by Ollie Richardson for The Saker Blog
March 23rd in France marked the 19th consecutive weekend of nationwide Yellow Vests protests, the most noteworthy of which happened in Nice, Lille, Montpellier, Toulouse, Caen, and Paris. An estimated 127,000 Yellow Vests took to the streets of France on this day to protest against the Macron regime.
Firstly, let’s state some facts: there was NOT military troops everywhere in Paris. Near the Champs-Elysees – yes, but nowhere else. And secondly, people were indeed fined €135 if they tried to protest on the Champs-Elysees, despite the assurances from some media outlets that the fine would be only €11. Below is a copy of a penalty issued to a Yellow Vest as proof.
I personally did not go to the Champs-Elysees, but plenty of footage filmed by others exists. Here is an example of a Yellow Vest going there without wearing a Yellow Vest (incognito). The footage is rather surreal, considering what happened on this Avenue just 1 week prior.
In Nice there was a casualty: after the police violently charged protestors, a 75-year-old lady was slammed to the pavement head first.
Geneviève Legay #GiletsJaunes porte-parole d’Attac 06 grièvement blessée en tombant lors d’une charge policière, ce matin à #Nice pour l’#ActeXIX #Acte19
Visible avec son #GJ non violente, scandant “Liberté de manifester”
Bon rétablissement Madamepic.twitter.com/U28rbqRfqG— BleuBlancRouge4369 (@BBR4369) March 23, 2019
CHOQUANT! #GiletsJaunes à #Nice #ActeXIX : La police interpelle les MEDICS et les empêche de venir au secours d’une dame gravement blessé!
-“Vous avez un équipement on interpelle, dslé on interpelle”
Dénoncez svp #France #Macron #YellowVests #Macron #Paris pic.twitter.com/CeHWVhgOYp— Le Général (@leGneral2) March 23, 2019
According to her daughter, cited by AFP, she suffered from several fractures of the skull and petrosal bone (inner ear). “She has to stay another 48 hours under surveillance. She is conscious, under morphine infusion, because she has severe headaches,” she said, adding that the doctors were “very, very scared” for her. The activist told her daughter, who she did not recognise at first, what happened: “I remember that a policeman charged at me and afterwards I do not remember anything”.
Meanwhile, in Toulouse the mobilisation was as strong as always, however the police soon arrived to shut it down.
Immersion en tête du cortège toulousain avec un nouveau slogan …#ActeXIX #Toulouse #GiletsJaunes pic.twitter.com/wNuccio63j
— Hugo Murail (@HMurail) March 23, 2019
Les policiers, peu organisés font usage de la force#ActeXIX #Toulouse #GiletsJaunes pic.twitter.com/RQTXiShhoL
— Hugo Murail (@HMurail) March 23, 2019
And the essence of the “democracy” of Macron can certainly be seen in this detention of a minor and attack on a journalist – both in Toulouse:
HORRIFIANT !! À Toulouse, un journaliste au sol se fait frapper par la police… Partagez SVP !! #ActeXIX #Acte19 #GiletsJaunes #YellowVests #Toulouse #ViolencesPolicières #Macron pic.twitter.com/v7IoWHIjbE
— L’Antenne Jaune (@AntenneJaune) March 23, 2019
And in Montpellier there was also a column of yellow on the streets and police brutality:
#Acte19 #Montpellier #GiletsJaunes en chanson « on est là… » en allant vers le Peyrou pic.twitter.com/UUOFfdzaOW
— lemouvement.info (@lemouvementinfo) March 23, 2019
#Montpellier #Giletsjaunes affrontements en cours place de la Comédie pic.twitter.com/JjoyzeAeR3
— Midi Libre Montpellier (@MLMontpellier) March 23, 2019
This video summarises what happened in Lille very well:
In Paris things were quite strange, if to be honest. There were 3 Yellow Vest events: 1) a sanctioned gathering in Châtelet–Les Halles, which was quickly suppressed by the police, who claimed it was unsanctioned; 2) a sanctioned march from Denfert Rochereau to Sacré Cœur (see map below); 3) a gathering at Trocadéro.
Since I considered that the sanctioned march would be a total flop and waste of time, I headed to Trocadéro first. Here there were a few Yellow Vests, but no more than 50. So after this I decided to try to check out the sanctioned march after all, and started heading East. By pure luck I managed to meet the marching column close to the Pompidou Center and then joined it. After about 15 minutes the column arrived at Sacré Cœur, where the Yellow Vests remained for about 30 mins. Normally the march had to end here, since the police were told that it would end by 17:30.
But then something odd happened. The Yellow Vests started to leave Sacré Cœur and march South. What followed was an unsanctioned march that for sure was spontaneously decided on. After 15 minutes of marching the column was suddenly blocked off by the regime and then gassed. This caused a tense standoff with “revolution” being chanted en masse by the “Yellow Vests”. After about 15 minutes the Yellow Vests decided to turn around, since their path was blocked, and head the other way. But sadly this direction was also blocked off by the police. It is at this moment that the chaos began.
