France

Gilets Jaunes In 2019: French Democracy Dead Or Alive?

January 15, 2019 By Diana Johnstone, Globalresearch.ca Resist! Class Struggle, France, Yellow Vest

Or perhaps one should say, buried or revived? Because for the mass of ordinary people, far from the political, financial, media centers of power in Paris, democracy is already moribund, and their movement is an effort to save it. Ever since Margaret Thatcher decreed that “there is no alternative”, Western economic policy is made by technocrats for the benefit of financial markets, claiming that such benefits will trickle down to the populace. The trickle has largely dried up, and people are tired of having their needs and wishes totally ignored by an elite who “know best”.

Yellow Vest Movement Holds 9th Act, Macron Pledges National Dialogue

January 13, 2019 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance Resist! France, Inequality, Yellow Vest

On January 11, 2019, the Yellow Vest Movement continued its Saturday protests in their 9th Act since they began in mid-November. Tens of thousands of yellow vest protesters marched Saturday through Paris and other French cities for a ninth straight weekend to denounce President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies and for greater economic equality. Protesters walked peacefully through central Paris from the Finance Ministry in the east of the French capital to the Arc de Triomphe in the west. 80,000 security forces were used. French armored vehicles blocked protesters from going onto nearby Champs-Elysees Avenue. Sporadic violence broke out with police during protests in Paris, Bourges, Bordeaux, Rouen, Marseille, and Toulouse.

Is The Historical Subject Returning, Wearing A Yellow Vest?

January 10, 2019 Susan Roberts, Counterpunch.org Educate! Class Struggle, France, Yellow Vest

If someone were to ask me the meaning of politics, I would say that it is concerned with the contestation of power; that it is agonistic, even antagonistic. And that it has to be, because what it contests is the balance of power wielded by different class interests. As Marx recognised, the underlying purpose of the social, political, economic and even legal institutions of capitalist society is to preserve the monopoly of power enjoyed by the capital-owning class. And, consequently, any attempt to challenge that monopoly, in whatever sphere, is going to be countered, as the yellow-vested protesters are currently experiencing on the streets of Paris.

Yellow Vest Women’s March Against Austerity Responds To Government Violence

January 7, 2019 Staff, Telesurenglish.net Resist! France, Protests, Women, Yellow Vest

Over 50,000 yellow vest women protest in Paris and hundreds more protest across the country against gov't austerity, demanding peaceful ways to reforms. Women "yellow jackets" all across France are mobilizing on Sunday to present the peaceful parts of the movement to the media that only reports violent events, they say. Over 50,000 women gathered in front of the Place de la Bastille and in the Place de la République, in Paris, and others came together in Caen, Montceau-les-Mines, and Toulouse to demonstrate against President Emmanuel Macron’s austerity measures, including an increase in gas prices that the president eventually backed down after months of previous street demonstrations.

“The Resistance” And The Gilets Jaunes

January 6, 2019 Max Parry, Off Guardian. Educate! Brexit, European Union (EU), France, Gilets Jaunes

In less than two months, the yellow vests (“gilets jaunes”) movement in France has reshaped the political landscape in Europe. For a seventh straight week, demonstrations continued across the country even after concessions from a cowing President Emmanuel Macron while inspiring a wave of similar gatherings in neighboring states like Belgium and the Netherlands. Just as el-Sisi’s dictatorship banned the sale of high-visibility vests to prevent copycat rallies in Egypt, corporate media has predictably worked overtime trying to demonize the spontaneous and mostly leaderless working class movement in the hopes it will not spread elsewhere.

Act Eight: Police Block Gilets Jaunes From National Assembly

January 6, 2019 Telesur. Resist! France, Gilets Jaunes, Taxes

Paris, France - Clashes erupted between yellow vest protesters and French police as demonstrators got closer to the National Assembly Saturday, on their 8th mobilization, dubbed Act VIII. Dwindling numbers during the holidays generated fears that the movement had waned, but after dinners and family gatherings, the people of France have retaken the streets. Only in Paris, 103 people have been arrested, according to police reports. Protesters gathered in several points in Paris to later march to the National Assembly. As people gathered in the Champs-Elysees and the historic stock exchange, demonstrators called for Macron’s resignation and warned him the mobilization is not a revolt, “it’s the revolution.”

Gilets Jaunes Activist Eric Drouet Arrested In France

January 4, 2019 Staff, Defendevropa.com Resist! France, Protests, Repression, Yellow Vest

Yellow Jackets activist Eric Drouet, who emerged as one of the leaders of the French anti-government movement, was arrested in Paris on Wednesday evening. Drouet, by profession a truck driver, was accused of the “organisation of an event without prior notification” for an event that took place in the French capital that night, French prosecutors said…Drouet was apprehended near the Champs-Elysées, where a few dozen activists gathered at his request. On 22 December, Éric Drouet was also arrested during the “Act VI” demonstrations of the Yellow Vests in Paris and was then placed in custody for “carrying a prohibited weapon”, in this case a baton, and “being part of a group seeking to commit violence or cause damage”.

