Mass upsurge in France Against Neoliberal Capitalism
Anand Singh
This winter, France witnessed a tumultuous mass upsurge against the policies of the neoliberal regime of Emmanuel Macron on a scale and ferocity far surpassing any French protest in recent past. Although the tide of this upsurge ebbed after a month, it did clearly show the exasperation of ordinary French people against the neoliberal policies of increasing the burden of taxation, curtailing the subsidies, watering down social security provisions, austerity measures, fee hikes and inflation. The Gilet Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement as it has come to be known broke out at a time when neoliberal capitalism is making a futile effort to come out of its most systemic crisis. This spontaneous movement which was started as a protest against the proposed hike in fuel tax in accordance with the commitment of the French government in the ‘Paris Accord’ on climate change, soon transformed into a widespread mass movement against the neoliberal policies pursued brazenly by Emmanuel Macron. The scope of the demands of the movement also expanded to include the demands such as increase in the minimum wages, reducing the tax burden on people, reintroduction of solidarity tax on wealth, imposing tax on the rich and even the resignation of Macron. Geographically also the movement spread not just to different parts of France but also to many counties in Europe including Belgium, Netherlands, Hungary and Germany as also to some countries in Middle East including Iraq and Egypt.
Initially Macron underestimated the ferocity of the movement and in a typical neoliberal authoritarian fashion he tried to crush the movement forcefully using riot police, armored cars, tear gas canisters and water cannons. On several occasions, there were militant clashes between the protestors and the security forces, the videos of which went viral on social media, which in turn helped to spread the movement even further. More than 2000 protestors were taken into custody and scores of them were injured. As it often happens, all the attempts of crushing the movement with brute force ended up helping the movement spread like a wildfire. The geographical spread and the militant nature and enormous support enjoyed by the Yellow Vest movement compelled Macron to yield and he subsequently decided to given some concessions as a face-saving measure.
The enormity of the Yellow Vest movement could be gauged from the fact that despite various efforts by the mainstream corporate and state media to defame the movement by terming it as riot, various surveys showed that it enjoyed the support of almost two-third of French population. Not surprisingly Macron had to relent and not only he had to roll back the fuel tax, but he even had to announce the hike in minimum wages by 100 Euros and curtailment of various taxes and expansion of many bonus and pension provisions.
The spontaneous mass upsurge in France proves beyond doubt that all the remedies that are being tried to cure the moribund capitalism are wreaking havoc on the lives of the toiling masses. It was largely on account of people’s anger against the neoliberal policies such as austerity measures in the wake of global crisis of capitalism that the previous president Hollande suffered huge defeat in the last elections. The new president Macron continued to implement the neoliberal policies even more vigorously causing the deterioration in the living standard of French populace. In France, like many countries of the world, on the one hand the wages remain stagnant and on the other hand the burden of taxation is increasing and the socio-economic insecurity and economic disparity continues to grow due to cut back in the welfare policies as part of austerity measures. The current mass upsurge needs to be looked in this backdrop.
The immediate cause behind people’s anger breaking out on the streets was the increase in the fuel tax which was done to fulfil French obligation as part of the ‘Paris Accord’ on climate change. After destroying nature in the mindless lust for profit, the capitalist class of the imperialist countries wishes to put the burden of saving nature on the developing countries and the toiling masses within their own country. But the ‘Yellow Vest’ movement has shown that this tactic boomeranged. The hike in the fuel tax had the direct impact on the the workers and lower middle-class people living in the adjoining regions of the metropolitan cities who travel with small vehicles, motorcycles and public transport on daily basis. That is the reason why the current mass upsurge was initiated by those staying in the villages and peri-urban areas surrounding the big cities. But soon the workers and middle classes of the big cities also joined the movement and it didn’t remain confined to just the issue of fuel tax hike, rather it became an upsurge against the neoliberal regime currently headed by Emmanuel Macron. Apart from workers and lower middle-class people who are suffering from price rise and growing social insecurity, the movement was soon joined by students who are fed up with continuously increasing fees and the cut in the government spending on education and the youth and woman suffering from unemployment and the elderly people who are impacted by cut back on retirement benefits such as pension.
