WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #339 - Antifascism, 2013: Clément Méric, a life, struggles (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 At the end of May, Éditions Libertalia published Clément Méric, a life,

struggles, a collective work of friends and relatives of Clément Méric which
evokes the life of the committed young man that he was. He also strives to
restore the truth of the facts, those which caused his death, and those which led
to a blurring of his image and that of his comrades. The best tribute we can pay
to Clément today is to remember his fights and make them ours. We publish here,
with the agreement of Libertalia editions, extracts from the book. ---- The will
of the skins to go to the confrontation: the question is at the heart of the
investigation and the debates: when leaving the building, did the skins intend to
go to the confrontation with the antifas ? They claim to have called for
reinforcement because they were afraid, and to have sought to avoid contact.
Their behavior shows otherwise.

The alleged fear of skins
The skins claim they took the threat(s) they received seriously. So they would
have been scared. Witnesses confirm a certain concern in the premises of the
sale. "Why don't you call the police? Ask the investigators. "It's not in our
culture," they reply. - The templates of your opponents are not scary. - But the
antifas were on the phone, it could only be to call for reinforcements; and
others could be hidden in the crowd..." In their answers, the skins inflate the
number of antifas supposed to be waiting for them: at least five, often more,
whereas there have never been more than four. Yet they had an excellent
observation post upstairs.

The fact that they interpret the arrest made to them as a threat of physical
aggression demonstrates above all that they are immersed in a culture of
violence. But their concern will not last long. The prospects of reinforcement
will quickly restore their confidence: "Anyway, we're going to call the others
and we're going to fuck them" hears a salesman. Then, "the two boys were talking
together and laughing".

The skins acknowledged having mobilized reinforcements. Having observed the
presence of antifas in the street through the window, Dufour called Morillo:
"Hello, where are you ? Come ! Dress well ! Morillo immediately informed his
companion, Katia Veloso, who, with the help of the local bartender, was to become
the organizer of the mobilization. The case is handled smoothly. Through multiple
calls and text messages, they solicit relatives likely to come and lend a hand.
Several will set off for rue de Caumartin. They inform Veloso of their progress,
who also goes there and posts himself near the church. Three of them, Stéphane
Calzaghe, Simon Brunelière and Julien Beaulieu, have just joined her or are very
close to doing so when, at 6:38 p.m., she calls Ayoub. Like the bartender, he is
at the Local. The conversation lasts two and a half minutes. As soon as he hung
up, Ayoub called Morillo for just over a minute. It's 6:42 p.m. At 6:43 p.m., the
skins take to the streets.

The skinheads therefore set in motion immediately after the call from Ayoub, who
had just had a conversation with Veloso. This sequence of events invites
interpretation. Did Katia Veloso warn her boss of the arrival of reinforcements ?
Did he inform Morillo of this by giving him his instructions ?

The movement from skins to antifa
The guard Emir F. advises the skins to go to the right to avoid the group which
stands about thirty meters on the left. They want to take the metro. He shows
them an entrance to the Saint-Lazare station visible at the end of the street on
the right, where they can find all the useful lines. However, they choose to go
to the left.

They will try to justify themselves by claiming not to know the neighborhood
(even Eyraud, who has always lived in Paris ?) ; they therefore wanted to return
to the station by which they had arrived, on the left. At the trial, a new
discovery: it was necessary to go to the left so as not to have the antifas in
the back. But if they go left to face the antifa... what happens once they pass
them ?

When the decision to go out is made, you have to have a free hand: you get rid of
the bag and the girl, who will go with it to the other side. Throughout the
investigation, and especially during the reenactment, the skins claimed that it
was the antifas who came into contact when they arrived at their level in the
street. The brawl allegedly took place in the middle of the road. But from 6:43
p.m., a CCTV camera captures their trajectory. At the moment preceding the
confrontation, we essentially see the feet of the protagonists.
So we don't see the first hit(s), but we can clearly see - and this point is
decisive - that it was the skins that went to Clément and his friends. These only
peeled away from the wall they were standing against at the last moment, when
they were almost within fists reach.

Weapons: brass knuckles
The Paris Assize Court in 2018 then that of Essonne on appeal in 2021 condemned
Morillo and Dufour for having "willfully exercised violence[...]with the use or
under the threat of a weapon". The question of the use of weapons occupied much
of the debates throughout the legal proceedings, as did the comments. The stakes
were high. In addition to the impact of this aggravating circumstance on the
penalties incurred, it could reveal the intentions of the skinheads when they
went out into the street. Difficult, when you have armed yourself, to come and
plead self-defense.[...]

