Soyons Realists, Demandons L'impossible!" ("Be Realistic, Demand The Impossible!")
More than one and half month is over, and still the "Yellow Vest" protestors are creating a furore on the French streets, though recently, the intensity of the protest has somehow receded. Now the question is, what actually is going on in France.
Chronicle of events
In May 2018 a woman of France moved an online petition on the change.org website to oppose proposed fuel tax hike. It reached more than 938 325 signatories on the internet on November 20. Parallel to this petition, two men launched a Facebook event for Nov 17 to "block all roads" and thus protest. One of the viral videos around this group launched the idea of using yellow jackets, donning the yellow breakdown-safety vests which, as per law of the land, is compulsorily required to keep in the cars.
The protests began on 17 November 2018, and attracted more than 300,000 people across France with protesters constructing barricades and blocking roads. In addition to roads, protesters also blocked as many as ten fuel depots. Since then, it continued every weekend. Gradually the protests started to become bigger and violent. Meanwhile, newer demands also started to incorporate into the movement. On Dec 4, the Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, announced the proposed fuel tax hike was being suspended for six months. He also announced an immediate freeze on gas and electricity prices.
In his 10 December speech to the French people in response to the movement, President Macron pledged a €100 per month increase in the minimum wage in 2019, along with some other relief of the taxes borne by the poorer section and pensioners. Still the protests are continuing in every weekend; and according to latest update as on Jan 26, 2019, thousands of protesters have assembled at different corners of France with more tightened security arrangement of the government.
What caused such anger?
The movement has surfaced spontaneously completely from below, rejecting all established political parties. Many of the protesters are from lower middle class section of the society, live in rural or suburban areas, and their dependence on a car for transport is essential. According to the BBC, "It's no accident that cars were the spark that ignited this anger. ? Those in city centres have a wealth of public transport to choose from, but you need to be rich enough to live in the centre of Paris or Marseille or Bordeaux, and most people are not. ? Without a car, those in France who have been priced out of the big cities would struggle to get to work, take their children to school and even to shop for groceries." (Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/yellow_vests)
So, it is apparent why the proposed rise of eco-fuel tax has caused the anger. But this is not all. "Yellow Vest" movement actually is a reflection of wail and howling of the French toiling masses - their blind rebellion against an utterly exploitative system which runs only for and by the super-riches. Let's see. We'll able to understand the gravity of the situation if we start our journey from a simple question - why protests are only in Saturdays? "I can't go on strike," explains one woman. "I'm raising three kids alone. My job, that's all I have left. Coming on Saturdays is the only way for me to show my anger." (Source: http://forhumanliberation.blogspot.com/2018/12/3107-self-organized-yellow-vest-protest.html) Why so? This year the price of diesel has increased by 23 percent and petrol by 14 percent. In addition, the government has recently announced that diesel and petrol prices will increase further. Immediately after coming to power, Macron abolished the Solidarity Wealth Tax (ISF), giving €4 billion to the richest; has taken a tax cut and exemption program amounting €41 billion a year to French companies, including multinationals. Through 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. (All the information here has been taken from: http://www.frontierweekly.com/views/dec-18/5-12-18-%20France.html). As a whole, there is a sense of unfairness - a feeling that the struggling lower middle class are being asked to shoulder more than their fair share of the burden, while France's millionaires have seen their top rate of tax slashed.
Anger - Reflection of a deeper fissure
France has a particular history of development of neo-liberal economy. The basis of post-world war II economic and political recovery was at the one hand, strong state intervention in industrial development and at the same time, wooing away the French working class from leftist politics and political unionism by a more elaborate and better financed welfare system as well as expanded opportunities for the upward social mobility to transcend class conflict. However, since mid-seventies of last century, this policy started to face the challenge due to impact of growing global economic crisis. Since then, to handle the crisis the ruling big bourgeoisie started to implement neo-liberal economic policies.
The progress of neo-liberalism with the stagnation or regression of wages, the adoption of new labour management strategies and an extension of the privatization of public services have been accompanied by the financialization of the French economy. France is one of the developed countries where financialization and liberalization of controls on foreign investment have gone furthest. But the most devastating effect of it is the constantly high level of unemployment (around 10 per cent over the last two decades) and the expansion of precarious working conditions (part-time jobs, short-term contracts). The reduction in support payments to the unemployed, along with measures designed to further deregulate the labour market has only enhanced the sufferings of the unemployed and social welfare recipients. The fear of unemployment and the related personal and social consequences has a chilling effect across the breadth of society, along with the fear of the threats of offshoring the job, conveniently used by the employers to roll back wages and increase working time without any financial compensation.
For the past four decades, French people have been worried about the erosion of social protections in their country. Since Francois Mitterrand's socialist government controversially decided to impose austerity policies in 1983, successive governments have taken slow but consistent steps to dismantle the French welfare state.
