Juliette is a French climate activist. He participated in the climate resistance held in Sainte-Soline on 25 March 2023 and was subjected to police violence. Sharing her March 25 diary for the Walk in The Rain Project, Juliette prefers to remain anonymous due to the criminalization of climate activists and increasing police brutality.

A Hole in the Dirt

Rough night. Cold and humid. Waking up with efforts, I wonder "What I am here for today again?". Must be something important.  The sound of an helicoptere flying on top of us brings me back to reality.  When I come out of the tent, I realize that The many headlights we saw when we arrived last night, like fireflies in the dark, turned into thousands of tents in a muddy field. 
 

We're here with a simple purpose : protecting water and protesting against its unfair privatization. Once again, we have to remind our governments the climate emergency and take action to defend Life.

New People keep thronging when the moment for a brief Comes. Excitement, determination and a little bit of fear. My friends and I are ready. Or we think we are. But no one can really be prepared for what comes next, right?
 

The walk starts. The mudd under our shoes make it difficult to move forward, but the songs and slogans give us the will. "Nous sommes l'eau qui se défend". Crossing villages and fields, we talk, make jokes. On this unpredictably sunny day, We're happy to be here because we know we're right. In our discussions, we try to figure out how Big the "bassine" is and how many of us  would be needed to circle it with a human chain. We laugh and give up on our doubtful calculations to get back to slogans. 

As we're getting Closer, we finally recognize it. But if we do, it's not because we know how it looks like. It's because we see dozens of police trucks around it. It's because we see fog floating in the air above it. It's because we can hear grenades detonations. 

We keep going, getting closer to the bassine, which is nothing more than a huge hole in the dirt. A well kept hole. 

I've never been to War, but that's how I would picture it. The fanfare encourages our entrance on the battlefield with joyful music. It keeps us focused on what we came here for : Defend Life.
 

The rest is chaos. The rest is incomprehension drowned in fog and noise. Tear gas stinging my eyes and throat. Grenades exploding make me jump in fear and hold on tighter to my friend's arm. People shouting "medics" and pointing in different directions. Wounded people on the ground. "Don't look down don't look down", I repeat myself. I keep looking up and scan the sky. We stay on guard to not get hurt. 

The demonstration in Sainte-Soline on the 25th of March gathered 30.000 people. 5000 grenades were fired. More than 200 of them got hurt, including 2 in coma. 
For what ? For a hole in the dirt.