The French ruling class lost its sleep due to militant nature of this mass movement. The corporate imperialist media tried its best to justify the use of brute force by Macron government by declaring the movement as ‘’violent’’ and ‘’act of rioters’’, but the viral videos on social media exposed the authoritarian and anti-people character of Macron government and it added fuel to the fire. No wonder the movement soon transformed into the most widespread militant mass movement after the radical students’ movement of 1968.
However, the movement began to lose steam after Macron’s announcements in which he gave some concessions to French people to pacify them. The main reason why such a widespread movement against Macron government could not even come close to any systemic change was that this spontaneous expression of people’s anger against the plundering policies was without any leadership. The spokespersons of the movement proudly claimed themselves as above all sort of politics and ideology. Thus, they ended up disarming the toiling masses in the ongoing class struggle in the French society.
Even though the movement vehemently targeted the Macron government and its anti-people neoliberal policies, it fell short of targeting the capitalist system itself. Under this circumstance it is hardly surprising that even the Far-Right forces managed to intrude into the movement and were able to distract people’s attention through their populist demagoguery. There were some talks of Frexit (exit of France from European Union) on the lines of Brexit without realizing that Brexit has not been able to solve the problem of the British masses. No wonder this leaderless movement soon became directionless and ultimately hit the roadblock.
Even though the activists of trade unions participated in the movement in large numbers, the revisionist trade union leadership acted as a safety valve through which people’s anger was released. The six big trade unions entered into an agreement with the Macron government in which they strongly opposed all kinds of violence and instead of leading the demonstrations from front, they were engaged in settling the issue in a peaceful manner. In other words, the trade union leadership had made all the arrangement to release the steam of people’s anger. In the ongoing class struggle in France, when the Macron government which represents the capitalist class realized that the brute force alone is not going to crush the movement, it shifted the gear and started adopting the tactics of giving some concessions and peaceful negotiations and as always revisionism acted as the third line of defence for capitalism.
The militant and spontaneous Yellow Vest movement in France needs to be looked as an expression of people’s anger and disillusionment that arose as a reaction against increasing burden of taxation and austerity being put by rulers in its desperation to come out of the global crisis of capitalism. In the 20th century the rulers of imperialist countries had shared a small part of the imperialist plunder with the working class in their country to blunt the edge of their class consciousness in the class struggle. It still does so, but that part has become much smaller. Today imperialism has reached such a miserable stage that it cannot provide the basic facilities required for a humane life even to the working class in the imperialist countries. This is the reason why there have been several movements in the imperialist countries ever since the latest capitalist crisis broke out in 2007-08. While the hotspots of revolution that have the potential to turn into flash point continue to be the post-colonial relatively backward capitalist countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, there is no doubt that in case the anti-capitalist movements were waged under a revolutionary leadership, it would have given fillip to the process of revolution even in some countries of Europe.
Bourgeois revolutions, like those of the eighteenth century, storm more swiftly from success to success, their dramatic effects outdo each other, men and things seem set in sparkling diamonds, ecstasy is the order of the day – but they are short-lived, soon they have reached their zenith, and a long Katzenjammer [cat’s winge] takes hold of society before it learns to assimilate the results of its storm-and-stress period soberly. On the other hand, proletarian revolutions, like those of the nineteenth century, constantly criticize themselves, constantly interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew; they deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures, weaknesses, and paltriness of their first attempts, seem to throw down their opponents only so the latter may draw new strength from the earth and rise before them again more gigantic than ever, recoil constantly from the indefinite colossalness of their own goals – until a situation is created which makes all turning back impossible, and the conditions themselves call out:
Hic Rhodus, hic salta!
– Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
