Nuit Debout, a rejuvenating democratic bath…
The time for citizen mobilization has come. Many hoped for a French Podemos, others still believed in a providential leader. If renewal comes to France, it will come from a multitude of citizens determined not to abandon the public space, to keep democracy alive, each doing their part. Nuit Debout is the rejuvenating democratic bath our Republic needs.
I hear the grumblers, the armchair revolutionaries, and the snarky commentators. I see them coming, the nostalgics of May ’68 who now shout at the first overturned paving stone. I find myself no longer surprised by the detractors of the established order, the self-righteous, the charismatic leaders of progressive forces who look condescendingly at the youth of France.
Nuit Debout is a rejuvenating democratic bath. It is the continually renewed experimentation of direct democracy, without a safety net, without notes, and without technical sheets.
Nuit Debout is a rebellious youth more mature than many armchair revolutionaries, who, from general assemblies to workshops, are seeking solutions, preparing alternatives, rethinking, thinking anew, with unmatched freshness and pleasure of discovery.
So yes, a debate on equality or employment may revisit familiar ideas, open already open doors, but for its participants, some of whom are speaking on the subject for the first time, it’s a discovery, a learning experience, a first time. And what could be more beautiful than this appropriation of debate, this discovery of each other’s ideas, this confrontation with the reality of otherness?
Nuit Debout stands as a glaring denial of all resignations, all tactical voting out of spite or to avoid the worst, all identitarian retreats, even those wrapped in the clothes of spring.
Nuit Debout is a youth that does not need to self-declare itself “on the move” to advance and to set in motion this society that it is determined to change fundamentally.
Nuit Debout is not just the opposition to the Labour Law; it is the convergence of struggles. The labour law was the straw that broke the camel’s back of protest. And this protest will once again nourish democracy in the arid furrows of our Republic.
Many hoped for a French Podemos, others still believed in a providential leader.
If renewal comes to France, it will come from a multitude of citizens determined to change things, not to abandon the public space, to keep democracy alive, each doing their part.
The Nuit Debout movement may only be a simple citizen mobilization. It is becoming much more.
David Nakache, president of the association Tous citoyens
