Les Déplorables Demand The Fall Of The Regime
Today we will again (read the comments) see large, and mostly peaceful gilets jaunes gatherings all over France to protest the neo-liberal policies of the Macron regime. The biggest ones will naturally occur in the capital Paris. They are likely to later develop into riots. The regime ordered 89,000 policemen onto the streets to counter any potential violence. 8,000 of them will be in Paris alone.
A problem is that police are often the cause of riots. Dressed like storm troopers and angry after way too many hours on the street they tend to attack with much brutality even when calm defense would be more appropriate.
After last week protest the Macron regime first delayed and then abolished the planned fuel tax hike that was the immediate cause of the yellow vest protests. That was too little too late and made his regime look weak. The people are now demanding more measures like a reintroduction of the wealth tax which Macron had abolished in one of his first acts in power.
Over the last week fireman, ambulance drivers, students and the administrative police union have joined the protests.
Luxury shops have been boarded up, museums and landmarks were closed. (An English language livestream can be watched here. Please point to others in the comments.) The police are an running early interdiction tactic, closing off roads and applying tear gas to kettle the people and to prevent larger gatherings at the Champs-Élysées. Hundreds have already been arrested. Meanwhile the protesters sing la Marseillaise. It is way too early for the police to use such force and it is not going to work. This only increases the anger of the protestors and will cause more conflagrations.

Les déplorables demand the fall of the regime.
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In a France24 report from a small town in the country side shows extraordinary solidarity between the people. Police passing through an occupied toll road entry sign the protesters petition, other pass by and gift food to the middle-aged protestors.
One woman makes an good point. Yes, the violence as seen in Paris last weekend was not nice. But only after last weeks protest went violent were the yellow vests really noted by the media and by the otherwise tone deaf politicians.
If the protestors today try to storm the Bastille, the Elyssée palace or whatever, if there are more casualties, more people will join protests and strikes during the next week. Macron will come under even more pressure. He will have to dismiss his prime minister and government. More pressure and he will have to dissolve the parliament and call for new elections. That would likely mean the end of his policies of further enriching the very rich while impoverishing the lower middle class and the poor.
Posted by b on December 8, 2018 at 11:26 UTC | Permalink
next page »Shouldnt Assad start arming the peaceful protesters?
There are rumours of gas attacks, I have seen videos posted by White hel...Yellow vests.
..nah, the western logic doesnt go that far when it comes to themselves.
NOW EU/US/Nato back the oppressor against the protesting people. Disgusting.
Posted by: Zanon | Dec 8 2018 12:16 utc | 2
Any sign of the philosophy giant and freedom fighter BHL in the vanguard of the protests?
Posted by: Cortes | Dec 8 2018 13:23 utc | 3
Cortes
On Twitter, well-known French political commentator and media personality Bernard-Henri Lévy, lashed out at the Yellow Vest protesters, accusing them of “playing with fire” and saying that all that matters is respect for French institutions and the democratically -elected president.https://www.rt.com/op-ed/445475-france-protests-hypocrisy-media/
Posted by: Zanon | Dec 8 2018 13:26 utc | 4
I'm currently watching RT's Round 4: Yellow Vests protest in Paris (Pt.2) livestream, and I've noticed a large group of casually dressed people (jeans, chinos, fake camo pants, sneakers, vests, backpacks) wearing red armbands with "POLICE" markings and armed with gas canister guns. Who are these people? Many of them don't look like policemen at all, not because of the casual clothing, but because they look young and not very strong physically. They look like students to me. So who are they, and is the French police breaking French laws by issuing these non-police people the "POLICE" armbands and gas canister guns?
Posted by: S | Dec 8 2018 13:36 utc | 5
"That would likely mean the end of his policies of further enriching the very rich while impoverishing the lower middle class and the poor"
This would be true if no one else replaced Macron. However, the urge for the government to plunder the public in France just as it is many western states is just too strong. But it certainly would be a step in the right direction.
Posted by: Joe | Dec 8 2018 13:43 utc | 6
I hope this thread attracts comments as amusingly unhinged as the previous French Revolution thread. I felt a little bit sorry for the commenters who insinuated that the Not Quite Destitute French are only pretending to be angry about essential living expenses being hiked to cover the black hole created by Micron's tax-breaks for the Greedy Rich.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 8 2018 13:53 utc | 7
@Posted by: S | Dec 8, 2018 8:36:38 AM | 4
I have not seen that, but from a video posted at RT I have seen people who, on the contrary, look strong fitted, wear cammo pants, very short sized hairdo, sunglasses and masks who do not seem working people at all, but highly likely provocators...These resemble me all the way those masked people who accimpanied ISIS in Iraq...when taking over cities there...
@B,
If we are to label Macron government a "regime", then we should be labelling as such any other Western, and even Eastern, government. Macron is the president of the rich, that´s for sure, but he was legitimatelly elected by vote in "free elections"( at least so free as everywhere else in the Western, and even Eastern, world ), thus, let´s not spread confussion and mix oranges and apples. The origins of these protests are preciselly to be found in his own, upper middle class, voters. Then the movement, as it has turned effective to first take out the fuel tax, has been joined lately by the working class representatives, like major French Unions and so on, which I find very risky for the left, btw....
The US current administration is at least so bad, and even I would say worst, for the working class, and then I do not recall you calling it a "regime" or to violently overthrow it....
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 13:54 utc | 8
You haven't analysed this one very well this time, b. I happen to be sitting to the police sirens as I write, and there wasn't any violence this morning when I came. It's a lot calmer than last week, when things did get out of hand. It's possible that things will get worse later, but I'm not sure.
In any case the gilets jaunes say this is the culmination of forty years. Macron has not been president for forty years. The demands are very vague, everything from leaving NATO to Frexit to banning plastic bottles. All this is little to do with Macron. He will have to change his approach, there's no doubt.
Posted by: laguerre | Dec 8 2018 14:04 utc | 9
Laguerre, you have been apologising for Macron since the first round of the elections. The man is appealing to Petainist, Action Francaise fascists to assist him in ruining the the social safety net, lowering wages, cancelling workers' rights.
And, something that is rarely mentioned, re-introducing conscription. What for? The sooner his government is out of office the better, the guy is a weasel posing as a Bourbon.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 8 2018 14:14 utc | 10
To expand my point at @8, when you call to overthrow legitimately elected goverments, you are opening the Pandora box for any illegitimate take over of power,..At that point, claims against the take over in Ukraine by the Nazis really get blurred...
That increasingly despoliticed and missinformed people ( both by the mass media and foreign states actors at "alt-media"... ), elect badly, is a reality, and a sign of the times, but, so far, Western democracy is the best of systems we have, until anything new is invented, and the most free in which we are able to live, compared to the alternatives, which, I fear, do not run towards more democracy, but to the opposite sign, authoritarian fascist tendencies.
Along these years of astonishing surge of the so called "alt-media", I have found a common discourse against democracy, especially in the pro-Trump "alt-media", but then, you find that in front of the continuous attacks against democratic rules by this Trump administration ( like the take over of the judicial system to its own goals ), you can hardly find in those media any claim to overthrown the Trump government, the same way they claim to overthrown others, especially in the EU ( now that it has showed a hint of rebellion against US rule ), and the same way they discharge, and even justify, any attack against basic human rights and overall decency, like the last shenanigans to hijack a high executive of a Chinese company in clear free market competenece with US corporations for the tech market, in the middle of negotiations with China.