However, the key pillars of the French welfare state that still remains standing: public pensions, healthcare and education, and relatively stable long-term employment contracts with benefits for a major section of organised industrial workers, even though badly battered during nearly forty years of neoliberal reforms by the all the governments.
The situation has further deteriorated during post-2008 financial crisis. Serious efforts have been initiated to further reforms of labour laws which led to massive protests in 2014. The privatization of French Railways (one of the biggest employments in France) has been initiated in 2018. At the one end, one after another measures to subsidize the industrialists and super-riches, and at the other end more and more withdrawal of the welfare benefits have been initiated during last ten years. Meanwhile, impact of the problems like unemployment, rising cost of living as well as downgrading of the standard of living, increasing economic disparity etc have all been affecting the lives of the lower echelon of the society much more since last few years.
Here, another aspect of France needs to be brought forward. France has a multi-party political system. Here the numbers of competing political parties are sufficiently large and that makes every single party almost inevitable to negotiate with one or more parties to form electoral alliances. The dominant French political parties are also characterized by a noticeable degree of intra-party factionalism, making each of them effectively a coalition in itself. Prior to formation of present Macron government, the government of France had alternated between two rather stable coalitions: one, the parliamentary Lefts led by the Socialist Party and with minor partners and on the centre-right, one led by The Republicans (and previously its predecessors, the Union for a Popular Movement, Rally for the Republic) and the Union of Democrats and Independents. And, both the coalitions have all along implemented neo-liberal economic agenda during last 40 years.
So, while at the one end, the continuous deterioration of the standard of living of the toiling masses and on the other end, the serving of the riches by both the coalition governments have made the lower stratum of the masses more and more suspicious of all mainstream politicians on the right and the left. They have started believing that these politicians protects the interests of the wealthy and does not care about the well-being of ordinary citizens. On the eve of the 2017 presidential election, French voters wanted a different kind of leader, someone who can understand their long-rooted social and economic concerns and deliver real, practical solutions.
The emergence of Macron as Presidential candidate appeared as a fresh possibility to them.
Successfully diagnosing the public's frustration with the political class, Macron worked hard to differentiate himself from the establishment in Paris and act as the representative of a "new world order" throughout his election campaign. He was the leader of a brand-new political party, aligned neither with the right nor the left, without carrying any political baggage. He emerged with pledges to change the face of French politics, create more jobs and improve lives. Many viewed him as a possible saviour and did not hesitate to give him their vote. As a result, Macron was elected by a landslide. However, it didn't take long for his supporters to realise that all those were nothing more than an illusion.
Once elected, Macron showed his true colours almost immediately. He decided to amend the wealth tax - known in France as "ISF" - scrapping the wealth levy on everything except property assets ? in effect cutting the tax by 70 per cent as well as relieving the assets amounting 1.3m euros. This led to him being swiftly labelled the "president of the rich". His lack of empathy towards the common masses coupled with business-friendly policies helped shape the French public's perception of Macron as an arrogant, privileged politician who is a friend of the rich and the powerful. The fuel tax that he tried to impose on people that are already feeling their economic concerns are being ignored was the straw that broke the camel's back.
This is why the yellow vest movement is not just about fuel prices. There is a profound discontent among ordinary people in France who see themselves as the losers in a world dominated by super-riches. It becomes apparent to them that Macron is pursuing the exact same neoliberal agenda his predecessors pursued in the 1980's. And just like the policies of his predecessors, his policies are hurting the poorest and helping the rich get even richer.
The specificity of "Yellow Vest" movement
The "Yellow Vest" movement shows that even after such a defeat of the first campaign of the international socialist movement, a phase has now arrived when globally a process of fresh assertion from below, though still in a very embryonic stage, has started - and the "Yellow Vest" movement represents that new assertion, previously reflected in Tahrir Square, 15M, OWS, Shahbag etc. And as long as the protest is spontaneous and leaderless, the character of the protest is basically expressing the anger and frustration against what's going on in their lives, and composition of the protestors is basically amorphous in nature, it is quite natural that the movement itself would reflect lots of self-contradiction. Here below, some of those self-contradictions are being mentioned.
Various demands have surfaced in the movement after withdrawal of proposed eco-fuel tax. "Grievance List" of "Yellow Vests" encompassing more than 40 different issues is circulated in the protests, in which demands like "End of the austerity policy", "More progressive income tax rates", "Create jobs for the unemployed", "Stop privatisation, end profiteering, gambling with pension funds" etc have surfaced at the one end, at the same time, demands like exit from Eurozone, minting own currency, exit from NATO, stopping entry of immigrants etc are making ultra-rightists of France more than happy!
While resignation of Macron still remains the core of the demand, support for Edouard Philippe as alternative President has already been voiced by some spokesperson of "Yellow Vests", knowing it fully well that Edouard Philippe would be no different from Macron, a section of "Yellow Vests" are voicing in favour of Philippe!
