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There were more than four million people walking in Paris yesterday [11 January] for freedom of expression after the barbaric terrorist attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. As a non-violent activist, I have great hopes following this walk in France where the European institutions’ three leaders (Juncker, Tusk and Schulz) were present. I hope that we can be inspired by great predecessors of the non-violent movement who have walked for freedom and against oppression.

85 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi started the Salt March of 386 kilometres for freedom against British colonial power. This determined, non-violent act triggered a widespread civil disobedience movement and eventually led to the declaration of independence by the Indian National Congress. Walking for freedom can be more powerful than any army. It can also be more powerful than any terrorist group, because it unites us.

60 years ago, the civil rights movement in the United States adopted marches as a means to claim freedom from discrimination and segregation. As Martin Luther King reported, “the act of walking, for many, had become of symbolic importance. Once a pool driver stopped beside an elderly woman who was trudging along with obvious difficulty. ’Jump in, grandmother,’ he said. ‘You don’t need to walk.’ She waved him on. ‘I am not walking for myself,’ she explained. ’I’m walking for my children and my grandchildren.’”

Walking is about demonstrating what values we hold dearest; it is about uniting around ideals we share, no matter our colour, status or other differences.

Yes, I have great hopes following this walk in Paris, as long as it remains a walk for freedom, for what we stand for.

I will give the last word to a little girl from Birmingham, Alabama quoted by Luther King: “I never will forget a moment in Birmingham when a white policeman accosted a little Negro girl, seven or eight years old, who was walking in a demonstration with her mother. ‘What do you want?’ the policeman asked her gruffly, and the little girl looked him straight in the eye and answered, ‘Fee-dom’. She couldn’t even pronounce it, but she knew. It was beautiful! Many times when I have been in sorely trying situations, the memory of that little one has come into my mind, and has buoyed me”.

Let’s continue the walk,

Pierre Baussand, Director