Yellow Vests Movement in France: The Big Fear is that the Working Class will Move

The “Yellow Vests” movement started in France at the end of October. The protest was triggered by the increase in fuel prices, partly due to the increase in the tax on petroleum products. But the protests have become an outlet for all the discontent of part of the population against the social and economic measures implemented by the Macron government and its predecessors. A good number of demonstrators live where the use of the car is a necessity, and therefore the continuous increase in the price of gasoline deprives them of part of their income, sometimes dramatically for the poorest. In fact, in one year the price at the pump increased by 23% for diesel and 15% for petrol (gasoline).

But the economic crisis as well as the slowdown in growth, affects the capitalist world as a whole. The ruling classes of nations are coming into conflict more and more. Trump, a typical businessman, is the court jester, proclaiming aloud what all the world’s leaders think in their heads: economic war, exacerbated and increasing competition, isolationism. This is scandalous for some but their only ethical question is how to conduct business and take possession of increasingly large sectors of the global market. Something which is increasingly divided.

In France, the government explains that its economic policy and the “gifts” given to the wealthiest citizens are intended to revive businesses in a context of economic crisis, where the bourgeoisie is reluctant to invest. The increase in the price of gasoline has been justified by the need to finance an energy transition policy started in 2015. Not a day goes by without the media rehashing the sad degradation of the planet, predicting an irreversible, even catastrophic, effect for the survival of humanity within a decade.

But is it true that the ruling classes are concerned about the future of the Earth and are trying to prevent the disastrous and even irreversible degradation caused by the capitalist mode of production? Or is it not rather a matter of withdrawing money from the largest part of the population, even if with difficulty, to fill the coffers of the State, and especially those of the companies and those of the increasingly restricted part of citizens who hoards the vast majority of wealth.

Marxism has always said that the State is at the service of the ruling class. But government decisions do not depend simply on the goodwill or intelligence of the ruling class. They must serve the ruthless economic mechanism of the capitalist mode of production. To survive, this system must constantly increase profits, countering the inherent tendency of the rate of profit to fall. This is beyond the control of even the most powerful individuals, as Marxism has stated for some 150 years.

The current movement in France is spontaneous and was born outside the political parties and official unions which are considered “ineffective” by the rebels. By comparison, the “Red Berets” movement, which appeared in Brittany in October 2013 in response to the environmental tax on pollution caused by vehicles, was triggered by the owners of economically struggling agrifood companies and was supported by their employees.

The Yellow Vests movement, on the contrary, started from the initiative of a “motorist” who launched a call to mobilization on social media, calling for a drop in fuel prices. The call appeared in an article of the popular newspaper “Le Parisien” (October 12. 2018) and then found great success gathering signatures (over a million by late November). Local groups have been created on Facebook throughout France.

In response, the Macron government launched a campaign to fight against air pollution a few days before the announced blockade on the national road network, which occurred Saturday, November 19. In Paris, blockades took place around Paris but the repression by the police forces limited the impact made by the demonstrators. The Ministry of the Interior reported the figure of 288,000 demonstrators for the whole of France.

The blockades continued for the rest of the week and there were a few episodes of violence. The movement extended as far as Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. In the following days, the mobilization continued with numerous gatherings throughout France.

A new national mobilization and demonstrations were called for Saturday, November 24. The Paris government banned demonstrations on the Champs Elysées but these took place anyway, with clashes with the police. The Ministry of the Interior finally provided the figure of 166,000 demonstrators for the whole of France, of which 5,000 were on the Champs Elysées.

Events and clashes took place in the following days in many regions. On Saturday, December 1, there were roadblocks across the country – sometimes leading to violent clashes with law enforcement agencies. In Paris, demonstrations on the Champs Elysées returned with violence. Demonstrators also graffittied the Arc de Triomphe (on the tomb of the unknown soldier!!), set cars on fire and looted shops. The Ministry of the Interior estimated 136,000 demonstrators throughout France. Clashes also occurred in other cities.

On December 3, students from roughly 100 high schools protested against the planned reform of the high school system, an increase in tuition fees for foreigners, and joined the Yellow Vests.

But who are participating in the Yellow Vests movement? Mainly they come from the outlying cities around Paris, and from rural areas which have suffered from being abandoned by the public authorities (withdrawal of services as well as abandonment of administrations).They include industrial workers, low‑paid workers and independent workers, pensioners, small bosses. They are united by a general discontent with the decline in their buying power, and, for the proletariat, the suffering caused by the precariousness and degradation of their working and living conditions.

An economic crisis has shaken capitalism for the last several decades. The neo‑liberal policies conducted by various governments, both right and left, are there to defend the interests and class privileges of the big bourgeoisie. These policies have led to the impoverishment and precariousness of the French population. According to older data, provided by the National Institute of Statistics, 14.5% of the population lives below the poverty line, i.e. with less than €850 per month. In 2018, the average income per household in France decreased by 1.2% compared to 2008, particularly for 67% of the middle classes. But even the most modest strata suffered a drop in income. At least 20% of employees are precarious and poor, and many pensioners live on a miserable pension. At least one third of the population is suffering. This explains the anger and violence.

So far these conditions and the mistrust of the official parties have only resulted in mass abstentionism. Abstentionism is now the largest working class political party. “Why go and vote if economic and social reforms will still be against us?” The regime trade unions, after repeated betrayals, have been sidelined by the movement.

Of course, far right and “autonomous” anarchist groups have infiltrated the movement and taken the opportunity to vent their rage, for whatever reasons. But these elements have no useful political perspective. All they have accomplished is to make it easier for the government to justify repression.

But there is also a mass response here from people who are desperate and feel abandoned by those in power. Large sections of the working class understand that they can make no progress within the limits of permissible political debate, and that violent bourgeois oppression must be countered with mass action. They have seen through the government lie that the increase in taxes is only there to finance ecological transition.

The main labor unions have refused to join the movement and are accusing it of being the work of far‑right parties. Only the transport section of Force ouvrière (FO) has called for solidarity with the Yellow Vests. The CFDT put itself forward as a negotiator with the government, saying it was time to recognize that they were needed! To stamp out the flames of the social struggle, there are no better firefighters than the big trade union federations!

In conclusion, we will also join in and call the Yellow vests a popular movement! Term derived from the word “people” that we have well defined in our text of the Dialogue with Stalin (1952, 2nd day: Society and Fatherland): “But the people, what the heck is that? A mishmash of different classes, an “integral” of expropriators and slaves, of political or business and the starving and oppressed masses. Since before 1848, we left the use of the word “people” to the associations for freedom and democracy, pacifism and progress. With its notorious “majorities”, the people is not the subject of economic planning, but merely an object of expropriation and fraud”.

The resumption of the class struggle, after so many years of counterrevolution, betrayal and disorganization, necessarily passes through spontaneous movements outside of any organization, since everything has to be reconstructed. It is only from the generalization of the spontaneous but radical struggles of the proletariat that class organizations will be reborn and that a proletarian vanguard will separate and enter the ranks of the Communist Party.

Under the current conditions it certainly would not take long for a general strike to break out. The trade union leadership is on its guard to prevent this happening. But they can only do this so long as they are not overwhelmed by the crisis of capitalism.

Large sections of the proletariat are obviously participating in the Yellow Vests movement, but not as a class for itself, only as part of this amorphous “popular” mass. It is not organized into militant defensive economic organizations or led by a political party – a communist vanguard. Until this comes about, the class struggle cannot express itself directly and the proletariat can only expect more disillusionment, betrayals and defeats. Ultimately, the proletariat must face the challenge to take political power not just in France but internationally, and this can only be achieved with the leadership of the International Communist Party.