Seasons Greetings from France’s Yellow Vests: “We are not tired”

December 30, 2018 Richard Greeman, Popular Resistance Resist! France, Neoliberalism, Yellow Vest

Not only has this rebellion persisted despite unprecedented police brutality, media misrepresentation, and rejection by labor union officials, it has retained its grass-roots popularity and deepened its goals – from an initial rejection of a tax increase on Diesel fuel to explicit rejection of the established political/economic system and to near-unanimous call for the resignation of Macron and the creation of a new kind of democracy via referendum or constitutional convention.

How Mao Would Have Evaluated The Yellow Vests

December 26, 2018 Slavoj Zizek, Rt.com Educate! France, Protests, Yellow Vest

The French Yellow Vest movement exposes a problem at the heart of today’s politics. Too much adherence to popular “opinion” and not enough innovation and fresh ideas. Already a quick glance at the imbroglio makes it clear that we are caught in multiple social struggles. The tension between the liberal establishment and the new populism, the ecological struggle, efforts in support of feminism and sexual liberation, plus ethnic and religious battles and the desire for universal human rights. Not to mention, trying to resist digital control of our lives. So, how to bring all these struggles together without simply privileging one of them as the “true” priority? Because this balance provides the key to all other struggles.

Gilets Jaunes: A Pioneering Study Of The ‘Low Earners’ Revolt

December 22, 2018 Translated David Fernbach from Le Monde, Versobooks.com Educate! Class Struggle, France, Protests, Yellow Vest

While there is no typical profile for the demonstrators, one of the characteristics of the movement being its diversity, the gilets jaunes are first and foremost men and women who work (or are retired from work), aged 45 on average, belonging to the working class or the ‘lower’ middle class. These results, which are still very provisional, are based on an analysis of 166 questionnaires distributed to participants in actions at roundabouts and motorway tollbooths, or during the demonstrations of 24 November and 1 December, by a team of some ten researchers and students.

French Spirit In Motion: Yellow Vests Waltz To Edith Piaf As Police Close Down Camp

December 22, 2018 Staff, Rt.com Resist! Class Struggle, France, Protests, Repression, Yellow Vest

Congregating around their makeshift bonfires, the yellow-clad resistors danced arm-in-arm to the tender strains of Edith Piaf. The military police, who had been sent to evict them, looked on – respectfully waiting, it seems, for the rousing French ballad to end before beginning their unpleasant work. This brief video tells a story that goes much deeper than opposition to fuel taxes or Emmanuel Macron – the nationwide Yellow Vest movement has stirred the French soul

The Yellow Vest Protests Are Not Over

December 17, 2018 Staff, Thelocal.fr Resist! Class Struggle, France, Protests

After Act V it would be a mistake to think that the tragicomedy story of the gilets jaunes is now over, writes John Lichfield, as he looks back at what we've learned over the last month including how violence pays in France, how Macron is possibly ruined and how those who say France is impossible to reform might just be right. French classical plays, both the comedies and the tragedies, have five acts. Was “Act 5” of the gilets jaune movement on Saturday the muddled conclusion of a French tragedy or the bitter-sweet finale of a French comedy? Most likely it was the beginning of a confusing new phase – a phase of splits. There will be negotiations by some gilets jaunes and continuing but diminishing protests by others.

‘The Gilets Jaunes Have Blown Up The Old Political Categories’

December 16, 2018 Jerome Roos, ROAR Resist! France, Yellow Vest

a loosely structured movement of angry citizens named after the yellow high-visibility vests all French drivers are required to keep in their cars in case of distress — defied an unprecedented security crackdown to return to the streets of Paris and other French cities in their hundreds of thousands. The protests can only be described as a resounding repudiation of the widely-despised president, Emmanuel Macron, and his neoliberal assault on working-class living standards.

The Demands Of The Yellow Vest Movement Are Growing Into Real Systemic Change

December 15, 2018 Phillip J. Watt, Wakingtimes.com Resist! Class Struggle, France, Protests

Long story short; French citizens have revolted for the fourth week in a row calling for changes in governmental and corporate design. Even though UN Military and thousands of French police have been deployed in response, the police have actually been filmed removing their helmets in solidarity with the French people. In this light, all police, military personnel, teachers, doctors, social workers, academics, journalists, bureaucrats, politicians and other people who work within the system (as well as everyone else) should attempt to truly understand what this increasingly global movement is actually about and stand with the people who are attempting to facilitate genuine change in our troubled world.

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