Stop Cruise Everywhere – ECAN#4 in Marseille – March 9-10, 2024

European Cruise Activist Network #4 arrives in Marseille

After the construction of the European anti-cruise network in Venice in September 2022, after a new meeting giving birth to the network manifesto in Barcelona in April 2023, then a new Venetian meeting at the Climate Camp in September 2023

On March 9 and 10, 2024, 18 collectives engaged in the fight against cruise ships met in Marseille. Entitled “Stop Cruises Everywhere”, this meeting is the first of this scale in Europe. It brought together, for two days, around thirty activists from Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

18 collectives present on March 9 and 10, 2024 in Marseille

List of 18 collectives (8 French and 10 European) present on March 9 and 10, 2024 in Marseille

France : Marseille, La Ciotat, Toulon, Le Havre, Douarnenez, Concarneau, Lorient, Menton
Spain : Valencia, Tarragona, Barcelona
Italy : Livorno, Trieste, La Spezia
Greece : Piraeus
United Kingdom : Contested Ports
Germany : Kiel
The Netherlands : Rotterdam

Convinced that the fight against this harmful industry takes place as much on a local scale as on a European scale, the collectives worked on the development of a common agenda of demands and actions. For Stop Croisières Marseille, organizer of the event, “the objective of this meeting was also to demonstrate that throughout Europe, collectives of citizens are mobilizing to denounce the ravages of the cruise industry. We all see the same problems, suffer the same nuisances from these gigantic cruise ships in our cities.”

“We have therefore decided to join forces to fight together against these cruise ships, synonymous with ecological and social disasters. To date, in Marseille as elsewhere, no public policy is seriously considered to counter the harm and cities continue to welcome these ships on a daily basis with absolutely disastrous impacts for the climate, the environment and health. This urgently needs to change.”

A common manifesto

A joint Manifesto of the various collectives gathered was made public on this occasion, the participating organizations calling for “political actions which tend to eliminate cruise activity, to promote less polluting economic alternatives in the affected territories, to better environmental regulation of the maritime sector as well as general awareness of the population.”

The meeting in Marseille also marks the expansion of the European Cruise Activist Network (ECAN), a coalition of anti-cruise movements founded in 2022 in Venice, by No Grandi Navi Venezia (Venice), Stop Croisières (Marseille), Comissió ciutat port València (Valencia), Plataforma contra els mega creuers Mallorca (Mallorca), Stop Creuers Barcelona (Barcelona), Stop Creuers Tarragona (Tarragona), Ecoloxistas en Acción Rías Baixas e Coruña (La Coruña) or Mar de Fábula (Galicia), joined by new collectives this weekend.

Download the ECAN (European Cruise Activist Network) Manifesto here in all the languages of the ports involved

Stop Croisières also took the opportunity to use its argument as a fun mediation tool, a coloring book and quiz, published in all the languages of our guests: Français – English – Deutsch – Español – Italiano – Greek (to print in A4 booklet)

Saturday March 9

After participating in the feminist demonstration on March 8 for those who arrived the day before, the Sud Solidaire premises welcome our reunions and meetings. Everyone prepares the poster to present to everyone in their collective, before a press time which will allow the groups to testify about the situation in their respective ports. What follows is a symbolic exchange of flags to seal the alliance, then workshop work to agree on common messages to bring to decision-makers in the coming months.

Copyright : Mehdi Hemart / Stop Croisières

Sunday March 10

Public round tables on the sustainability of tourism, the alliances to be built and the false solutions put forward by the cruise industry.

Then walk through Marseille to the sea, and take a photo to denounce the climate impact of the use of LNG and its methane leaks by cruise ships, much more responsible for this pollution than cows.