Marches and clashes in France following death of environmental activist

27 October 2014. A World to Win News Service. The death of a young university student during a pro-environmental demonstration has led to angry demonstrations and confrontations with the authorities in almost ten cities in France. Remi Fraisse was found dead in the early morning hours of 26 October after hundreds of gendarmes (national police) charged several thousand demonstrators at the site of a proposed dam across a small river valley in Sivens, in south-western France. Just before they charged out from behind the wire fencing where they had massed, the gendarmes fired a barrage of teargas and concussion grenades and rubber bullets at the protesters. An official autopsy the next day revealed that Fraisse died of an intense burn on the upper back due to an "explosion", according to the newspaper Le Monde. The force of the explosion knocked him forward onto the ground, where a pool of blood could be seen the following day. Ecology activists oppose the Sivens project because it would destroy forests and especially wetlands that are home to 94 protected species, to the benefit of a small number of capital-intensive farm operations. Several hundred police have been stationed on the site since the beginning of September. Proclaiming it a "zone a defendre" ("area to be defended"), protesters set up their hammocks in tree-tops and buried themselves in the forest to stop the advance of wood-clearing crews bearing chainsaws. As the trees steadily fell, some protesters went on hunger strike. The afternoon after Fraisse's death, about 500 people rallied in the nearby town of Gaillac. A large banner said, "In homage to Remi, killed for defending nature." French flags were burned, and some youth clashed with police and rubbished banks and other business establishments. On 27 October, actions took place in about ten French cities. In the south-western city of Albi, a march of several hundred people ended in a tear-gas attack. In Rennes, 200 gathered in front of a police station chanting, "The police are killers" and "We call for revolt." In Rouen, hundreds cried, "The state kills, Remi died for his convictions, don't forget, don't forgive." Other protests were held in Toulouse, Strasbourg, Chambery and Paris. One of the biggest protests was in Nantes, where 600 marched, according to Le Monde. Nantes is near Notre Dame des Lands, a rural area where ecology activists, small farmers, youth identifying themselves as "anti-capitalist" and anarchists have been waging a long struggle against the construction of a new national airport with potentially grave environmental consequences. It was there that the "zone a defendre" occupation tactic was developed. Many observers are now connecting Sivens and Notre Dame des Landes as emblematic of resistance to the further devastation of the country's woodlands and small farms for giant profit-driven, state-run infrastructure projects. Some people called the massive presence of the gendarmes in Sivens a state provocation, since now the trees are all gone, the bulldozers have not yet been brought in and there is nothing for the forces of "order" to "protect" but the soil waiting to be levelled. The police attack was meant as a political message, activists argue, according to the reporterres.net website. An expert report is said to conclude that the dam project was ill-advised, but now it is too late to save the valley and construction might as well go ahead. While ministers in France's governing Socialist Party criticize the youth for not respecting the law and legal channels, the authorities seem to have been in a big hurry to settle the issue "on the ground" – with construction equipment and the repressive apparatus – before the challenge to their legitimacy could spread.