What these people will bring is not, clearly, a cleaner and purest democracy to any of us, but just the dark times of the middle ages...or... the mafia, death-squads gangs and warlords runned banana republics of usual....
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 14:23 utc | 11
@laguerre: If there wasn't any violence this morning at whatever place you visited, that doesn't mean there's no violence right now. Rewind the livestream I've linked to above and observe burning barricades and people throwing rocks en-masse.
Posted by: S | Dec 8 2018 14:25 utc | 12
@ Laguerre it is all to do with Macron. Or at least Macron is in essence the establishment through and through. He was the faux establishment candidate who emerged when neither establishment party could raise a candidate to challenge Le Pen. Pretending to be non-estab. while actually being pure estab.
Posted by: Michael Droy | Dec 8 2018 14:25 utc | 13
@Sasha: Stop inventing things. B never called for overthrowing legitimately elected governments. It's all in your imagination. B simply analyses and comments on current events.
You are putting the term alt-media in quotes and insinuating that it is really the work of "foreign states actors". Then, a couple of sentences later, you claim that the alt-media "justifies any attack against basic human rights and overall decency". Such outlandish claims strongly suggest that you are another shill for the establishment.
Posted by: S | Dec 8 2018 14:47 utc | 14
@Laguerre: Of oourse it is about Macron because the underlying problems are the EU- and Euro-dictated policies for which Macron is the poster child. Macron the newest enforcer of the class-war policy of austerity. Everything the protestors say is in line with this.
Posted by: Paul J | Dec 8 2018 14:57 utc | 15
Look at minute 0:28 footage of this video, one maked "activists" brings to burn the French flag....Is it not weird? What the fuck could this guy be even a French, when we all, especially those of us who are nieghbours of them, know about mithic French chauvinism?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYyKz_HoGGA
I bet for ISIS kind well payed infiltrated foreign agents in these protests....
Here one of those masked people with very short hair in cammo clothes with strange brazelets and backpacks....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40CTjtxx7AA
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 15:04 utc | 16
@Posted by: S | Dec 8, 2018 9:47:09 AM | 14
Stop you labelling me because I question certain kind of discourse ...I am far from being a "shill for the stablishment", I am a citizen and European communist, and I do not own any communication media, of any variety...Just try to point out what squeaks me...
If the protestors today try to storm the Bastille, the Elyssée palace or whatever, if there are more casualties, more people will join protests and strikes during the next week. Macron will come under even more pressure. He will have to dismiss his prime minister and government. More pressure and he will have to dissolve the parliament and call for new elections. That would likely mean the end of his policies of further enriching the very rich while impoverishing the lower middle class and the poor.
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 15:15 utc | 17
They wouldn't be having these problems if they'd elected Marine Le Pen
Posted by: erik | Dec 8 2018 15:18 utc | 18
@Posted by: S | Dec 8, 2018 9:47:09 AM | 14
Could you tell me why is that you have not make any comment supporting the same "measures" to overthrown the US government which is equally bad ( or even worst, since it is pushing for more wars, and even world war where it is the working class who, as always has happened, will die at the front lines ) for the working class, as Macron´s is?
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 15:18 utc | 19
@18 Shame on you erik. Are you suggesting migration might be a factor?
Posted by: dh | Dec 8 2018 15:22 utc | 20
It would be nice if the revolt were to develop into a Pan-European phenomenon. A good beginning for the end of the tyrannical rule of financial capital and debt peonage.
Posted by: Hem Lock | Dec 8 2018 15:35 utc | 21
Protest going well and getting some results....what is missing is a French riot dog....like the Greek dog Kanellos....vive la France....
Posted by: notlurking | Dec 8 2018 15:42 utc | 22
"That would likely mean the end of his policies of further enriching the very rich while impoverishing the lower middle class and the poor."
Sounds familiar. Here are a couple of quotes from, I believe, Dean Baker:
“The guiding philosophy of many in Washington is that a dollar that is in the pocket of a poor or middle-class person is a dollar that could be in the pocket of a rich person.”
“The goal of the Trump administration is to redistribute as much income as quickly as possible to his family, friends, and people like his family and friends.”
Posted by: Bart Hansen | Dec 8 2018 15:58 utc | 23
@Posted by: Hem Lock | Dec 8, 2018 10:35:43 AM | 21
I, as European, for what is worth, would prefer the revolt being mimetized in the US first, to the point of "Taking over of The Bastille" there....
You will see that once the "hegemon" and "bully in chief" dissapears, and once it is assured a democratic rule by "the people" there, its European puppets will easily fall like a house of cards and we will be free....The other way around as that will not work...while the puppet masters continue rulling in the US....This is why I have plenty of suspicions over this calls to only French "Take over of The Bastille"....The original cancer is way the other side of the Athlantic....and you all know it...
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 16:03 utc | 24
The original cancer is way the other side of the Athlantic....and you all know it...
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8, 2018 11:03:26 AM | 24
I agree completely, Sasha
Posted by: BM | Dec 8 2018 16:19 utc | 25
@Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8, 2018 10:04:41 AM | 16
Another strong, midage, in military fatigues/sunglasses/white brazelet guy in this photo...
https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.12/article/5c0bcf20fc7e9342408b45e6.jpg
Who is this people?
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 16:20 utc | 26
@Sasha: You obviously have severe issues with reading comprehension. What b has written is not some kind of manifesto calling for action, but a mere analysis of how the situation might develop. I suggest you improve your command of English language before commenting here any further. Also, alt-media simply means "alternative media", i.e. non-MSM media, and not some ultra-right-wing fascist media as you seem to believe.
Posted by: S | Dec 8 2018 16:22 utc | 27
The following exchange at the Stoltenberg's December 4 press conference at the NATO FMs meeting in Brussels (starts at 7:53) perfectly captures the hypocrisy of the West:
Denis Dubrovin, TASS news agency: Mr. Secretary General, 4 years ago your predecessor, Mr. Anders Fogh-Rasmussen, called for restraint in suppressing the Maidan protesters in Kiev. Would you call now for resraint for the French police forces, when they are suppressing the riots of gilets jeunes? Merci.Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General: Eh, first of all, I think there's no meaning in comparing those two situations. And I also think that to try in any way to compare that is totally wrong. Then, the important thing to make, though, is that we support the territorial integrity of Ukraine, and we will never accept and recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea, and that Russia continues to destabilize Eastern Ukraine. And we have to understand what happened near the Sea of Azov in this context, because first, Russia annexed Crimea, then they built a bridge, and then they used annexation of Crimea and the illegally built bridge to try to take control of the Sea of Azov. So, therefore, we continue to call on Russia to release the ships, release the Navy personnel, but also allow Ukraine access to the Sea of Azov, with both commercial ships and military ships. (And so on and so forth, no further comment on gilets jeunes.)
So there you have it: to try in any way to compare Maidan protesters and gilets jeunes is totally wrong. Straight from the horse's mouth.
Posted by: S | Dec 8 2018 16:23 utc | 28
@Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8, 2018 11:20:20 AM | 26
What about the Pussy Riot style trio in the front line, along with him and the next guy with very short hair guy who, btw, is the same accompanying other strange people at other photos?
Yeah, these are all the way working class people....
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 16:24 utc | 29
Bevin @10
"a weasel posing as a Bourbon"
Has a certain honest ring to it....