The Yellow Vests would spend the next 30 minutes being pursued by the police down street after street. Law enforcement on motorbikes soon caught up with everyone, including me, and started to detain the Yellow Vest wearers (not me, fortunately) who they were able to catch. I escaped with only a burst of CS gas in my face, which immobilised me for at least 5 minutes. What then followed was a mass deployment of riot police and the chasing away of the remaining Yellow Vests.
Thankfully I managed to film most of what I have described and have thus pieced the footage together to make a mini film.
What was most surprising is that an unsanctioned march, and then a completely wild one, happened after the sanctioned one. This was not planned beforehand, but clearly the Yellow Vests were angry at the fact that they were banned from protesting on the Champs-Elysees.
Onwards to Act 20!
Considering the history of the first great French Revolution it strikes me as cosmically poetic that this current confrontation has set up a new King of France. Macron displays all of the entitled arrogance and unyielding, intolerant, self righteous attitude of the previous French monarchs. He even has the mannerisms of an above it all royal. If I believed in a divine creator I would have to honor his/her artistry at guaranteeing that the current French spectacle can only re-stimulate the very deep memories in the French psyche of their previous great struggle for liberty. I wish to thank president Macron for doing such a wonderful job of guaranteeing that France is going to become a deep and potent volcano of revolutionary consciousness and struggle. He is forcing France to re-encounter its own depth of soul and self identity. Maybe Macron is an unwitting instrument of a hidden therapist! Recovery of soul entails suffering. Macron seems to be focusing that suffering perfectly.
@Snow Leopard. Read Les Miserables.
1848 — the army shut it down, the King kept his throne.
1871 — the army shut it down, the Emperor kept his throne. Hugo was exiled.
2019 — the army will shut it down, the God will keep his throne?
“Macron demission” is nothing but words, graffiti from a Leaderless Mob. Jupiter can safely go skiing.
A good comment. Indeed, the previous revolutions did not succeed to sweep away feudalism.
You fool, Snow Leopard. Sorry for being direct, but there is no other way to describe someone who wishes another revolution on France. Or anywhere.
Whatever your allegiance, was a disgusting unleashing of the worst of human behavior that almost immediately devolved from principle to blood lust – and I kid you not, even to the drinking of human blood from chalices in the street, of dragging anyone to the chopper, of unbridled hatred and destruction. It was not a glorious deed, and it led to Napoleon, despotism and crushing failure for all but a few.
Anyone who wants the yellow vests to succeed through revolution must also long for other revolutions, like the Chinese one, or the Russian one, or the Nazi one, or the Tudor one in the UK (‘reformation) and across Europe. To wish that, you have to be a fool or an American short on history, or both.
Russia and China have had their revolutions, France did NOT. If you carefully study the French so-called ‘revolution’ you may discover the great play of the bourgeoisie (Les ‘Girondins’) that got them exactly what they wanted à la US organised color revolutions of latter years. Unwilling guy out, puppet(s) in.
IOW, powerful king out, easily to fool around representatives in, until Napoleon took over, but even he got replaced once more by still better controlable material and by that time the Girondin power got accompanied by Rothschild bankster power that lasts until today.
France really needs a true revolution. Even if it gets the people only one of their demands: the RIC or RIP and it seems that the YV won’t stop until. With a popular referendum everything becomes possible…
Humiliation for Macron.He used his last weapon(the army),he has nothing left now,but the YV continue their fight.
Acte 23 ‘ultimatum 2’ should see the return of maximum violence as Macron will deliver the day before the conclusions of his ‘grand debat’ which will desappoint everyone..
https://yetiblog.org/archives/16246?fbclid=IwAR18htZIjGELc6eeRSnFQeFNqdomC4SuCJ3Ecgjf0bEBoT9Ot5ftqUX_jlo
https://www.facebook.com/cerveauxnondisponibles/videos/798183610555797/
https://www.facebook.com/BretagneNoire/videos/1485183371619052/
https://yetiblog.org/archives/16273?fbclid=IwAR0bg4uHo9Xvqup9_YFrHDQN4iUkA8cKRDrd1B7LDeZY6bnd7grMpT1Xdzo
https://www.facebook.com/kivi.moussa/videos/2379852642077993/?fref=mentions
All you need to know about Europe, its future, and Macrons future:
Depuis 2009 (c’est-à-dire postérieurement à l’effondrement financier de 2008) les États-Unis ont réalisé une croissance de +34%, l’Inde de +96%, la Chine de +139%, tandis que l’Union européenne a décru de -2%.
Translate: Since 2009 (i.e. after the financial collapse of 2008) the economy of the US has achieved growth of +34%, India +96%, China +139% and the EU -2%
The Eu is failing, and Macron too, because it is a hopelessly ideological and damned stupid idea, like 27 people trying to play a single cello. The nations which are leaving it behind are all sovereign, and are increasingly sovereign, not less sovereign.
