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Police Violence Against Gilets Jaunes Sparks Broad Backlash

The gilets jaunes, or 'yellow vests', have been met by an increasingly heavy handed police response. The 15th of December in Paris saw this reach an absurd peak when there were 2,200 protestors on the streets and over 8,000 police. They were ubiquitous. On the 15th they were so numerous that they could consistently split groups of gilets jaunes from merging to form a bigger mass. Ironically, this was one of the calmer weekends in terms of crowd numbers, police violence and casseur presence. Other times though the police response was devastating.

France: Arrests, Tear Gas And Water Cannons Deployed On Week 15 Of Yellow Vest Protests

This time, another 70 were arrested nationwide and sprayed with water cannons while protesting Macron's government spending cuts. France’s Yellow Vests showed no sign of tiring as the 15th straight weekend of demonstrations against President Macron’s austerity measures and repression took place across the country. Around 46,600 demonstrators were out Saturday across France, including Paris and Clermont-Ferrand, continuing to call for an end to high taxes for the working and middle class and an increase to the minimum wage, among other demands.

Act 14: The Yellow Vests Protests Persist

Thousands of "yellow vest" protesters marched across France Saturday, three months since the movement began and in a week that has seen growing international concern at police treatment of the protesters. Demonstrating for the 14th consecutive weekend, just over 41,000 people turned out across the country, according to the government, well down on the 282,000 peak during the protests' early weeks. An interior ministry statement said 41,500 people had demonstrated nationwide, 5,000 of them in Paris. Organisers of the marches, however, put the numbers far higher.

10 Reasons The Gilets Jaunes Are The Real Deal

We live in a world where democracy is a threat and freedom is a punishment, where you can’t tell a turd from a diamond, where 5G is trumpeted even as it threatens to kill us, where the prevailing ethos is buyer-beware and where anyone against warmongering and eternal war is smeared and painted as a monster. Who do you believe? All the things you felt certain about Democracy, liberty, the right to free speech, television news, all these things are not only being undermined, in reality, they are being thrown in your face.

As Macron Prepares New Repressive Measures Yellow Vests & Red Unions Strike Together

As the Macron government pushed harsh repressive laws against demonstrators through the National Assembly, the Yellow Vests joined with France’s unions for the first time in a day-long, nation-wide “General Strike.” At the very moment when in Paris the lower house was voting to implement Macron’s proposed laws designed to suppress public demonstrations (a legal right protected in both the French Constitution and the U.N. Human Rights Declaration) tens of thousands of their constituents were out in the streets all over the country demonstrating and striking against Macron’s authoritarian, neo-liberal government.

French National Assembly Passes Police State “Anti-Riot” Law Targeting Protests

The French National Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Monday to approve President Emmanuel Macron’s “anti-riot” law, undermining the right to protest and further expanding police powers.The law was first announced in January by Prime Minister Edouard Phillippe in response to the “yellow vest” protests against social inequality. It marks a significant step in the transformation of France into a police state. In line with a similar turn by capitalist governments in Europe and internationally—from Hungary, to Brazil, to the United States and elsewhere—the French ruling class is responding to the growth of social opposition in the working class over the unprecedented growth of social inequality by expanding its powers of repression.

French Yellow Vest Going Strong For Act 12 Protests

The 12th Act of the yellow vests movement happened yesterday, February 2, 2019. The number of Yellow Vest protestors in major French cities such as Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux and all over France has not decreased, some say it has even increased. This 12th Act of the Yellow Vest protests was marked once again by police violence against protestors who have remained mostly peaceful despite police violence.

Gilets Jaunes “Assembly Of Assemblies” Calls For Massive Strike

We, Gilets Jaunes of the roundabouts, parking lots, squares, assemblies and demonstrations, gathered on January 26 and 27 for an “Assembly of Assemblies”, which united members of over a hundred Gilets Jaunes delegations from across France, all answering the call of the Gilets Jaunes of Commercy. Since November 17, 2018, from the smallest villages deep in the country side to the biggest cities of France, we rose up against this deeply violent, unjust and unbearable society. We shall no longer be treated that way! We revolt against the cost of life, poverty, instability and misery. We wish for our relatives, friends, families and children, that they all will be able to live in dignity.

