French anti-nuclear rally goes on despite city "under siege"

As authorities effectively locked down the French city of Colmar, thousands of protesters - from France, Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere - gathered on October 3rd to demand the closure of the nearby Fessenheim reactor and an end to the nuclear age. Dressed in yellow representing solar energy and a nuclear-free future, activists entered the city through police barricades. One German representative said he had seen more police in Colmar - a city in Alsace close to the German border - than at the recent anti-nuclear protest in Berlin that drew 50,000. Beyond Nuclear's Linda Gunter was present and spoke at the rally. In the morning, before protesters arrived, she observed a silent city with stores shuttered, the streets peopled only by gendarmes, police and two trucks loaded with police horses.

During the rally, a helicopter circled overhead while activists draped an enormous banner from a nearby building which said "Nuclear kills the future" (the current nuclear slogan is "nuclear is the future,") while activists declared that "democracy is flouted." Thousands of German activists were held up at the border. Consequently, estimates on participation were made more problematic with organizers declaring 10,000 and officials 3,500.