J18 Action in Bordeaux (West France)
There was a coordinated J18 action in Bordeaux. The main slogans were anti-capitalist, against Third World Debt and against poverty.
Groups involved were all from the social movement and represented : the unemployed (AC), the homeless (DAL) the young Greens (CHICHE) radical trade unions (SUD PTT).
The action took place in the afternoon and was planned as a promenade around the city's banks which are also national and well-known. The object was to have discussions and a meeting with bank managers and to use their faxes to send personal messages denouncing neo-liberal economic policies to the French finance minister and other financial institutions.
The group numbered around 50, they carried banners and leaflets. They were closely followed by police who did not interfere.
At each bank there was a symbolic occupation with a meeting to discuss the object of the action with the bank clients, the personnel and the bank managers. In one bank,the BNP (Banque National Populaire) the actual bank manager was absent, and the "sous-directeur", assistant bank manager, felt unable to allow the group to stay or send off faxes. To arrange matters, the group asked him to sent off the faxes himself, while they waited and to give them confirmation that the faxes were duly send off, but the
"sous-directeur" wouldn't allow himself even this initiative, so the group started up an impromptu concert of revoluntary songs in the bank and the
"sous-directeur" rapidely changed his mind. This little problem meant that the group was too late to drop by at the local Banque of France, so they simply asked a couple of friendly security guards to arrange that faxes be sent off and then the group left to give their press conference on the steps of the Theatre.Secrétariat des Marches Européennes, Paris