Peer2Politics

Nuit Debout is kinda the French version of the Occupy movement, 5 years on. Nati and I were involved in Occupy Wellington in 2011, so we were eager to connect while we were in town.

For more than a week, vast nocturnal gatherings have spread across France in a citizen-led movement that has rattled the government

A police crackdown will not deter France's burgeoning Nuit Debout (or 'Up All Night') movement that has swept across the country in recent weeks as the unifying call for change sparked protests in over 50 cities this weekend.Riot police early Monday cleared the encampment in the Place de la Republique in central Paris after 11 nights of protest, but demonstrators have vowed to maintain their nightly vigil.

The world started anew last Thursday week, on the evening of 31 March 2016. On that night, a few hundred young people, and some not so young, came together on the Place de la République in Paris.

They are still there – or at least they turn up at 6pm each day and leave at midnight. Their numbers are growing, although not as fast as they claim. There are 1,000 present on most evenings.