"une belette se faisant passer pour un bourbon"
Posted by: Castellio | Dec 8 2018 16:24 utc | 30
@Sasha 25
I tend to disagree, although Empire is inherently evil Macron must own this one himself. He is the one assisting the "original cancer" as you put it, to metastasize in France by vehemently pushing any agenda his masters in Brussels want to implement.
Posted by: fractional ownership | Dec 8 2018 16:28 utc | 31
a poem and video for the barflies from the gentrified liberal dystopia of Missoula, Montana:
YELLOW VESTS, YELLOW BLANKETS
I put on
a yellow vest--
watch me
as I
grow
sniveling, sycophant
presidents
in their bones
will know
but that's across
a big, big
pond
here--
we're more
compliant
I do not have
a yellow vest
we are
much less
defiant
I put on
my thinking cap
watch me
as I
fret
shoulder-shrugging
council persons
clearly do not
get
there is a plan
but their hot air
cannot stop
the cold
beware their
yellow blankets
all the land's
been sold
One thing we can be sure of. Thanks to CCTV, bodycams and iphones this revolution will be well documented.
Posted by: dh | Dec 8 2018 16:43 utc | 33
Sasha says:
I, as European, for what is worth, would prefer the revolt being mimetized in the US first, to the point of "Taking over of The Bastille" there....
don't count on it, sister. what we're seeing in Paris is a far cry from those 300 or so 99%ers munching pizza in Zuccotti Park.
Posted by: john | Dec 8 2018 16:44 utc | 34
@Posted by: S | Dec 8, 2018 11:22:45 AM | 27
Well, that´s your opinion, of course. I will say that I manage quite well to make my points here, or everywhere else, as people who agree with me here inform, in spite of my clearly improvable command of English language and usual abundant typos...( I have not time to polish my posts...)
Related to your suggestion, reverse it to yourself, since I think it is you who have serious with unamsking "shills for the stablishment"...and should improve your capabilities "before commenting here or any further"...
I am very aware what "alt-media" is, thanks, by reading them over 5 years now, and I can say that an overwhelming majority are of strong conservative or far-right tendence...what inform us of who could be the "funding fathers" behind...
P.S:A suggestion, instead of contiue harassing me, why do not you contribute to search for real "shills for the stablishment" in cammo vests, sunglasses, masks, and white brazelets strong kinda mercenary types in the photos or videos published over there, and this way contribute to the usual "alt-media" meme on that "the right must unit the left to overthrown the stablishment"...The genuine "Yellow Vests" movement, and any other genuine honest working people protesting anywhere in the world would be grateful, thanks...
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 16:44 utc | 35
Zionist war-induced mass migration, collapse of the social system, Brexit, riots in the streets, chaos, anarchy, EU decline = right wing fear dogma brainwash = enter imperial iron control.
This was all mapped out.
Posted by: Circe | Dec 8 2018 16:52 utc | 36
This interview with Cohn-Bendit is good:
‘May 1968 was a revolution – now the violence is just frightening’
I just saw a column of gilets jaunes in the streets, rather menacing, young men only. There are two types of gilets jaunes: those who are complaining about decline of living standards, and les Casseurs who are doing the violence. Quite what the motivation of the casseurs is, is difficult to detect. They may be doing it for plunder, or they're being paid to stir things up. But definitely two distinct phenomena.
Posted by: laguerre | Dec 8 2018 17:04 utc | 37
Sasha
It is a well known tactic to have "infiltrators" of various sorts to provoke violence, and make it seem that all the demonstrators are violent.
However, I do agree that there may be something new here, with those people with "Bracelets"(white bandages) around their arms. Note also the vast quantity of people taking photographs (Mainly of harmlessly burning christmas trees and trash - in the middle of the road). The CRS - or water canons -seem very restrained, as only short bursts are used against braceleted people, and the longer shots by water canons (advances) do not actually hit anyone..
It does seem at least possible that these are "put-up" to show the CRS are NOT (very) violent - while the real violence probably happens off screen. ie, "controlling the visual narrative for the news later".
There were reports of about 5'000 people who had their identities controlled before they got to Paris. (You are supposed to have a form of "identity/passport" with you at all times.
One of the things that makes people mad is the sight of the older (pensioners) demonstrators or the very young getting beaten up by masked CRS/thugs. (Some of the Police are actually considered to be quite sympathetic to the gilet jaunes.)
Posted by: stonebird | Dec 8 2018 17:05 utc | 38
I see the same back and forth accusations of who is a tool for the establishment here and who isn't? Until we tackle the rotten core and oust the corruption that afflicts our political system, nothing will change. The elite dominate; it's either through make-believe liberal democracy or make believe populism. They have all the answers to your frustration.
The Occupy movement were headed on the right track, but the ADL police put them out of business.
Posted by: Circe | Dec 8 2018 17:16 utc | 39
Movement is spreading to Brussels and Rotterdam..
https://twitter.com/ian56789/status/1071441413265649665?s=21
https://twitter.com/yourmarklubbers/status/1071360293283004416?s=21
Posted by: Lozion | Dec 8 2018 17:20 utc | 40
Gilets Jaunes and the Crisis in France, a Left Analysis
A cronology of the "revolt" and an analysis to explain why this revolt who started on the grounds of mainly claims for "lowing taxes" ( a historical banner of the Le Pens and nationalists... ) has not at all the hints of being a revolt from the traditional claims of the working people or the progressive forces( indeed comes full in contradiction..) usually aligned with the left/unions, hence that at first they were reluctant to unite. On why the violence displayed would hardly happened in a left wing working movement since the usual control by organized comrades exerted to avoid these intends of derailments of protests by the usual subjects, and, finally on why this "anarchic movement" is more prone to end in a reduction of social welfare state instead of a change of government...
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 17:28 utc | 41
Dear Laguerre (O.G. La Gee) #37,
Bringing the romantic (in vino veritas) 1968 into this
looks so desperate and disingenious.
I refuse to go for the jugular and call it jewish.
Not going there, for now. FFS, The Guardian! DingDingDing!
Agitprop dinnerbell,yum.
Circe #36: There surely is a roadmap, but this has the look
and feels of the sincere and unscripted (call it grassroots
for want of a better splanation) as against to (IMO)
the little kids protesting societies lack of long term planning'
concerning climate change and similar.
If any authoritharian ever needed a cute excuse to bring down
the hammer: this fits the bill. Ergo, psyop! So very much.
Posted by: Mishko | Dec 8 2018 17:36 utc | 42
@Posted by: laguerre | Dec 8, 2018 12:04:09 PM | 37
Thanks for the article. I did not know that some are making death threats against those who want to negotiate and that the same "some" want also to put a general in charge...All that fit very well with the implied contradictions of this "movement"...and could be an explanation ofr the "people" in military fatigues with white bra
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 17:45 utc | 43
Long ago during the civil rights movement we heard all about "outside agitators".
Now are we going to establish an acceptable dress code for demonstrators? As for the sunglasses, he probably doesn't want his photograph taken, and the white strips of cloth could be for bandaging heads.
Posted by: Bart Hansen | Dec 8 2018 17:51 utc | 44
Mishko says:
I refuse to go for the jugular and call it jewish
this guy did.
Posted by: john | Dec 8 2018 17:51 utc | 45
thanks b... and thanks lozion... interesting this may be migrating to other euro countries...
where is macron when all this is happening? is he having supper with rothchild tonight??
@3 cortes, i never heard of this bhl guy before.. what is so special about him?
