PARIS — On the heels of last Saturday’s mass protests — and amid the preemptive closure of Art Basel Paris and museums like the Louvre — Paris’s artists, culture workers, and art students were back in the streets today, October 24.
Tens of thousands gathered at Place d’Italie for a march called in part by Cultures en Lutte, the network of culture-sector coalitions that has mobilized alongside the labor confederations and student unions since the movement began in mid-September, and by one of its driving forces, the National Union of Visual Artists (SNAP-CGT).
They came despite a week of warnings. After the destruction of October 17, the French government announced a “massive” security deployment: Sentinelle anti-terror soldiers would relieve police of guard duties, while special units would be backed by helicopters, armored vehicles, and water cannons. More than 250,000 protestors turned out anyway in Paris, and several hundred thousand more around the country, reports estimate. Police arrested approximately 1,000 protesters just today.
