'Turmoil' and 'The Activists Who “Exploit Migrants” and “Incite Rebellion”'
'Turmoil' and 'The Activists Who “Exploit Migrants” and “Incite Rebellion”'
'Exploiting' and 'Inciting': Part 1
On Tuesday the 10th of November, Pas-de-Calais government official Fabienne Buccio accused “associations [sic] like No Borders” of “organising” migrants and their recent acts of “aggressiveness”.
On Wednesday the 11th, major public news service France Info interviewed Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, and published an article entitled 'Calais: No Border activists “push migrants to riot”' ('Calais : des militants de No Border "poussent les migrants à l'émeute"').
No Borders refute claims made by state officials, including that they incite riots and that members of their Calais network have been arrested.
Turmoil
The last few days around the Calais 'Jungle' have been tumultuous. Tumultuous: 'Making an uproar or loud, confused noise'; 'Excited, confused, or disorderly'.
Life is always tumultuous for those in the 'Jungle'. And how could it not be? Thousands sleep in an unpredictable, makeshift refugee camp on an ex-rubbish dump, live with no official aid, no organisation, almost no basic resources, no certainty, and most see the only possible escape as clandestinely smuggling themselves across the sea. Many have survived horrors that will taint the rest of their lives.
But this is not the point.
The state have picked up on the tumultuousness this week because over the last few days it has involved non-migrants: namely in clashes with police and complaints from nearby residents.
In recent nights, people camped in the 'Jungle' have protested and blocked the motorway that passes alongside the camp.
Police have confronted them; they have also launched grenades of tear gas into and around the camp; in one night around 300 of these were used. Some reports claim that up to 27 police officers have suffered minor injuries in the last few days, but carry no news of migrants' injured from tear-gas or beatings, and no images, like those I have seen, of a teenage boy, blood dripping down his face and a gashing head wound, being treated by volunteer camp medics after being hit with 'a stick' (a truncheon, perhaps) by police. Police have launched bombs of painful, dangerous teargas, thrown into areas inhabited by children and adults: some sleeping, some injured, some elderly and frail, some pregnant. I hesitate to project my own feelings onto others – I don't know how they experience life – but I struggle to see how this situation, these actions, can occur without being driven by some tumultuous, exciting adrenaline of war-like combat and aggression.
As for the drivers, a blocked motorway may frustrate, cause minor delays and the dangers of an unexpected road obstacle, and leave lorries vulnerable to clandestine entry: a slightly tumultuous passage in a journey. It's incomparable to the tumult, the frustration, the halted journeys, impossible passages, unpredictability and danger that most of those doing the blocking will have witnessed and are still hoping to escape.
Some non-migrant residents of Calais have also expressed distress at being caught up in this tumultuousness. In one report a voiceover describes clashes between migrants and police as taking place on a road “that separates the 'Jungle' from town residents, just a few kilometres from the edge of the town.” (“[une] route, qui sépare la Jungle des riverains, à quelques kilometres seulement du bord de la ville.”) This presentation suggests that these migrant 'others' are disgraceful in creating trouble so close to where residents live. This distinct separation of 'migrants' from 'non-migrants', of 'us' and 'them', is exacerbated in the state's deliberate placing of the 'Jungle' around six kilometres from the town centre, where 'migrants' are banished, clearly segregated from the rest of the town, and grouped together as one.
When turmoil 'spreads' from 'them' to 'us', the state, the press, the 'us' recognise its damaging role.
'Exploiting' and 'Inciting': Part 2
There are many individuals, organisations and other collectives in Calais. They are diverse, and have varying values and methods. Some are recent arrivals, others have been present for years.