Posted by: james | Dec 8 2018 18:01 utc | 46
With so much technology being deployed by the State against the People, it sure would be a nice twist if someone would come up with a crowd-sourced system to identify and mark Agents Provocateurs.
Posted by: Roy G | Dec 8 2018 18:13 utc | 47
james @46
BHL is a reference to Bernard-Henri Lévy.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Dec 8 2018 18:24 utc | 48
the police are not upholding the law these goy scum need to be rounded up everyone must pay tax any and all interest on debt must be paid.
only by crushing these thugs can macron suceed in being a new generations thatcher and blair france must be taught that they must pay for the luncheon
Posted by: claude | Dec 8 2018 18:24 utc | 49
- The workers'/family's/household's income share of GDP has fallen in the last - at least - 3 decades. This isn't limited to France, but it has happened in North America, Europe (e.g. Germany), Far East, Australia, etc. And now governments are surprised that people are "not happy" and start to "reject the existing economic order". Think also e.g. Trump.
Posted by: Willy2 | Dec 8 2018 18:33 utc | 50
Now that is nightfall in France? Were the protests today larger or smaller than in the previous days?
Posted by: ab initio | Dec 8 2018 18:38 utc | 51
Gentlemen:
I would like to interject a bit of analysis from a student of history, Mr. Arnold Toynbee. His twelve volume work, A Study of History, chronicled the rise and fall of a wide variety of civilizations and he attempted to extract common elements. In what follows, capitalized words are Mr. Toynbee’s own terms. (As a disclaimer, the following is my own interpretation from reading his Study. I am not a professional historian.)
It appears to me that that Western Civilization and France in particular is at the point where the Creative Minority, which has heretofore been responsible for engineering the growth of Civilization, has now become the Dominant Minority, which seeks to maintain its own power even at the expense of destroying the vitality of Civilization. The Dominant Minority breaks the contract (Cake of Custom) between the Creative Minority, who directed the growth of the Civilization, and the Internal Proletariat, who willingly followed the orders of that Minority in building the Civilization. When the Cake of Custom is broken, the Internal Proletariat revolts. This initiates the Time of Troubles that directly leads to the rise of a Universal State which is the stagnating phase of Civilization before its ultimate dissolution. (Mr. Toynbee criticized Mr. Gibbon for beginning his study at the beginning of the end of the Roman Civilization.) Many more details can be found in Volumes IV and V or in Volume I of Somervell’s excellent abridgement.
It appears obvious that the people of France feel betrayed by their government. As several commenters have observed, this is more of a revolt against the political establishment than a protest of increasing taxes. That the government seeks to bring in even more migrants proves that the contract between the elites and the working citizens has been broken. To the elites, the citizens are no longer part of the solution but a problem to be pacified (as Roman emperors pacified the plebs with bread and circuses.) According to Toynbee, this does not end well. The elites will desperately cling to their power and wealth at all costs. All the institutions of the government will be bent to this end. Growth stops and petrification begins. As Mr. Toynbee observed, there is no evidence that civilizations were victims of murder; they were always suicides. Stagnate Civilizations rot from the inside out.
Many MoA commenter feel that Western Civilization is in a crisis. I think Mr. Toynbee would agree (although, being a member of the British Empire, he hoped that Western Civilization would be able to break out of that depressing mold.) But Mr. Toynbee would not classify the present as the end of Civilization per se but as the end of the growth phase and the beginning of the stagnation. As an analogy, Western Civilization is at the end of the Roman Republic, not the end of the Western Roman Empire. A true Western Empire (likely led by the US) is in our future, not our past.
Posted by: TheBAG | Dec 8 2018 18:38 utc | 52
of course macrons ideas on africa are radical nobody says change is easy these migration policy will make france stronger.why would this strong government do things that where not in the interests of the republic that would be suicide no?
policy has to be set by are great and good it is why we vote these are are people we have chosen no?
leave them to set the policy we must work hard and build a new jerusalem france is a big fat country we have room for many good citizens from all over the world.
carbon credit trades on the stock markets connected to tax revenues is an inspired method for saving the warming planets no?
we must all pray that are police can go home and safe soons
Posted by: clemant | Dec 8 2018 18:38 utc | 53
Roy G @ 47
That's a simple one. Has been constant at least 50 years in my experience and probably applied before then. The guy with his mouth open urging any fool enough to listen to commit violent acts is a provocateur.
In the context of the current events in Paris there are ritual observances - young men throwing cobblestones at CRS - that are going to happen whether anyone verbally urges the act or not. In general when the time comes for genuine popular action it does just happen. No need to talk about it.
If you are flying blind, have no powers of observation, have no experience just don't go to the demo. Last few I attended the steering and manipulation of the crowd was overwhelmingly obvious. The hats and lapel pins and testosterone physiques were blindingly obvious. The last demo I almost attended but walked away from, the snipers on the roofs were making no effort to conceal themselves.
Posted by: oldhippie | Dec 8 2018 18:44 utc | 54
Beware "le casques blanc," (and their URL-I guess "resistance.fr" was already taken?) At least now they dont have the nuisance of travelling all the way from London to Syria over the holidays!
Posted by: slit | Dec 8 2018 18:55 utc | 55
@Posted by: ab initio | Dec 8, 2018 1:38:07 PM | 51
Smaller, by all means, it started in the range of 100.000 people, and today they showed around 30.000, as it has been the tendence during the three weekends...
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 19:07 utc | 56
I am French and live in France.
The current events in France are only incidents related to a racket.
France's problem is its debt.
In May 68 18 Jewish leaders overthrew General de Gaulle and imposed the former Pompidou President of Rothschild Bank. In 1973 he adopted the Rothschild law obliging the French state to borrow from private banks ... you know the rest.
France's debt represents 100% of its GDP.
France can not even pay interest on the debt ... the French state has just borrowed 225 billion to complete its 2019 budget ...
So the French pay more and more ... for everything ... it's a real racket organized by Macron former bank? form the bank ? ... Rothschild.
That's the truth.
The French people will have the balls to say to the crooks: "we do not pay the debt anymore"
Will the USA then send their F16s to bomb France? ... because that's how it happens when the people are opposed to Wall Street Jewish crooks ...
We are here.
Everything you hear from different can only be wrong.
Posted by: laurent | Dec 8 2018 19:10 utc | 57
Today, truth is the first casualty of war AND Revolution. The elite will deploy their treacherous mercenaries, infect, taint and shatter until the image and then the narrative is controlled to their benefit. They poison every struggle for truth and justice with their depraved double speak.
Today the problem with Revolution is you don't know who to trust anymore! It must start at the top, tearing down corruption one traitor at a time and holding the media's feet to the fire RELENTLESSLY! Revolutions have become a symbol of elite manipulation. True revolution is happening on the web in rooms like this. The internet is thankfully still beyond the absolute control of the elite and we should be fighting tooth and nail to keep it that way. This revolution in Paris has already been infected. There is only one way: expose all the rats on all sides of the political spectrum as they have infected, the Left, the Right and Center. They are hiding on your side and on my side in plain sight. They use our ideological frustration to control us and win each and every time. Collectively recognizing this fact and not falling for their latest left, right or center messiah is achieving half the victory.
Posted by: Circe | Dec 8 2018 19:23 utc | 58
“History is a lie
Money is a hoax
Debt is a fiction
Media is manipulation
Government is a corporation
The system is a lie
no no no this is rubbish we need a strong man in europe this great young man macron is the man for all seasons cometh the hour.
Europe has its destiny bound with Africa.
