Yesterday at 6 am in Montreuil, the anarcha-feminist TransPédéGouine squat La Baudrière was evicted. Since November 2021, La Baudrière has been a place to live, organise politically and provide care, where many people have come and gone, and many struggles have occurred. La Baudrière defended itself with confetti and barricades to hold out for as long as possible to keep the feminist TransPédéGouine autonomy alive. The people on site held out for 5 hours against the police, particularly on the roof.
The resources deployed were mind-boggling: over 100 police officers on site, including the Brav-M, the BAC, the BRI, a team of rope access technicians, a private security group, a fire truck with a cherry picker, ENEDIS technicians, and three drones. The neighbourhood was completely sealed off for half a day.
The barricades held after more than 5 hours of siege and unsuccessful attempts to force their way into the street. The police finally evicted the residents, who were dancing and singing on the roof with a cherry picker. Earlier in the morning, around fifteen people who had come to support the protest were chased and then arrested. Fourteen of them were taken into custody. In all, at least 44 people are in custody.
All so that the Baudrière, and all it contains, could become yet another luxury building, with shops, offices and large flats. Here, the owner was the Louis-Étienne association, whose president is Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who has covered up cases of paedo-criminality. At a time when gentrification is accelerating in Montreuil and the whole of the IDF, the eviction of La Baudrière is taking place against a backdrop of repression of activists and precarious workers (Kasbarian law, unemployment insurance and pension reforms, arrests of activists throughout France in June, etc.). In the spring, the town hall, racist and queerphobic neighbours and the Montreuil police even got together to “reassure” each other and prepare for the eviction of la Baudrière.
La Baudrière may have lost some of its residents, but it hasn’t lost its soul! The links and networks created over the years continue to exist. Let’s keep them alive through all our struggles tonight at 6 pm at Place de la République in Montreuil and from Thursday for the Digitales at Parole Errante!
PS: Digitales, the festival of poisonous ecologies, born at the Baudrière, is today at 9 am at the Parole Errante (9 Rue Débergue, Montreuil).
This article was originally appeared in Squat.net.