So, it is apparent that even in terms of demands, class orientation of the "Yellow Vests" is still very confusing and directionless, as a result ultra-rights and Anarchists of France have no problem to attempt to utilize the anger of the masses in their own vested interests. But just for that reason, we cannot simply ignore the "Yellow Vests" as some among the revolutionary forces of Europe are doing, as because at the core of the movement, an intense cry against what is going on in France is very apparent.
However, on a cautious note, it needs to be kept in consideration that at this particular historical juncture, ultra-rights are globally on the rise and France is no different. The refugee problem has considerably increased in France during recent times and ultra-rights have made the refugee problem and the issue of leaving Eurozone a major contentious agenda in France and the people is also already divided on these issues. In addition, Marine La Pen, a major right-wing leader and last presidential contestant is supposedly opposed to globalization and privatization of public services and social security, favours protectionism as an alternative to free trade, in favour of leaving Eurozone etc which tallies with the sentiments of the "Yellow Vest" protestors. It is significant particularly in this respect that common French people generally do not support globalization and neo-liberalism much. An old survey made long back in 2005 had reported that "only 36 per cent of the French considered the 'free-market economy' the best system on which to base the future of the world, whereas 65 per cent of Germans and 66 per cent of British citizens did so" (GlobeScan, June-August 2005). This was the scenario nearly 15 years back and then people have already gone through much more devastating experiences of the effects of these policies. So it may now easily be assumed that much more people are now against 'free-market economy'. In this situation, there is every possibility that "Yellow Vest" movement may have been gainful for the ultra-rights in France.
As a whole, we should observe the "Yellow Vest" movement on this note that these sort of movements are expressing that the old parties are unable to continue dominating the toiling masses including the lower stratum of the urban petty-bourgeois. These movements are also showing that the attacks of ruling class are forcing common people to start resistance against these attacks. However, due to the class basis of the protesters and absence of a working class party established with a foothold of a strong working class movement, these protesters will move around the old political parties and the present bourgeois system. If the working class cannot lead them the bourgeois will lead them.
Response of the French working class about the "Yellow Vests"
The "Yellow Vests" are primarily from the lower echelon of French society; they are badly affected by the pro-rich economic measures implemented; and they are on the streets. But the significant fact is that response of the French working class about this movement is not very promising. Why this is so? Let us, first of all view it in terms of trade union movement. French working class is distributed among five major central trade unions, in which CGT (General Confederation of Labour) is aligned to French Communist Party (PCF) and CFDT (French Democratic Confederation of Labour) was previously aligned with social-democracy. But whatever be the political alignment of the trade unions, for long they all are actually aligned with the employers and have been serving the interests of the capitalist class. Hopefully you would be able to recollect that during May'68 while eleven million French workers were on the streets, this CGT left no stone unturned to make a compromise with the then President De Gaulle. Back to 2018. There had been a staggering strike of the railway workers against privatization of railways which continued for three months. What role CGT/CFDT played here? The stop-and-go strike partial railroad strike (grève perlée), organized by the CGT union leaders, never effective, dragged on for months, annoying commuters and exhausting the workers economically. Up to 80% of the engine-drivers were striking on any given day, but thanks to an arrangement with the CGT, the railroad management was able to keep most of the trains running! Eventually the CGT and the other railway unions agreed to open negotiations with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who had said on record that he would hold talks only if the unions agreed to an EU-mandated opening of the railways to competition, the scrapping of the rail workers' favorable retirement statute, and the privatization of the SNCF. However, the CGT had the workers continuing the stop-and-go strike all through the summer, even after the parliament had passed the reforms, slowly bleeding out the last of their militancy. So, betrayal of the existing leadership is very apparent to French working class, de-unionisation has increased gigantically, and in the main, frustration has percolated a lot in them. Betrayal of recent railway strike has only enhanced this frustration more. As a result, as far as the information is available, till now only a very small section of the French industrial working class have actively taken part in "Yellow Vest" movement.
It is apparent that French working class has still not come out from the grips of old trade unions and started to build up their independent class movement. The sign is still showing. Or even if it is there, it is very weak to make its presence felt. Yes, it can be said that the attacks on the organized working class is growing and some struggles have taken place. It can also be said that through automation and robotics further attacks on the organized working class has been started. We can only hope that these attacks will arouse the independent movement of the French working class, but cannot tell for sure. Meanwhile, many more "Yellow Vests" would emerge; many indications of the birth pangs of "new" would surface; but the fatherhood of birth of the actual "new" depends on the French industrial working class; we need to wait more for those coming days.
Epilogue
Motto of the French May'68 movement was:"Soyons realists, demandons l'impossible!" ("Be Realistic, Demand the Impossible!"). It is true that the "Yellow Vests" have not yet demanded "the impossible" within the existing system; in that way, "Yellow Vests" are not of May'68; but it is also true that there are grains of "demanding the impossibility" within the movement. Until and unless French working class takes the control of the centre-stage, it will remain limited only within as mere grains, and no more.
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