers called the move "an insult to the people of this country", while a number of unions called for further days of strike action. The government survived the confidence vote on 12 May, meaning that the labor bill would be passed directly to the Senate, France's upper house, for debate. ==See also==