Gilets Jaunes

After reading the latest from The New York Times on the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) uprising in France, Adam Nossiter's "‘Yellow Vests’ Riot in Paris, but Their Anger Is Rooted Deep in France," one comes away with the impression that the movement will not die down anytime soon.

Alissa Rubin reports the results of Saturday's protest:

More than 260 people were wounded nationwide, at least 133 of them in Paris, according to the prefecture of police. Some were bystanders caught in the fray who needed treatment after exposure to tear gas. About 412 people were arrested nationwide.

The prefect of Paris, Michel Delpuech, said at a news conference late Sunday that the police had been faced with “extreme and unprecedented violence” and that protesters had thrown hammers and steel ball bearings at them.

Firefighters extinguished nearly 250 blazes that destroyed 112 cars and burned other property, including several buildings. The cost of the damage was being assessed on Sunday.

The French are comparing it to the student-worker rebellion of 1968.

Writing for Jacobin, Aurelie Dianara defines the Yellows Vests as a reaction to Macron's redistribution of wealth to the 1% and the widening immiseration of the working class:

In terms of their demands, the gilets jaunes first of all want to get rid of this “carbon tax.” But behind the anger there is something else. As they and their supporters have repeated over the last two weeks, to justify their actions (which have stirred no little upset), the fuel price issue is something of a “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

The voices heard in recent days express a clear feeling of exasperation, the sense of being the objects of the contempt of (and exclusion by) a political class which they generally reject. Many call for the government and President Emmanuel Macron to resign. They continually insist on his low support and weak electoral legitimacy: after all, in last year’s presidential contest he only scored 24 percent in the first round, and turnout in the runoff hit historic low. “Macron, resign!” is a slogan that thunders through the provinces and along the Champs Elysées.

This feeling of exasperation is the result of years of fiscal and social policies that have gradually strangled the low and middle classes, including in terms of the tax take. Immediately upon reaching office, Macron abolished the Solidarity Wealth Tax (ISF), giving €4 billion to the richest; and has strengthened the Tax Credit for Solidarity and Employment (CICE), a tax cut and exemption program transferring €41 billion a year to French companies, including multinationals. Shortly afterwards, with the 2018 budget bill, Macron established a flat tax that allowed a lowering of taxation on capital, handing another €10 billion to the richest.

At the same time, the government has increased the General Social Contribution (CSG) income tax to be paid by pensioners, while pensions themselves have ceased to be indexed to inflation (and thus to retirees’ ability to buy consumer goods). It has got rid of the subsidized contracts (which allowed large numbers to work on contracts partly financed by public bodies) and lowered by five euros a month the amount of housing contributions (APL) for the most disadvantaged.

As if that were not enough, the new “carbon tax” will weigh five times heavier on the budgets of the middle classes than on that of the upper classes. Yet the government has taken no steps to counterbalance this obviously unequal treatment — for example by giving aid to the families on the most modest budgets.

Building on policies already implemented by presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, the effect has been to produce a further massive increase in inequalities. Over the last two decades the largest fortunes in France have increased tenfold, while according to a recent study by OFCE and INSEE, French families’ average “purchasing power” has fallen by €440 a year since the 2008 crisis. In this context, it is unsurprising that a sense of injustice and humiliation has spread, as well as that of an arrogant “president of the rich.”

This has exacerbated a divide between the people and the privileged elite represented by the president, aggravated by a series of recent financial scandals enveloping recent heads of state. If governments have continued to repeat that tax breaks for the richest and big companies would stimulate investment, the figures tell us otherwise: we are still waiting for the million jobs promised by Hollande and his then-adviser Macron when CICE was launched in 2012.

We must see that the Yellow Vests are a continuation of Occupy Wall Street, the difference being that the movement originated from the exurbs rather than the urban core; also, the Yellow Vests don't dither when it comes to making demands, and the movement is not yoked to the occupation of a prominent public space.

The basic facts of life since the dot-com bubble and burst nearly two decades ago are rising housing costs and stagnant wages. Governments have done nothing to address the problem. Why? Because it is not of problem for the people whom those governments serve: The wealthy.

Eventually though the peasants rebel, even under the paradigm of zombie neoliberalism.

Macron shows no sign yet of recognizing the enormity of the challenge with which he is faced. Zombie neoliberalism has managed to last this long because there has not been a legitimate social democratic crack in its market-worshiping armor. That's about to change in Mexico. In the UK May should be gone before the end of the month.

Faced with a rebellion, what can Macron do? Both Le Pen and Melenchon are calling for the dissolution of the national assembly followed by new elections. Macron will declare a state of emergency first before he dissolves the national assembly.

In any event, this Saturday the Yellow Vests will be on the march again.