In 2010, the slogan “Ecoutez la colère du people" (Listen to the people’s rage) brought French activist Jean-Baptiste Reddé, aka Voltuan, to the fore. He and his placards have since become a fixture on big demos in Paris and other European capitals. We look at the story behind the boards.
The pen name "Voltuan" is inspired by romantic writers Nerval and Novalis, but when we meet Reddé in a Paris café ahead of the 31 January demo against pension reform, the words "high voltage" spring to mind.
Even in his non-native English, the retired primary school teacher speaks ten to the dozen, as if every second counts in talking to the media about "the cause".
“This is my life: social justice, ecological rights, protection of the planet, humans and animals, feminist rights, human rights, nature and peace everywhere," he says when asked what his main struggles are.
"And real democracy," he adds, for good measure.
He's been active in the protest movement since 1995, but admits it's the distinctive placards that brought him to the public's attention.
The boards are huge – 1m40 by 1m – with slogans written in large capital letters in the same bold colours.
“The main colours are black, red, blue and green. And a few years later I put yellow, because it's like a flash," he explains pointing to the streak of yellow on his latest oeuvre.
"The big letters are an advantage because in demonstrations people can see the message from afar."
At 1m92 tall, you can't miss Reddé with his high-vis yellow vest and red and black striped beanie.
He always holds the signs above his head with his arms outstretched in a "V" sign.
“It’s like a shout, a cry,” he says of the "V" position. "A cry for a better world."
Listen to a conversation with Voltuan in the Spotlight on France podcast
People’s rage
The sign that launched him, “Ecoutez la colère du peuple” (Listen to the people’s rage), goes back to October 2010 when he demonstrated against the first pension reform under then-president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Reuters and other news agencies photographed him in front of the Senate. And while his face was partly obscured by smoke and an array of red CGT trade union flags, the message stood out.
Both national and international media carried the photo, including Newsweek magazine.
It has since been used to illustrate a chapter on social protest in a high school history manual in France.
Revolted from childhood
Reddé’s activism is rooted much earlier.
“I've been revolted since childhood because my family wasn't happy, there was no happiness, no harmony," he states.
Above all there was no affection.
"I got affection with nature and animals at first, that was my first family," he says. He then built up "the second family" within the protest movement itself.
When the anti-austerity indignados movement emerged in Spain in 2011, Reddé took early retirement and became an international activist marching in Madrid, London, Brussels, Athens as part of the Occupy protests.
“I couldn’t go to work and see the world being so bad with wars and protests everywhere with people reclaiming dignity and better wages, it was unbearable.
"I went in several countries in Europe to show solidarity in the framework of the convergence of struggles – that's the key for everything."
Full-time activism doesn't pay, but Reddé has learned to spread out his modest pension.
“I don't have children, a TV, a car, no property of my own." His pension goes into demonstrating and publishing poetry.
When he travels to Paris or to other capital cities for demos, fellow activists will often welcome him.
"What is wonderful in mobilisation is that you always meet good people," he insists.
Stealing the limelight
But not everyone appreciates Reddé's ability to feature in every frame.
In 2015, left-leaning daily Libération wrote a critical piece headlined “The placards that hide the demos”. The journalist accused Reddé of “systematically drawing attention to himself, even if it means monopolising the speeches and image, and defending any old cause”.
Reddé insists that only a "tiny minority" react negatively to his presence.
“Most people come with a smile and say 'Oh go on, I love your sign, it's wonderful you're always here'."
Following the Libération article, feminist group les éffrontées wrote to the paper to say they had “always seen him on feminist demos, even the least mediatised ones, and we thank him for his presence”.
When you love you don't count
For the most recent anti-pension reform protest in Paris, Reddé dusted down the “Listen to the people’s rage” placard.
The old slogan still works, but it wasn't the original sign. He prefers to "give the placards away at the end of each protest”.
When I ask him roughly how many marches he's been on, he brushes off the question.
“When you fight it's the same as when you love, you don’t count, you go!."
His speech is pitted with the word “love” – in our hour-long chat he uses it 21 times.
“Most humans believe in love between two people, but I say that love should be enlarged to all the universe," he says.
Protesting beyond the grave
Later, on the pension reform protest, he laughs loudly as people come to chat and take photos of his latest placard denouncing the millions stashed in tax havens which, he argues, could be used to help pay pensions.
I notice him constantly repositioning his hands, as if trying to find a comfortable way of holding the sign.
He's suffered from tendonitis and you wonder how long he can go on holding such huge placards above his head for hours on end.
Not even death will stop him protesting, he jokes.
“When I’m lying in the earth, I will have a false bottom made [in the coffin] to escape and go on demonstrations, night and day.
"We can never give up the fight while one single creature is in disarray."