Extreme forces are rejoicing over the president’s predicament. Their ultimate goal is a political takeover of the continent
for Europe’s sake, Emmanuel Macron needs help – not our scorn or hatred.
Putin’s propaganda outlets, the relish is unmistakable. Upheaval and chaos in liberal democracies is what they thrive on.
Posted by: pasquel | Dec 8 2018 19:34 utc | 59
LOL nato propagandists on twitter already spread psyops about russian connection,
2 french guys outed because they support Russia:
https://twitter.com/Kyruer/status/1071469816643551232
Work of Integrity Initiative?
Posted by: Zanon | Dec 8 2018 19:57 utc | 60
@48 jr.. thanks.. i knew that.. what i was curious about was why is he relevant here?? maybe he is not and it was just a passing comment..
@52 the bag.. i disagree with your last line...
Posted by: james | Dec 8 2018 19:59 utc | 61
Bless the French for starting to demonstrate against neoliberal economics. Let it come to the US. Let it spread everywhere in the West.
Posted by: AriusArmenian | Dec 8 2018 20:10 utc | 62
James @ 61: Arguable that Western civilisation and the US in particular is at the stage reached by the Western Roman Empire in the 300s and 400s CE. The Roman Empire (in the west) was burdened by debt created by military over-spending on armies that increasingly employed mercenaries (often from outside the empire). Ordinary people were subjected to excessive taxation and there was flight away from the cities into the country. Emperors did not last long: the throne was more or less seized continually by army officers which they held for short reigns before they were overthrown by other army officers. On top of all this, peoples from outside the empire, displaced by Goths (themselves displaced by the Svear in southern Scandinavia) or by Huns, were trying to enter the empire to find stability. In parts of the empire there was a looming environmental catastrophe created by excessive deforestation (people cutting down trees to feed the demand for heating of public baths) resulting in soil erosion.
Posted by: Jen | Dec 8 2018 20:24 utc | 64
The use of chemical weapons should be condemned. Macron has no right to gas French citizens.
We must demand nato intervene to protect people of france that just want to be free.
we did this we showed muscle in iraq,libya and syria,the world saw what animal assad was doing now this.
we cannot allow gas to be used on the children yellow vesters,we said never again now this shirley we can now see macron is the new saddam gadaffi
Posted by: [email protected] | Dec 8 2018 20:34 utc | 65
Everything is in Paris and most of the hot spot in France is calm tonigt. A meager 39.000 demonstrated in France and only 8000 in Paris with and equal number of police !!!
The day of revolt in France was obviously a failure for the yellow vests revolt which has not managed to become an national movement. The 'revolution" is cancelled for those who dream of revolt of others far away.it every week the numbers will grow smaller.
Posted by: mimi | Dec 8 2018 20:46 utc | 66
Paris is not the only place that matters.
At the French/Spanish border, the yellow vests are successfully controlling the checkpoints. They slow down the traffic rather than blocking it, and apparently truck drivers and car drivers react sympathetically. The protest is wide-spread and peaceful. A reporter of the news site telepolis is there and reports (in German):
https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Gelbwesten-machen-Grenzen-zu-Frankreich-dicht-4246007.html
Posted by: mk | Dec 8 2018 20:48 utc | 67
lives available at www.leparisien.fr and lemonde.fr would have some of the main videos including from twitter accounts
some journos and photographers got badly injured because the police fires completely randomly into the smoke
Posted by: mina | Dec 8 2018 20:49 utc | 68
YellowVests all over France today
https://twitter.com/hibouQVT/status/1071460606358765569
Posted by: laurent | Dec 8 2018 20:57 utc | 69
It would be so easy for Macron to talk with the protesters, but no, instead he put the police out there to intimidate and threat the protesters to become violent.
This movement maybe dies tommorow, but this will hit Macron hard next election.
Posted by: Zanon | Dec 8 2018 21:00 utc | 70
@61 James
do you actualy have an opinion yourself, apart from just being a heartbleeding liberal?
Posted by: nox | Dec 8 2018 21:01 utc | 71
Erdogan comment:
‘Yellow vests’ reveal Europe’s failure in democracy, human rights: Erdogan
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/12/08/582386/Yellow-vests-erdogan
nox 71
+1, really capture it.
Posted by: Zanon | Dec 8 2018 21:06 utc | 72
Toulouse is on fire right now ! This is also spreading to over country’s. Can we please stick with reality here rather than your selfish personal agenders ! Jus sayin !
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 8 2018 21:08 utc | 73
Another view...more in the line of B´s analysis ( he even calls the 5th Republic a regime..). but which recognize that, as to date, this is a nationalist, far-right wing, white movement...He concludes that the ignition of the spark should be taken advantage by the whole anti-austerity labour movement, and as well better for the elites to pay attention, so as to not leaving the movement to rot under repression, when another unexpected developments could come if the anger is not placated now...
Towards a regime crisis in France...by Rafael Poch, former correspondet in Paris....
In June of 2017, when Macron won the presidential elections, I predicted a regime crisis in France. Since I arrived in that country, in 2014, until my dismissal as a correspondent in Paris a year ago, the impression of flammable matter has never stopped haunting me in anticipation of a spark. Many French observers on the left responded positively to my questions in that direction, but, surely driven by the fear that every intellectual has to be accused of taking their desires for reality, did not go beyond, "Yes, something may happen" .The protests against the labor laws of Hollande came (Macron was then counselor of the president, then minister of Economy) and the nuit debout the particular civic-youth movement of the Place de la République of Paris that did not fit like French 15-M. Later, with Macron as president, new protests against the labor reform as of autumn 2017. In both cases, the impression was the same: the discontent in France was general, but passive. The people who went out were the same as always; the political left (that is to say what is left of the Socialist Party), militants, some students and high school graduates (which in France are a political factor) and some small unions plus the CGT, the only great union center still not decaffeinated. There was no relationship between discontent and mobilization. And even more important: the most disadvantaged, the urban suburbs, dormitories of the unemployed France and of emigrant origin, were conspicuous by their absence. "Where are the banlieues?" We asked ourselves.
In the presidential victory of Macron things did not add up. There was a sense of precooked product by the powers that be in the shadow, a political fast food more typical of the other side of the Atlantic than of France. A victory that was imposed on the suspicious elimination, via the kompromat of the Penelopegate, the innocent scandal of the woman of the candidate of the traditional right, François Fillon, perhaps too much Gaullist and too little anti-Russian for some (to get right in these matters is always advisable think badly). And Macron's victory posed so much a crisis of legitimacy - very few people voted him out of conviction, the majority to elude Le Pen and with a record abstention - as a crisis of representativeness: the victory exploded the left / right divide, left out of game to the traditional parties and obtained a dominion of the elites in the National Assembly without precedents and without the minor correspondence with the reality of the French society.
If that was added the personality of the president, a young self-made triumphant technocrat and sponsored by the powers that be - the medium from which the most dangerous reactionaries leave - the cocktail was explosive. But a Molotov cocktail (or "Molokotov", as a friend's grandmother used to say when Franco) is something that does not ignite if there is no spark. The yellow vests are the spark.
Now on the street new faces are seen. It is not the political left, it is the normal people, the majority harmed by the macronía and offended by the impertinent verbal incontinence of this "president of the rich". People who are beyond politics, who do not vote, or who vote for the National Front, or the France Insoumise. A social revolt of those from below, of the majority France that has seen its life deteriorate in the last 20 or 30 years, but ... mostly white.
