Cure For Allergy To Prawns

Collective Black Thursday for housing: only response of the state and AXA, the expulsion

On 18 February, AXA with the agreement of the Paris Prefecture, was removed from the "ill-housed" Black Thursday and the group who were premises of the insurer located at 22 Avenue Matignon, in the heart of Paris and free from occupation since 2006!

The day before, AXA had announced at the General Assembly a record profit of 4.3 billion euros! The crisis is definitely not the same for everyone. The French sink into unemployment and precariousness, while bankers and insurers say indecent profits. Yet it is with taxpayer money, with our money they have been bailed out handsomely in 2008 by government decision. It should be a refund, still waiting.

It is therefore not surprising that the government and major groups are found to end the legitimate struggle of the families and associations combating poor housing.

With Stephen Little, president of Plaine Commune-Habitat, and Monique Lejeune, Deputy Mayor for housing, I came to support the occupation on January 14 last. My message was clear: the vacancy of offices and housing in the heart of the region where the housing crisis and regional inequalities are greatest is unacceptable.

I support the proposal to transform the collective the building of 2500 m2 in social housing or thirty houses, and more so that AXA has as a subsidiary of the largest social landlords in the country, the French Housing.

This proposal has at least three basic interests:

• rehouse families badly housed
• give voice to the requisition of vacant units as part of the construction of a right housing for all
• require a shared effort of the territories in social housing: while the SRU, consistently applied at the margin by the right in power, requires 20% of social housing in each city, the 8th arrondissement of Paris is 2% of social housing! No comment.

I am outraged by the decision of expulsion. A few weeks before the end of the winter break, it's a grim signal sent by the government and its close to major financial groups.

Read the article on my meeting with JSD activists Black Thursday