The following observations on the violence of French Gilets Jaunes demonstrations over the week-end (12/1-12/2) was written in French by a colleague economic historian and sent over the distribution list of the French Association for Economic History. I thought them worth translating (with his agreement). Full disclosure: I am a Union member, and did not participate in the demonstrations, being wary of it at first like all the Union members I know, so I don’t have any direct experience of the situation. This colleague does, though, since he did go to the demonstration to check them out as he explains, and what he describes fits with everything I have seen and heard in my (public higher education) workplace and in Paris in the past few days. The pure rage and widespread acceptance of violence in particular was extremely striking. It was first pointed out, AFAIK, by the Senate Majority Leader, François Patriat (as quoted last week by Canard EnchaÎné, the very well -connected satirical weekly —no direct link available, the old-fashioned Canard shuns the internet, but one mention here)
Promised Russian bonus: as of 12/3 in the morning, GiletsJaunes-related hashtags were trending at the top of all the Russian-manipulated hashtags, as per Hamilton68. This seems to imply that Putin and his circle, too, find the whole situation interesting and the protests more than anecdotal. I suspect we will see a lot of interventions of Russian trolls trying to whip up controversy around the issue in the next few days.
Anyway. Follow below the fold for a testimony on what may turn out to be either a pointless riot, or a violent revolution (and everything in between). And h/t to bcallan whose diary prompted me to translate this.
“Dear colleagues
I was present yesterday [Satrday December 1st, ndt=translator’s note], as well as Saturday November 24, at the gilets jaunes demonstrations, mainly because I wanted to form my own views of this movement. I do not claim to give here its every keys, but I did walk the avenues and streets around Champs-Élysées, and am simply trying to communicate a few direct observations [“choses vues”, a reference to a poem by Victor Hugo, ndt] which do not quite fit with their translations in the media. I am not trying to defend gilets jaunes against hypothetical “media manipulations”, I am simply trying to offer a more accurate view of the movement, both for those who approve of it and for those who reject it.
First, the figures for the Paris demonstration. The official figure of 5,500 (or 8,000) given by the Ministry of Interor is frankly absurd. First, one should wonder how these 5,500 people so completely stumped a police force of 5,000 officers (who I suspect may be slightly miffed at these official figures, which would imply that they are not very competent). The number of arrests, over 400, also implies that one demonstrator out of 10 or 15 was seized, which is incredible —as far as I am concerned, I did not witness one single arrest, having circulated an entire six hours from 1:00 PM to 7:00PM between Boulevard Haussmann and Rue de Rivoli. In my view, there were probably tens of thousands of people, moving around in groups numbering a few hundreds or thousands to avoid being cornered by the police dragnets.
There is the occasional reference to “casseurs” [politically motivated hooligans, ndt], in the contexts of both the Paris fires and the incidents in the provinces (the Préfecture set on fire in Le Puy en Velay, the toll booth destroyed on a highway in Aude, etc.). This qualifier is a traditional one in the interpretive scheme of a political power which feels threatened and tries to circumscribe the origin of violence within a limited circle of “subversives” and their actions. However, I must stress one point: while there were indeed people, usually young men, burning various objects in public, the mass of demonstrators were very generally approving them [in bold in the original, ndt]. These could not all be “casseurs”… I believe it is more appropriate to divide the demonstrators into those actively violent and those passively violent. Among the “active” ones, one met the traditional anti-capitalist anarchists, clearly recognizable because of their slogans; the youth from banlieues [disdvantaged neighborhood on the outskirts of Paris, ndt]; but also, and mostly, individuals which had absolutely nothing to do with these latter groups, and were in general blue-collar wokers and service workers from the provinces. Indeed I wish to point out that the kind of act I witnessed (burning wooden planks and various things in public as a tool to control the street spaces) were much more evocative of pickets during strikes than of the usual breaking-and-entering found around demonstrations these last few years. Indeed, on Rue de la Paix, all the Christmas trees lined up along the jewellery stores had been methodically dragged into the street to be burned, while not one store had been under attack. Videos showing demonstrations in several smaller towns included the exact same modus operandi, dominated by burning barricades. Only at the very end of the day did I witness a store being attacked on Rue de Rivoli by black-clad men (admittedly, i was not on Avenue Kléber, where banks have apparently been destroyed).
The anger felt was extremely deep, and I am afraid the various discourses trying to discredit the movement in more or less clever ways are merely dilatory and futile attempts at avoiding deep-seated issues.
The events in Paris and in the provinces in the past few days are probably already Historical, with a big H. Questions are asked everywhere on who the Gilets Jaunes are, which direction their movement points to, and what the violent clashes which broke out in France really mean. So far, one has to admit that the interpretive work, at least the “audible one, has been left to journalists and government officials. Still, two historians, Gérard Noiriel and Jean-Clément Martin have published a few analyses and given interviews in the past few days, see here [paywall, ndt] and here [registration required, ndt].
I am certain that these events are the start of a sea change in the political, social and economic history of our country. Gérard Noiriel has already pointed out how the “mediating institutions” [corps intermédiaires] on which our social democracy had been based since 1945 have come to be entirely discredited, be they parties, unions, or the media. Through a long process which I won’t develop here, these institutions have undergone a slow process of integration within the State apparatus, both objectively and subjectively, and have been drained so to speak of their substance as independent social institutions. One could mention the new law governing the financing of political parties, the slow integration of paritary comission into the State budgetary process (especially with the Juppé laws), or the structural deficits of newspapers which survive only thanks to State subsidies (or by being bought off by large financial corporations). Historical analogy is obviously a very risky exercise, and even more so for professional historians, but all specialists of the 18th century and of the Revolution will feel inclined to draw a very French comparison between the general crisis engulfing the current regime and the crisis of the monarchy on the eve of the Revolution, highlighting the situation of an executive power both very strong and incredibly weak in terms of its legitimacy, which slowly created a complete void all around istelf while formally respecting the institutions, and has become the burning focus of all criticisms. In this respect, I was struck, both as a citizen and as historian, by the violence of the words directed at the President, and also by the stunning contrast between the sparse and forlorn CGT [left-wing union, ndt] demonstration in Place de la République and the lively mass of yellow jackets around the Champs-Élysées...
In closing, I wish to provide links to two lists of demands which emerged in the last few days. These are merely two documents made somewhat more public than others, but anybody using socila networks will testify that "cahiers de doléances", written by various local groups, [list of grievances, the term was used in 1789] have been proliferating in the last few days.
The first one, surprisingly "sans culotte" [Jacobin militant during the Revolution] in its tone, was published on Saturday night.
The second one, more "moderate", has just been passed on to the public by ten unofficial representatives of the movement through today's Journal du Dimanche [on December 2nd].
Sincerely,
Guillaume Foutrier”
Translation: plg