Peripheral neighborhoods of migrant origin are still absent. If that changes, if the fire caused by this spark finally catches on the banlieues, then yes we will be in the wake of the great French social insurrections that have provided so much oxygen to freedom and social progress in Europe since 1789.
You have to be very attentive to France. The claims have been expanding. In their last expression they offer a fairly complete catalog of a radical rejection of austerity, privatization and growing social inequality. Politicians complain that it is very difficult to negotiate with this (and there is the grace and force of the matter):
- More fiscal justice.
- Minimum wage of 1300 euros net.
- Favor the small commerce of towns and urban centers, cease the construction of large shopping centers around the big cities that kill small businesses.
- More free parking in the city centers.
- A plan to isolate homes to make ecology by saving the domestic economies.
- More taxes for large companies.
- Same social security system for all.
- No to the pension reform. No pension below 1,200 euros.
- Salaries indexed to inflation.
- Maximum salary of 15,000 euros.
- Protect the national industry. No to relocations.
- Limit temporary contracts.
- Industrial promotion of the hydrogen car (more ecological than electric).
- End of the austerity policy. Cessation of payment of illegitimate interest on the debt and combating tax fraud.
- That the asylum seekers be well treated and that action be taken against the causes of forced emigration.
- Limitation of rental prices.
- Prohibition of the sale of goods of the nation (dams, airports ....).
- 25 students per class maximum.
- Favor the rail transport of goods.
- Price maritime fuel and kerosene.
Of course many things are missing. As the French media complex is reacting to this crisis, it will soon appear some fundamental claim to democratize and demonopolize media that today are 80% in the hands of large corporations and billionaires logically hostile to the interests of the social majority .
But, if this is negotiated, or something like this, we can throw the curtain on the policy of European austerity: the sum of a standing France, plus a United Kingdom outside the EU, plus the end of the merkelato, will leave the austeritarian agenda of the German right out of combat in the EU.
If, on the other hand, it is not negotiated and opted for repression, or for letting the movement rot, it will be necessary to see what the social reaction is, and, in any case, other future sparks will not have been remedied, since the presence of Flammable matter is no longer a hypothesis, but an established fact. In any case, the entire regime of the Fifth Republic could be subject to serious proof. You have to be very attentive to France, because the change in the EU depends on it.
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 21:20 utc | 74
BHL represents the institutional privilege of well-connected French Zionists.
We can leave aside his willful destruction of the political legacy of JP Sartre, his genuine and on-going support of the genocides in Palestine and Iraq, his 'happy' role in the bombardment of Libya; what is important about him is the privilege he represents.
Posted by: Castellio | Dec 8 2018 21:28 utc | 75
The French are a strange race. They can sit in the most nauseating perfect urban or rural conformity with their little poodles and everything has to match and then they they suddenly become the most revolutionary people on earth
Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 8 2018 21:36 utc | 76
>The original cancer is way the other side of the Athlantic....and you all know it...
>Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8, 2018 11:03:26 AM | 24
The original cancer is maybe not so far from France. The English colonies were a capitalist venture approved by King of England: [1]
On April 10, 1606, King James I of England granted a charter forming two joint-stock companies.
So right from the start Uncle Sam and his predecessors were set up in the "New World" for the express purpose of generating a return on investment by exploiting natural resources and cheap labor. The "business model" included slavery, conscription, and killing any native peoples who objected.
All the blather about "freedom" and "liberty" was a facade, which is now being ripped away. Even Uncle Sam's peons are starting to notice that half of us have a family member who has been or is in prison, on parole, on probation, on bail, or desperately staying one step ahead of an arrest warrant.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Bay_Colony
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Dec 8 2018 21:43 utc | 77
Seems there is a disconnected between the people and their government, just as there is here. As a privatized American I ask: they've got their social democracy! We have bupkiss, we have a national day of mourning for an oligarch with good manners, we have debt peonage. What more do they want? They want more social democracy! And there's the reason there will be a huge struggle to prevent Bernie Sanders from gaining too much influence. Give them a little social democracy and the ingrate will demand more and more! Soon the oligarchy will grow thin and waste away!
Posted by: jadan | Dec 8 2018 21:44 utc | 78
Does the fall of Macron, mean the rise of Marine Le Pen??
Will she be the next president of France?
Posted by: plantman | Dec 8 2018 22:06 utc | 79
Why do you call them "Les Déplorables"? There was nothing in the blog post to indicate that the media or anyone was calling them deplorables.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Dec 8 2018 22:07 utc | 80
Frenchman speaking here, pardon my poor English/Globish.
Just wanted to share some insights that could help understanding some of the "gilets jaunes" anger.
https://img.lemde.fr/2018/10/12/0/0/534/914/688/0/60/0/fdcbe46_zpyLlSXEctIfOjMH-vyEd_Mc.png
The data comes from the most mainstream french newspaper "Le Monde". It gathers the influence of the Macron's fiscal policy towards the households (ménages). y-axis shows the variation of revenues for the households (positive means a higher purchasing power, while negative means harder "end-of-the-month"). x-axis shows the partition of the revenue (1er is the 1% poorest french household, 100e is the 1% richest household). First graph is for the whole french households. Second graph is only for still-working households. Third graph is only for retired households.
1st observation: while it is more or less the same (between -1% and +1% revenues) for the first 99% french, it is +6% for the 1% richest!
2nd observation: except for the richest 1%, all the other retired households are suffering for the fiscal policies. This could explain why these "riots" are not the usual lefties unions demonstrations. The gilets jaunes anger, imho, is fueled by the feeling of injustice, seeing the "élite parisienne" playing the good guys about making the planet great again and welcoming refugees while the other french cannot continue to live as they used to.
Posted by: Sanada Yukimura | Dec 8 2018 22:13 utc | 81
>Soon the oligarchy will grow thin and waste away!
And with no bosses, how will us peons know what to do? We'll all just run around in circles like chickens with their heads cut off! Please, somebody, anybody, tell us what to do!
Posted by: Trailer Trash | Dec 8 2018 22:16 utc | 82
@Mark2 #73: Thank you! A certain fake-ass "communist" would have us believe that gilets jeunes are right-wing fascists (they are not), he claims this is all a conspiracy because he saw a man in military fatigues (it's not), he claims the numbers are dwindling (the opposite is true), he claims the protests will result in the social safety net being eroded (and yet, gilets jeunes have just forced the government to abandon the fuel tax hike, and are now demanding the re-introduction of the wealth tax abolished by Macron). These constant smears against gilets jeunes only increase my confidence that this is a true popular movement. It may have been initiated by someone who wanted to hurt Macron, but now it's much more than that.
Posted by: S | Dec 8 2018 22:27 utc | 83
F. Hollande's presidency: he was an accidental pres. as the no. 1 guy for the spot, D. Strauss-Khan, was knocked away by the NY Sofitel sex-scandal.
Subsequently, as agreed upon by the F. PTB., the next pres. was supposed to be Alain Juppé, why that choice idk.
As F aspired to become ‘more democratic’ and copy the US they set up ‘primaries’ in the two main pol. parties, probably just to look good and obfuscate, and keep ppl busy and concentrated on the Prez election for 2 years, whatever. I interpret all that as a ‘clueless’ effort at face-saving BS optics.