"Clement, forever in our memories, forever in our hearts." Demonstration of
tribute on June 8, 2013, two days after Clément's death.
Red photo library
Ayoub's role
A tutelary figure of the skins, Serge Ayoub is omnipresent, from the departure of
his followers to the antifa group to the communication service in the media,
through the preparation of the defense of the aggressors - or, more precisely, of
the his own and that of his movement ; but, as always, he will be far behind when
it comes to taking responsibility.

Questioned several times by the investigators about exchanges he may have had
with people involved, Ayoub stubbornly denies any contact, until he is confronted
with his telephone records which reveal the calls at the time. . He then claims
not to remember the content of the conversations, while being, of course, sure
that he did not recommend to do battle with the antifas. Later, having regained
his memory, he claims he advised the group to leave "to avoid trouble" and call
the police. The skins leave however immediately in contact with the antifas. A
leader without authority[1] ? Or a lie?

Immediately after the incident, at 6:49 p.m., Morillo calls Ayoub who will
eventually recognize that he has offered everyone to join him at the Local. This
is where the team[2]meets after the escape, to receive instructions from the
leader on what to do. All of them tried to hide it from the investigators[3]. And
once faced with the obvious, everyone minimizes the point: it was just a matter
of having a drink "to bring down the pressure following the fight". Nothing to
do, of course, with a briefing to agree on a version of the facts in case it has
to be reported. However, once the other parties have left around 9:30 p.m.,
Morillo and Ayoub remain to discuss face to face until around midnight. Clement's
brain death begins to be mentioned in the media. During the rest of the night,
telephone conversations[4]are going well between Ayoub and his "proteges[5]".
What are they saying to each other?

Ayoub immediately understands the stakes of the case for his organization and for
himself[6]. In the middle of the night, he calls the police headquarters several
times. The next day, the skins wait for his green light to surrender. At noon,
Esteban Morillo and Katia Veloso were arrested at their home in Saint-Ouen. How
were they identified[7] ? At the assizes of Paris, Morillo, questioned by the
president, will confide that he no longer has confidence in Serge Ayoub.

 From 7:30 a.m. on June 6, he orchestrated his media campaign, contacting press
agencies and radio stations, running to the television sets that welcomed him
without problem. Everywhere, he stubbornly denies any link between skinheads and
Third Way. His speech ? During the night, he was told that a JNR[8]was accused of
having killed a youth; he then carried out his telephone investigation and ended
up falling on Morillo, whose name he did not even know, then on the rest of the
gang whom he invited to tell him the story of the fight; believing that we "are
very close to self-defense", he advised them to get a lawyer and surrender.

At the same time, Ayoub remains in contact with the police services to which he
reports spontaneously on June 7. Lost effort: Third Way will be dissolved at the
same time as the JNR by decree of July 12, 2013. But Ayoub, who can obviously be
held responsible, too, for the death of Clément, at least by the influence
exerted on his flock, will be able to taunt the Paris Assize Court, the civil
parties and the relatives present at the trial with impunity.[...]

The fachosphere is unleashed
The resonance of Clément's death in the media, in the political world and more
broadly in French society provoked an unleashing of the fachosphere. The way
varies according to the sources[9]and the political positioning: review of the
facts, discredit of the attacked, defense of the aggressors, heightening of
lesson givers, denunciation of supposed manipulation, etc.; the style too,
ranging from the treacherously talented pamphlet to the dumpster of obscenities.

The far right seizes on the confusion suffered by the initial presentation of the
facts in the press[10], then on the intox "the video has spoken", to cry out for
the reversal of responsibilities, even the watch- apens from antifa. The facts
against the skins established by the investigation are denied and, several years
later, the verdicts of the trials will not change anything.

The victim ? A young bourgeois from Sciences Po in need of strong emotions, who
had neither the physical constitution nor the adequate political thinking. Images
showing Clément, bandana on his face, displaying with comrades a banner
"Homophobia kills" in front of the Manif pour tous, are exploited to present him
as violent, up to a delirium on the use he would make of a small signet ring as a
combat ring.