France’s Red Scarves: Ready-Made Counter-Protest And New Media Darlings

PARIS — As the “Yellow Vest,” or Gilet Jaunes, protest in France continues to perplex and concern the French government and European elites, a new “counter-protest” has emerged in response to the popular protest movement now entering its 12th week. Protesters branding themselves as the “Red Scarves,” or Foulards Rouge, descended on Paris this past Sunday in order to protest the “violence” of some Gilet Jaunes protesters and a desire to see the country return to “normalcy.” The French government, which has sought to weaken and disperse the Yellow Vests movement since its inception, stated that the Red Scarves numbered around 10,500 in Paris, while other reports claimed that the demonstration was significantly smaller than the government-supplied figure.

The Yellow Vests As Part Of The Global Revolt Against Neoliberalism

The Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) movement of workers in France just completed its eleventh act this past weekend. They are revolting against neoliberalism and austerity and rule by and for the wealthy. There are many similarities to the Yellow Vest movement and the Occupy movement. We speak with Lola Girerd, a post-doctoral student in Paris who is participating in and studying the Yellow Vests, about what the protests are like, what they are about and how the Macron government is responding to them. We also discuss recent news, including mass climate actions, strikes and the US-led coup in Venezuela.

Yellow Vest Leader Badly Hit In Eye By Police Rubber Bullet To Be ‘Disabled For Life’

The rubber bullets — which are not used in most European countries — have become deeply controversial in France since the protests began in November, blamed for hundreds of serious injuries. A prominent French anti-government "yellow vest" activist, was badly injured in the eye at a protest Saturday after he was struck with one of the controversial rubber bullets used by French police, his lawyer said Sunday. Jerome Rodrigues' lawyer fears he will be "handicapped for life" after he was injured in clashes with police in Paris on Saturday during an 11th straight weekend of protests against President Emmanuel Macron.

Macronist Repression Against The People In Yellow Vests

On Saturday, 8th December, the “Yellow Vests” movement maintained its progress as it gathered a total of 136,000 demonstrators throughout the country (including nearly 10,000 in Paris), a comparable level on Saturday the 1stof December while 106,301 people were counted during the previous weekend, according to the, regularly underestimated, figures of the Ministry of the Interior. In the wake of the mobilisation on the 1st of December, the Minister Christophe Castaner was quick to review the figures of the 24th of November, as he re-evaluated the number of protesters to 166,000 people instead of the previously announced 106,000...

Act X Of Yellow Vest Protests Reject Macron’s National Dialogue

Act X of the Yellow Vest protests turnout did not decline on January 19, 2019. The national debate kicked off by President Macron did not satisfy the movement as people turned out in the tens of thousands. The interior ministry says 84,000 people turned for Act 10 of the Yellow Vest protests, slightly higher than last week. Once again police used tear gas, violence and water cannons to try and control the crowds.

Gilets Jaunes: Catalyst For A Global Movement?

France is at a crossroad. A fairly benign bread-and-butter protest has turned into a major popular dissent putting in question France’s political system. It is new, unheard of, and because we live in the digital age, with immediate communication, the world is not only watching, but there is a contagious factor to it, which in the Anglo-Saxon world is called “Yellow Vests Movement”. In what could be a healthy contagion of a social yellow fever of dissent, this polymorphic movement has already spread to 25 countries and counting. In the immediate vicinity of France, of course, in countries such as Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, but also while not clearly identified as Gilets Jaunes chapters in Hungary, Bulgaria and Serbia.

French Worker Sentenced To Six Months’ Jail Over Facebook Call For Demonstrations

On Tuesday, January 8, 28-year-old protester Hedi Martin was sentenced to six months’ jail without parole at a correctional tribunal in the southern town of Narbonne. His sole “crime” was to have published a Facebook post on January 2 that called for a “yellow vest” blockade of the petrol refinery at Port-la-Nouvelle. Police arrested him in the early hours of January 3, shortly after he published the post. The statements of the state prosecutor and judge at Martin’s hearing made clear that the jailing is aimed at intimidating calls for protests.
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