The now Les Républicains primaries (party voters..) threw up not Juppé but Francois Fillon, who immediately came under attack and was pushed away in a ‘scandal’ hyped by the media, for having family members paid by his envelope, which, btw, a third or more of French Parliamentarians do, it is perfectly legal, and standard. Fillon was, is, mildly pro-Russia (as in not swayed by the Russophobia propaganda), Catholic (smacks of traditional social values), and married to a Brit.
A vacuum. No candidates from the left / right were suitable or even available! .. (Le Pen has never been a serious contender, she is a figure who has other functions.)
In extremis, Macron was parachuted in, as a ‘new face.’ Desperate times call for extraordinary measures. Junior Jupiter, Macron, encouraged to take the lead, has to be ‘managed’ and kept in check. (e.g. Benalla scandal) as he thinks he has real power and can effect ‘change’, aka be a loose cannon, that can’t be allowed.
Posted by: Noirette | Dec 8 2018 22:43 utc | 84
S @ 81
And thank you too! Ahh reality at last ! Good on ya !
It’s very simple what we have here is chaos and confusion, granted, born out of dissatisfaction, enlightenment that the 1% are laughing at the 99%
The public ! Someone asked what do we do? He it is ! Forget the left or right we’re all the 99% ! Don’t victim blame it’l acheve nothin!
Also we need to keep two steps ahead of um! And have insight, pride and unity. Bare in mind the elite are watching this ! Are they laughing? I hope not. I hope there nervous. Left or right we’re all the public. The deluded one’s are victims to (like the ‘freandly’rebels ) they jus don’t know it !
Hold our nerve this is all but won ! Thank you France.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 8 2018 23:03 utc | 85
OH NOOOOH! Not that scheming Zionist interloper, busybody party crasher extraordinaire BHL!
But this scumbag says nothing of the brown shirts in Israel!
See I told you it wouldn't be long before the Revolution is tainted. Zionist polluter of independent thought.
Be wary of what he likes and pretends to dislike. This is the type of elitist that poisons minds and withers democracy even though he preaches it. He's a messenger of the shitty Zionist enclave that always has sabotage of other people's choice on the agenda when it doesn't fit with Zionist power.
Posted by: Circe | Dec 8 2018 23:14 utc | 86
Many people don't understand the French, particularly those from the Anglo-Saxon world.
We expect the French to be exactly like ourselves, and, I suppose, the French are the same when they express exasperation at the Anglo-Saxon.
What makes the French inherently different, in attitude and outlook, is that they are the descendants of a successful working class revolution. I know that this has been rolled back to a large extent but the outlook, of equality (not of "opportunity" but actual "equality") remains.
The language is different as well. English with its deferential, constant use of "sorry", "please", "thank-you", and "sir" is anathema to the French. The French language is more structured towards equality and is decidedly, non-deferential. This is why the English perceive the French as rude and the French perceive the English-speaker as, well, cowed, insincerely "inferior" and aggravatingly indirect. Language moulds the people who speak it, more so than the people mould their language. As an English-speaker I can see that the language I use makes me adopt a deferential (class-based) posture.
There will be many different kinds of actor on the gilets jaunes protests, including agent provocateurs, state-actors, revolutionaries, anarchists, but these will have little effect on how the protest develop. (Such actors are always present and do not have the power to escalate or de-escalate protest, but do have the power to act at crucial moments - that is, they can act in certain "circumstances", but cannot create such "circumstances" and cannot control the outcome of their acts). However, you may, if you wish, fume at these "malign actors" if the protests take a direction that is not to your pleasing.
These protests are somehow not as worthwhile as the May 1968 "revolution"? In fact the May 1968 protests were decidedly lacking in need and direction and had only one substantive objective; the overthrow of de Gualle. The May 1968 protests were largely centered around Paris and were not supported by the vast majority of the population. It is much more likely that Pompidou and the French establishment used the protests as a way of getting rid of de Gaulle rather than the protests being directly responsible for that outcome.
Fast-forward 60 years and we see a protest that is much more widespread, enjoys a huge majority of public support and is motivated by real deprivation. That is why Cohn-Bendit is frightened of the gilet jaunes, it is too real, too "sans-coulottes".
Listen, communist! Marxist! left-winger! however you style yourself - it is not your role to poke holes in a worker's movement. Your role is on the street with the "gilets jaunes", leading, if your views are so correct, but not disparaging and running down those who have actually gotten off the sofa and decided that enough-is-enough.
The media described the Yankovych Government of Ukraine as a "regime" even though it was the outcome of a democratic election. The media describes the democratically elected government of Venezuela as a "regime". Now the language comes back to be used against Macron and there are objections? Macron was democratically elected but only as the result of quite staggering manipulations. (I have gone into this previously so I won't repeat myself other than to say that Macron would not have won against any other candidate other than Le Pen and to achieve this, quite extraordinary efforts where made to ensure that Le Pen was the candidate Macron faced).
So we (in the West) use the language of "regime" against other democracies yet somehow it is not acceptable when such language is used against a western government? We destabilise other Nations without a thought that this will have an effect on the West? We think that we can provoke conflicts, cause wars, mobilise troops, along the outskirts of Europe (i.e. in North Africa, Middle East, Eastern & Central Europe, borders of Russia) and somehow think that this will have no effect on Europe? That it is actually a question of morality that such things could not happen in Europe??? We imagine that resources can be squeezed from the European worker and they will be too supine to revolt?
We are creating the conditions for a huge catacyclism that will sweep Europe, as we know it, away. But don't worry it's all the fault of the burly guy in the photo, y'know, the one with the bandage, who on earth could he be?
Posted by: ADKC | Dec 8 2018 23:32 utc | 87
To add to the fact about the presence of masked, sunglassed, backpacked foreign operatives in military fatigues fuelling the riots....Here comes Trump.... supporting the France riots, the same way he supported the Iranian riots, twitting that the crowd in "chanting his name"....It´s not me who say it, but Adam Garrie, who is not, precisely, a "fake-ass communist"...
Then you have that the usual chorus who have supported Trump all the way since the beginning are dispelling the usual schadenfreude about the fall of the EU...something which was in the mouth of the alt-right, and his dieologue, Bannon, since always...
Eventhough some try to spread squid ink so as confusse, still... 2+2=4
Posted by: Sasha | Dec 8 2018 23:32 utc | 88
bhl is one of the great minds of this and the last century many times his voice has been a beacon a megafon for the weak helpless the abused the victims of race hate and antisemitism.his message cannot be dimmed.for truth cannot be unheard once spoken.
i met bhl at the sorbonne many years ago and the audience was enraptured for many hours ne comnnects the dots so we see 1939 in many modern events. he is honest about the true nature of the arabs so what the truth hurts.he spells out that russia has been playing games with the brexit and using shock troup russian infiltraiters in the gilets jaunes riots.
bhl is a zionist so what maybe he is hoping his words can stop another 1939 in germany all overs again
Posted by: paul | Dec 8 2018 23:34 utc | 89
Interesting so many of the newer commenters spend much more time and effort criticising what they reckon the new regime will be than they do analysing the thefts and extortions of 40 years of the old regime.
I came here after seeing the graun page on cohn-bendt, vomiting then thinking about how exactly the same disgusting act was put on a few years back in Aotearoa when the 60's radical 'leaders' well into late middle age, made a grab for some of the comforts their neolib apprentices had created.
