Paris residents to stage march in effort to beat ban on gatherings

'It’s not acceptable to ban the population from speaking out'

The Eiffel Tower is partially covered by an early morning fog in Paris, France, November 27, 2015 as the capital will host the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) from November 30 to December 11 (Reuters)

If the state of emergency wasn’t going to stop them, neither was the rain. Late on 26 November, less than a fortnight after the terrorist attacks that rocked Paris, activists took to Place de la République to oppose the ban on protesting.

It was from here that a massive climate change march, planned to coincide with the opening of the COP21 talks in the city on 29 November, set off.

“We’re here tonight”, says Dorian, 30, a gardener who lives in Paris, “so what’s to stop us on Sunday?”

It has been expected up to 200,000 people would march on 29 November, but with all rallies blocking roads forbidden, they have been forced to think of imaginative alternatives.

Outside a Metro stop nearby three shivering but cheerful volunteers for the campaign website Avaaz are sorting a pile of 200 old shoes dropped off by Parisians during the day.

“We can’t march so we’re replacing our physical presence with shoes as a symbol,” Julien Taylor, a 39-year-old train driver tells The Independent. “We’re going to display them somewhere on Sunday – but I can’t tell you where.”

Other campaign groups got around the ban on a technicality. “We’re not allowed the roads”, Christophe Aguiton, the founder of the anti-globalist group Attac explains. “So we’re going to take the pavements and form a human chain all the way to Nation.”

Juliette Rousseau, spokesperson for Coalition Climat 21, a group representing 130 NGOs who had planned take part in the march, accused the French government of “stamping out any kind of citizen action”. She said at least 10 activists had been given curfews and forced to check in to police stations once daily during the conference period.

“It’s not acceptable to ban the population from speaking out”, she added. “We just want our voices to be heard.”