The No Borders network has a long-running presence, dating back to before the current '(New) Jungle' was enforced, when migrant communities were smaller and more spread out. Within any network people do not necessarily share identical values, methods and ideas; one part, one individual, does not represent the whole. Nonetheless, a long-term existence in Calais and elsewhere, a collective experience, and the 'No Borders' principle that underlies the No Borders network, means many involved have experience of protest, of political action, and knowledge of relevant legal matters. These people can be a useful and resourceful source of information and support in the 'Jungle'. Perhaps this is why No Borders have been singled-out by officials.
The declaration that such a network “push[es] migrants to riot” is both degrading to the migrants in question, and self-aggrandising. While condemning activists, the accusers appear to be saying: “These foreigners are incapable of such coordination, such motivation, or such expression. Other people, ones more like us (but the bad kind) must have played a part.” Simultaneously reaffirming their branding of migrants as 'others', as one collective type, rather than individual human beings, 'the migrant' is portrayed as an agency-less and incompetent, collective 'thing'.
Perhaps Buccio, Brandet and Cazeneuve have forgotten that those they deem incapable of organising such action, of demonstrating such emotion, proactivity and coordination have survived through unimaginable circumstances, fled crises, pain, abuse, travelled in extreme situations, alone or with groups of friends, families, and with small children, have made themselves invisible, arranged drastic methods of crossing borders, or improvised and acted spontaneously, to reach Calais, and survive in the 'Jungle'.
Those who arrive in Calais on their way to England may be vulnerable; many have suffered incredible trauma, both physical and psychological, and are generally desperate to leave their current situation. Desperate, clandestine migration is ripe ground for those wanting to exploit. The actions of these exploiters, such as self-interested trafficking for profit, may worsen situations, while their promises and domineering power may override the autonomy of the migrants they exploit.
Brandet (Cazeneuve's spokesman) declared that No Borders activists “take advantage of the confusion, of the distress of [migrants in Calais], exploit this distress, and push them to act indiscriminately” (“des militants No Border […] profitent du désarroi, de la détresse de ces migrants, […] instrumentalisent cette détresse, et les poussent à faire n'importe quoi”); I am not convinced that he was speaking out of concern for the migrants themselves. I won't discus the complexities of 'altruism' here, and recognise that each individual has their own independent agenda, but surely volunteers around the Calais 'Jungle' are not in this for their own direct benefit or pleasure; I'm not even sure how, in such an environment, their actions could suggest this.
When Cazeneuve's spokesman claims that individual activists are “behind these migrants' distress” (“derrière la détresse de ces migrants”), I wonder if he also recalls the conditions that these 'distressed migrants' live in, the wasteland-camp designated as 'tolerated' by the state, or the suffering undergone when state police use tear-bombs and truncheons.
More to the point, I wonder if he considers that “these migrants” are not just migrants, but autonomous people. Like most people, they can be abused by the unscrupulous, their lives can be disrupted, and turmoil can reign; this is especially true when surviving in dire conditions, whether being ignored or pushed aside, separated from 'normal society', left with nothing in an improvised camp, or targeted en masse, physically injured, while their voices are silenced. But they are also free-thinking, free-acting, distinct human individuals, with feeling, understanding, and initiative.
Something strikes me in Euronews' report. Rick Mellang of Yorkshire Aid is quoted, and translated into French, as saying “nous incitons sans doute à la rébellion”. Translated back into English, this reads “we doubtless incite [or encourage, or prompt] rebellion”. Listening to Rick's own voice, his first sentence just audible in the dubbed video, he seems to choose his words carefully, saying “we may be facilitating a rebellion”. Derived from the French, it seems odd that translators chose to convert 'facilitate' to 'inciter', rather than the more accurate 'faciliter'. The difference in implied meaning is stark; 'inciter' suggests persuasion, urging, pushing, is powerful, and often associated with violence; 'faciliter' implies aid, simplicity, helping to carry-out an idea instigated by the actors themselves.
This journalistic manipulation seems an apt summary of a more large-scale misrepresentation of volunteers and, more importantly, of migrants.
(To be clear; this is an independent blog, in no way affiliated with any other individual or group.)