Same same with cohn-bendt whose way of life is thanks to EU neoliberalism and his open friendship with the macron excrement. This is exactly the type of tosh the graun pushes out to the bourgeois once were radicals 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Useful as an indicator of early 21st century corruption but worthless as a guide to better living for all humans.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 9 2018 0:03 utc | 90
Thank you b, for continuing to report on this. In your first sentences you link to the previous post - I strongly urge folk to follow that link, particularly to the second page of comments. The extent of the unrest in France is substantiated there by comments from the French and from others - it is deep and it is genuine. And it is not just Paris. From one of the French commenters, Willie:
"...So the people vote for the other guy,left,right,left right,and this guy does exactly he same politics,,after he sais ,campaigning, that international finance was his biggest enemy!So the French endure another cycle of five years..."
Sound familiar?
Posted by: juliania | Dec 9 2018 0:09 utc | 91
BHL is an enormous hypocrite. In his article on the gilet jaunes protests, BHL accuses them of being proto-fascist by asking them to turn over 'violent "brown vests"' to the police knowing full well that this won't happen (not least because it is inherently impractical and completely diversionary), accuses them of being at a crossroads between chaos (the fascist option) or creating a movement "not unlike...Macron's" (the legitate option), but denies the gilet jaunes the legitimacy of being able to freely choose e.g. Melanchon or Ruffin (who BHL describes as "political profiteers").
BHL frames the choice as a binary option that only exists in his head (not in reality).
So, unless the gilet jaunes choose a Macron-like path, any other choice, even to follow the established, "legitimate" political leaders of Melenchon or Ruffin, means they are illegitimate and fascist??? What a contemptible, manipulative, but (thankfully) transparent pile of horse-shit!
No, the real choice is whether or not the French state can accommodate the jaunes gilet demands or whether the French state will use violence to crush them. It is obvious that many posters here today are helping us prepare to accept the "crush the workers" option. Should the French State choose this "path" then the reaction to such action will determine whether the protest movement disappears or becomes a revolution.
Posted by: ADKC | Dec 9 2018 0:18 utc | 92
Large numbers of people who ought to have known better blamed the French Revolution of 1789- on foreigners, freemasons, agents of the Duc d'Orleans etc. As a matter of fact throughout the revolution such rumours spread quickly and drove people into immediate action- to thwart the Aristos, Masons, Protestants, Jews, Germans or whoever, even though they did not exist.
Our old friend Friar William of Ockham is the most reliable guide: if the revolution begins with long oppressed people, suspicious that they are being tricked and cheated, marching in protest, in the hope that the powers that be will listen and reform their behaviour, you can tell that that is what it is about. Of course there will be flics, provocateurs etc but they won't change anything- uprisings such as these develop their own momentum, in the face of which the cunning tactics of manipulators and dilettantes will have no effect.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 9 2018 0:19 utc | 93
I will add, to the commenter who questioned why the post uses the phrase "Les deplorables", that this is rather a term of respect for those protesting as, like many who voted against Hillary Clinton in the US, the term was taken up after she used it, (much as the vests issued by the French Government, come to think of it) as a rallying cry against her. It represents the bedrock of community, those looked down upon by the elites, the ones who are paying for the latter ones' lifestyles.
Posted by: juliania | Dec 9 2018 0:20 utc | 94
- There were also "yellow vests" protests in Belgium and the Netherlands.
http://time.com/5474753/yellow-vest-protests-belgium-the-netherlands/
Posted by: Willy2 | Dec 9 2018 0:29 utc | 95
the global compact for safe orderly and regular migration.
18th dec
UN Migration Pact: Europe & Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAl2onqFLMs
Posted by: myles | Dec 9 2018 0:39 utc | 96
TheBAG @52--
Thanks for bringing in Toynbee; our historical outlooks are quite similar. I would say the Outlaw US Empire is going through its flash-in-the-pan existence and will be eclipsed by the rising Eastern Civilization.
Laurent @57--
Thanks for pointing at the crux of the problem and for how long it's existed, which several other writers have tried to illuminate.
The root that currently needs uprooting is the EU and the webs of private finance that are strangling the essence of life globally--except in those nations being attacked by the owners of The Web, what was deemed the Money Power during the late 19th century. That will take care of one of the 3 Roots; the other two reside in London and New York. Uprooting the EU will allow Eurasia to become whole and compel the demise of the Outlaw US Empire of which the UK is an integral part, as are the other 3 Eyes.
So, what's happening in France is very important and b is quite right to provide close coverage, for which he deserves our thanks!
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 9 2018 0:43 utc | 97
I have a yellow vest hanging on my front porch in support. I have not heard the same from other MoA commenters but that is not to disparage their contribution to b's excellent journalism.
I understand that a part of my yellow vest display is a projection of my own desire to see a spark of humanity ignite into demand for structural change in our Western world during what is left of my lifetime.
I pine for the public of the Western world to wake from their cultural zombiedom to an understanding that our species has evolved enough to manage the complexities of international finance as a community rather than as slaves to the elite that currently control the lifeblood of Western "civilization". I encourage everyone to think about how such a change would impact the social narratives that drive our lives....in an immensely positive way.....back to the dream of E Pluribus Unum instead of the ongoing chains of In God We Trust
Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 9 2018 1:30 utc | 98
Posted by: Jen | Dec 8, 2018 3:24:12 PM | 64
I thought about this before and estimated the current decline at the early 200s Roman Time. This is a bit later than when the Roman decline started (mid/late 100s). And a bit later than when the strong migration pressure against both the Romans or the West started.
The current clear US imperial decline started relatively recently, lets say in 2001. Same for migration pressure against the EU and somewhat (a bit later) same for migration pressure against the US. So it could take a bit longer for things to collapse, although things in recent times change rapidly.
Emperor Trajan defeated the eastern Parthian Empire just like the US defeated the USSR and brought the US at the height of its power. This is when both empires were at their height.
After that migration pressure increased and fiscal troubles started.
I saw the imperial wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the long expensive wars against restive barbarians that Marcus Aurelius waged, that threatened to bankrupt the empire, just after the Roman decline was starting.
In the 300s the Empire was divided in two halves. A possible break between the EU and the US incoming? And what if part of the Empire survives, just as Bizantium survivied? Maybe some part of the current empire could survive too, but it will no longer be that powerful and will be one among many actors.
Posted by: Passer by | Dec 9 2018 2:18 utc | 99
psychohistorian | Dec 8, 2018 8:30:52 PM | 95
Not that whatever we do will mean much in the total of things to come but my aversion to yellow jackets became deeply ingrained when I first returned to Aotearoa and noticed that these jackets were a la mode among law enforcement. Since then they have become de rigeur among corporatised manual workers and I'm afraid very few of this once loudly independent class of human are not corporatised. So altho well before the french hit the streets I had been trying to coach myself away from my initial reaction towards people so dressed as most are decent humans when I'm out and spot a blob of yellow in the distance my first reaction is UhOh! F***ing coppers - eyes dart around vehicle looking for anything that may be deemed incriminating - get ready to ditch phone etc altho mostly it is another bloke of similar vintage to myself wobblin up the road on his bike plus of course old bill rarely stop greybeards preferring to harass young fellas so they can do their usual dick measuring prior to "HA HA Ha idjit I've got all the power you're under arrest" etc.
So although yellow jackets impact me very little personally nowadays I just cannot beat my aversion to them, despite empathising with French yellow jackets completely. If I hung one on my front porch I'm sure I would startle myself every time I came down the drive lol.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Dec 9 2018 2:44 utc | 100
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RT with some live coverage of Paris.
Escalating quickly ...
Posted by: b | Dec 8 2018 12:02 utc | 1