From the Odeon Theatre in Paris on March 4, the theatre occupation movement is expanding and accelerating day by day in a territory called France. The students of the art schools, technicians and artists mobilized want the closure of cultural spaces to end. There are now more than 60 cultural centres occupied. The movement, initiated at the beginning of the month by the visionary union CGT, has become a protest to which hundreds of people have come. In general, the occupants have the support of theatre management.
The following video disseminates the call for occupation, in addition to the call for culture, a message in general for a dignified life and public services:
à diffuser à tous, pour multipliles initiatives, partout en France avec les #intermittents du spectacle et les #intermittentsdelemploi pic.twitter.com/IPEMPdWj60
— Compagnie Jolie Mome (@IcdJolieMome) March 11, 2021
In particular, they read against the reform of unemployment insurance, "a reform that will make the precarious people even more precarious." They also call on the Government to guarantee the rights of the intermittents and a comprehensive plan of support for the cultural sector in general.
In the following video, for example, the time of the beginning of the occupation of the Laval theatre:
Occupation du Théâtre de #Laval#TheatresOccupes#rendsnouslartjean pic.twitter.com/qcqmOUUe1k
— Talijanska (@Talijanska3) March 17, 2021
To deal with the coronavirus, since March last year we have visited almost uninterrupted theatres and concert halls in Ipar Euskal Herria, and more generally at French level – very strict conditions were opened during the summer. The French Government set the second lockdown in October, in which it set a clear priority for economic activities to flourish. Defined as "unnecessary" the activities of the cultural sector, it maintained theatres, operas, concert halls and museums. Artists and technicians in this sector have long been concerned and angry about the lack of recognition of culture by the authorities.
Adding a new step to the mobilization, the General Assembly of Theatres has been organized for 26 March. On the other hand, they have asked the citizens to join the mobilizations, because culture is "everyone's responsibility". For their part, in Maule, they will be mobilized on 20 March to denounce "the abandonment of culture".