The most efficient scale at which a group can attend to internal and external problems is the nation state level. The appalling economic return of the EU vis a vis its competitors; the transfer of the West’s middle class to Asia; the total lack of EU successes; austerity, mass migration; etc. What the Yellow vests are protesting about are not the material of revolutions, which are ideological – they are hard material facts that will, as a matter of natural momentum, devolve to a level that allows the problems to be dealt with efficiently. Brexit is a response to the same problems.
To sit in the global orchestra pit and contribute to the concert of nations, you have to have your own instrument. France – along with every other EU country – is moving towards a more efficient structure that can deal with things that the EU can not. It is the return of Sovereignty, and it started with the rejection of TTIP by Trump, long before the yellow vests.
Many people are made to believe that every state and region even every city must perform equally to qualify as a success (what ever that means) but few people ask the same question when it comes to the USA. Yet there just as here one can see good and poor performers on a individual state level… some of them need constant support from the central government, some of them don’t. There are huge amounts of money circulating within the USA to support those in economic dire straits. So why only a few ask and make this comparision?
I believe that the absolute fundamental problem all this regions and people have is, that for about 2 generations hundreds and hundreds of millions of people have been force feed the neoliberal agenda. The basic principles if this ideology sound truly good, freedom and the homo economicus etc. yet are somewhat empty for most because they strip every human being of its central well being consisting of social, ethical and moral principles given to us by nature to make living together possible…
It is this which the yellow vests and all the 500 Million Europeans are fighting against not the french President because he was installed as so many leaders before
It is easy to take off a yellow vest. Any good guerilla movement knows how to mobilize and then blend into the population. Most of which supports the yellow vests, according to the polls. Thus, one would expect that few would help the police when blending in to avoid the police attack. And of course, in a situation where the police and military can mobilize a lot of force at a fixed point, then guerilla tactics are the only way forward. One thing I wish Occupy Wall Street had tried after their encampments (fixed point) got crushed was a sort of roving flash mob that materializes, makes it point, rallies until the police bureaucracy gets their paramilitaries there, then disappears into the crowd only to pop up again somewhere else soon after. Have the police have a very long day running from place to place to place, only to find the yellow vests disappearing when they arrive.
Indeed, yes. Macron’s strategy leads to Guerrilla War, at least in theory. Very sad that the little fella is either stupid or unable to take a rational approach. The problem with violence, which Macron is himself is curating, is that the outcome is not predictable, and the secondary effects are generally worse than any temporary advantage. Violence is an indicator of lack of options, which indicates desperation, whatever their “postures” may suggest on TV.
See (fyi) War of the Flea, and also of course, Mao >
W of Flea > https://archive.org/details/TheWarOfTheFlea
Mao> https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/1937/guerrilla-warfare/
(Saker might wish to add these two seminal books to the reading list. “Flea'” is really an essay. )
The term in American usage for what’s about to happen is probably “monkey-wrenching”…and many YV persons are capable technically of a lot of this… And since they have zero alternatives, they will do it.
I think Mao said> “Hullabaloo in East, Attack in West”
How sad. I only advocate for people being good to one another, and critters…and frugality, charity… But I have eyes and know some History…
If Jupiter wants to mass his police and army on the Champ de Elyssee, and guarding the Arc de Triumph then let him. (sorry if my French stinks). Let them have the quietest day in the world, sitting out there guarding a empty street. What the yellow vest want to do is to go where there are crowds and people. Be visible. The government wants to shut you down and make you go away, then you go where the people can see that the government has failed. Shopping districts. Wherever people go for a springtime Saturday. Protest the banks that support Jupiter. Protest corporations that are making money off the labor law anti-reforms. Let Jupiter control the big street. Pop up unannounced everywhere else. The yellow vest will then quickly get to the point where the police and army are spread to thin, and tired from a day of running from place to place dealing with these protests that keep popping up. Do these things have to happen on a Saturday? Be unpredictable.
Lawrence of Arabia is a good flick for a movie nite!
Thanks, Ollie!
Some individuals seem to be fairly well prepared, i.e. gas masks, helmuts, some body armor, protection. if indeed, good for them if Yellow vests, preparation and planning. However, some reports of govt thugs. provacatuers have infiltrated and weakened the demonstrations.
Curious, if Ollie could respond, so you see significant presence of these govt thugs, or can you tell from disguises?
To my mind, macron has to respond and control, crif and the zionists demand it.
It’s true that cops have been spotted wearing a yellow vest, but for the most part those who are involved are sincere and not saboteurs. A gas mask is kinda mandatory in order to negate the effect of tear gas (dispersing large groups of people).
Macron is got to go, this man earned his reputation as a psychopath. Is this the man who wanted to form United States of Europe. ??? He is destroying Europe, he is the man who has contaminated with his poison the whole of the EU together with all his french crooks. He is the one that is causing physical and moral damage to all Europeans.
« Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. »
It’s coming.
We’re there… unless planetary collapse comes first