Antifa are, of course, a prime target. An aphorism, wrongly attributed to
Churchill, is popular: "The fascists of tomorrow will call themselves
anti-fascists. "They are credited with multiple attacks, in particular against FN
poster pasters. Their political struggle is reduced to quarrels over territory
between gangs: "The least we can say is that[the facts]are hopelessly banal. Two
groups of young imbeciles fighting for an identity "territory". Because it is
really about identity: we could change "skinhead" and "antifa" for "PSG" and "OM"
or "city X" and "city Y", and the story would be exactly the same. These fights
have nothing to do with politics. They reflect a "tribal" way of
thinking.[...]Anti-fascism[...]is just a justification, what really matters is
the thrill, the heat, the danger, the camaraderie...all those "manly" experiences
that previous generations have found in war and which a generation without
adventure lacks. Before becoming a notary, as Jouhandeau said, Clément Méric and
his comrades will have wanted to experience the thrill[11].»

Banner with the photo of Clement Meric, demonstration for the 6th anniversary of
the death of Clement Meric, Paris, June 1, 2019.
Red Photo Library /Martín Noda / Hans Lucas
We talk about mimetic rivalry - wondering in passing about dress codes and shared
musical tastes. And we obviously blame the antifas for the death of their
comrade, whom they would have sent, at best recklessly at worst cynically, to
fight.[...]Essonne Assize Court ruling on appeal - Criminal judgment of June 4,
2021:[...]If Esteban Morillo and Samuel Dufour now invoke the self-defense of
Article 122-5 paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code claiming to have been provoked in
the showroom, then insulted and attacked in the street by the group of Clément
Méric, the Assize Court was not convinced of the existence of this cause of
criminal irresponsibility for the following reasons: - the concerted departure of
the group of Samuel Dufour and Esteban Morillo in the direction of the group of
Clément Méric despite the presence of a metro station in the other direction, in
the immediate vicinity of the place of sale, combined with the dismissal of Lydia
D. F. in this safe direction ; - the preparation of the exit by a handgun and the
call for reinforcements; - the sudden change of direction made by Esteban Morillo
and Samuel Dufour as the group of Clément Méric approached, attested by Stéphane
C. ; - the use of video surveillance attesting that the fight took place
exclusively near the perimeter wall of the Lycée Condorcet where the four
students had initially remained immobile, which is confirmed by the position of
Clément Méric's body at the time of his fall; - the testimony of the above-named
passers-by, in particular Gaëlle D., recounting a violent attack by the skinheads
against the victim's group; - the absence of blows given by Clément Méric to
Esteban Morillo or Samuel Dufour ; - the use, at the very least disproportionate,
of weapons used against unarmed individuals ; - the use of the expression "one
shot", heard by three witnesses and all the civil parties, confirming a feeling
incompatible with an attack suffered. Consequently, Esteban Morillo and Samuel
Dufour were found guilty, by a qualified majority of at least 8 votes, of
intentional violence which led to the death of Clément Méric without intention of
killing it, aggravated by the meeting and the use or threat of a weapon.

Collective, Clément Méric, a life, struggles, Éditions Libertalia, May 2023, 240
pages, 10 euros.

Read also our article Tribute: 10 years later, Clément still present

To validate

[1]Despite the motto of the JNR, its praetorian guard: "Believe, fight, obey".
[2]Ayoub, Morillo, Veloso, Dufour, Eyraud, Da Fonseca, Calzaghe and Beaulieu.
There is also the local bartender and a certain Grand Gilles, Ayoub's historical
assistant, the only one not to have been questioned by the police.

[3]Why this lie? "We didn't want to involve Third Way in this story.»

[4]"No SMS" advises Eyraud opportunely in... an SMS to Dufour.

[5]Police report: "From the departure of the Local to the arrests, the frequency
of calls[from Ayoub]with the protagonists is: 36 times with Morillo's number, 22
times with Eyraud's number, 9 times with Dufour's number, 4 times with Calzaghe's
number,[...], 3 times with Veloso's number.[...]The calls with certain
protagonists are intense during the night, and this, until 4:26.»

[6]Hugo Lesimple, one of his lieutenants, to the investigators: "I think he told
me that night that we were going to be dissolved.»

[7]A relative of Dufour to the investigators: "I think it was Third Way that
swayed Samuel and the others because no one knew them, no one knew their faces.»

[8]Member of the Revolutionary Nationalist Youth, Third Way security service.

[9]Sources which are, typically, the press (Minute, Causeur...), websites
(Égalité et Réconciliation, Boulevard Voltaire, Dreuz info, le Salon beige, to
name but a few), blogs, tweets and the vast number of comments posted by readers,
including under mainstream media posts.

[10]Erroneous information according to which the skins had waited for the antifas
at the exit of the building, that there had been a lynching, that one of the
attackers was wearing a FN t-shirt... circulated in the first hours.

[11]Descartes' blog, "Clément Méric or the culture of violence".


https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?2013-Clement-Meric-une-vie-des-luttes
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