This weekend was the three-month anniversary of the yellow jackets fight with Macron and his government. Once again, large demonstrations disproved all those in the government and the media who keep repeating that the movement is dying down. Well, it isn’t. The determination of the yellow jacket remains, so deep is the anger against the system.
A widespread anger
Fighting the high cost of living remains the main motivation of the movement. On the one side, wages and pensions are frozen; on the other side, prices are going up. This situation is all the more intolerable when at the same time a stream of dividends keeps increasing the wealth of the richest.
But the yellow jackets are also rebelling because they feel their voice is never heard. They push the routine of a political system where all flavours of politicians constantly betray their electoral promises, live in a bubble to serve stockholders, and compete to make us swallow the same anti-worker policy.
Their democracy = “Talk all you want!”
The movement shows the complete hypocrisy of the democratic myth as it is being sold to us across time and elections. Macron and the government pretend they want to give back a voice to the people through the “great debate.” At the same time, they restrict our freedom to demonstrate with the so-called “anti-violence” law. And they continue to repress with rubber bullets and grenades those who protest against the unfair social order. In the three months since the beginning of the movement, the police have injured thousands, including dozens of lost eyes or torn hands. And justice has been much faster at condemning the ex-boxer Christophe Dettinger to one year jail time for using his bare hands against a cop than to look at all these cases of police brutality. It’s a funny democracy where equality before the law is just empty words.
As for the great debate, supposedly a grand democratic event, it immediately became a farce. Macron and his ministers are simply using it as an opportunity to start the campaign for the European elections. We already know that this great comedy will carefully avoid all the main topics such as wages, the tax on wealth, or the tens of billions in subsidies gifted to corporations every year. Don’t even think of approaching anything that could harm the bosses!
The yellow jackets have scratched the varnish covering the rotten political system within which the governing puppets are only protecting the interests of a small group of rich people who own the largest corporations. As privileged as the ones who lost everything in 1789.
The true democracy is the one we are building
The yellow jackets have started to address the question of what is a true democracy by organising counter-debates. Every day, all across the country, on roundabouts, at meetings or in general assemblies, and even on social networks, they talk about the state of the movement and about current events in society.
During these three months of fight, the yellow jackets have self-organised and have generated common demands, which they expressed in the streets. They didn’t wait for the next elections in three or five years.
To go further, they will have to fight big business, fight those who own and head industries, media, banks… This will mark the transition from debates at the bottom to a true counter power, with democratic coordination, where we, workers of industries, transportation, public services, will join our comrades in yellow jackets. By attacking our common exploiters, we will give ourselves the means to apply collectively decided policy.
The yellow jackets have waited for no one to take matters into their own hands. Let’s join them!
