THE YELLOW VESTS
PROTESTING FUEL TAX AND OTHER GRIEVANCES, THE GILET JAUNES HAVE BECOME A SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE AFTER PROTESTS IN PARIS TURNED VIOLENT AND DESTRUCTIVE
Since mid-november the gilets jaunes or Yellow Vests movement has carried out demonstrations across France and in the French overseas territory of Reunion. Increases in diesel and petrol taxes were the original causes of the protests which drew people mainly from the countryside and city suburbs. They claimed that drivers of private vehicles living in these locations rather than urban folk who had the beneit of public transport had been unfairly targeted by the rise in the fuel taxes.
They soon added to their list of grievances the high cost of living, the abolition of the wealth tax, President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms, and Macron himself. His neoliberal programme has been roundly rejected by many French voters who cast ballots for him in the expectation that he would deliver justice and equality. The vests have become symbols of resistance.
Gilets jaunes see Macron and the wealthy governing elite as isolated in their comfortable lives in Paris while the middle class struggles and the nine million French who are either on the brink of or deep in poverty suffer. Macron’s taxes on fuel are meant to compel people to reduce consumption with the aim of combating global warming, but cash-strapped protesters argue they cannot afford price hikes designed to save the planet. Governments hesitate to heavily tax corporate carbon emissions for fear that irms will relocate to low tax or tax-free locations or countries.
Inequality has become the central issue, drawing in farmers, students, iremen, ambulance drivers, shop owners, anti-racist organisations, and, even, climate change activists whose cause is being undermined by the gilets jaunes. They demand both a minimum wage and a maximum wage, particularly for bankers, high ranking public servants and members of parliament.
Some gilets jaunes also call for revolutionary political change through popular participation in decision making through frequent referenda as is the case in Switzerland.
Fearing that they are being left behind by the gilets jaunes, trade unions have called strikes and demonstrations calling for social justice. Criminal elements have exploited the unrest by putting on vests to attack the police, loot shops and torch vehicles.
The protests, announced by Facebook entries, have drawn thousands and have become weekly events disrupting life in central Paris and other cities and towns. There are no leaders and there is no association with any political party. Leftists, rightists, fascists, and anarchists take part in rallies as well as a-political people.
Dressed in helmets and armour and bearing shields like medieval knights, riot police have used tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets against protesters. They have responded by throwing paving stones, cafe chairs and tables, and lashing out with staves. A dozen people have died due to trafic accidents caused by the protests, hundreds of protesters have been injured and thousands detained.
The movement began last May with an online petition against fuel taxes launched by a woman