Mass national mobilization against the CPE

In January 2005 the Appel des Indigènes de la République circulated publicly, connecting contemporary racism, unequal access to housing, work, health and education, and policing with France’s colonial...

The movement’s first march took place on 8 May, the anniversary of the 1945 Sétif and Guelma massacres in Algeria and the end of the Second World War in Europe. Organizers used the date to contest...

Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré died by electrocution in an electrical substation in Clichy-sous-Bois after fleeing a police operation; Muhittin Altun survived with severe burns. Their deaths became the...

The government invoked emergency powers as unrest continued after the deaths of Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré. Curfews and exceptional policing measures expanded state control in affected localities....

Students, school pupils and trade unions began coordinated demonstrations against the proposed Contrat première embauche (CPE), a fixed-term employment contract for young people under 26 that would...

Following weeks of student occupations, strikes and mass demonstrations, the government announced that the CPE would be replaced. The campaign showed how a coalition of young people, unions and school...

Police forcibly evicted hundreds of people, many undocumented migrants and families, from the Cachan housing occupation. Local residents, municipal workers, associations and public figures organized...

The Enfants de Don Quichotte collective set up tents beside the Canal Saint-Martin to make homelessness visible and press for stable housing. The camp invited people with secure housing to encounter...

Droit au logement, Jeudi Noir and MACAQ occupied an empty building at 24 rue de la Banque and named it the “Ministry of the Housing Crisis.” The action used the contrast between vacant property and...

Families supported by Droit au logement set up a tent camp on rue de la Banque to demand rehousing and oppose the end of the winter eviction truce. The action followed the earlier occupation of an...