[D66] Blind anger on the streets of Paris

[A.O.]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/03/paris-streets-riots-violence

Never before have I seen blind anger like this on the streets of Paris

    By John Lichfield, www.theguardian.com
    View Original
    December 3rd, 2018

‘Random, hysterical hatred was directed not just towards the riot police
but at shrines to the French republic itself such as the Arc de
Triomphe.’ Photograph: Abdulmonan Eassa/AFP/Getty Images

France is a republic that was founded in popular violence. Politics runs
to the street here more rapidly than in any other western democracy.
I’ve lived in France for 22 years and have witnessed street protests by
workers, farmers, wine producers, truck drivers, railway employees,
university students, sixth-formers, teachers, youths in the multiracial
suburbs, chefs, lawyers, doctors and police officers. Yes, even police
officers.

I have never seen the kind of wanton destruction that surrounded me on
some of the smartest streets of Paris on Saturday – such random,
hysterical hatred, directed not just towards the riot police but at
shrines to the French republic itself such as the Arc de Triomphe. The
12-hour battle went beyond violent protest, beyond rioting, to the point
of insurrection, even civil war.

The centre of Paris has not seen violence on this scale since the
student and worker rebellion of May 1968. Much of the worst violence in
1968 came from the police.

And France has not seen widespread destruction of this kind since the
riots that burned like a forest fire through almost all the multiracial
inner suburbs of French towns and cities in 2005. Then, the violence
stopped at the invisible moat that divides the centre of prosperous
French cities from their troubled banlieues, or suburban ghettos.

On Saturday, the gilets jaunes – or a large, violent fringe of the
wider, peaceful “yellow vest” movement – took evident joy in smashing up
the grandest and wealthiest parts of the French capital. Appeals on
social media, where the movement began a month ago, are calling for
another assault on Paris this weekend.

How can a movement that began a month ago with broadly peaceful protests
against high fuel prices have generated such vicious enmity towards not
just President Macron but the entire French political system? Some
French commentators have suggested that the yellow vests should be
rebranded “yellow shirts” – a fascist rabble. This is dangerous and
misleading talk, for now.

An extreme wing of the gilets jaunes has turned towards the nihilist
detestation of democratic institutions and symbols of success and
wealth. But while Saturday’s crowd was mostly white (there are many
black and brown gilets jaunes) this movement shows, so far, few outward
signs of racism or extreme nationalism. The great bulk of the movement
represents genuine economic and social distress in a peripheral and
middle France which, with some reason, says that it is despised and
fiscally exploited by the country’s thriving cities. Part of the French
media suggests that Saturday’s protests were hijacked by ultra-violent
sects of the hard right and hard left. This is also misleading.

There were groups of masked, young men among the 5,000 or so people on
the Etoile and its radiating avenues but they were a minority. The great
majority of the rioters were, by my reckoning, men and some women in
their 30s and 40s from suffering rural towns in northern or western
France and the hardscrabble outer suburbs of greater Paris. They came
dressed and armed for combat.

There are similarities between the insurrection of 2018 and the student
rebellion of 1968 – and even similarities between Saturday’s events and
the banlieues riots of 2005. All three movements lacked accepted
leaders. All three had no clear or broadly agreed political objective or
manifesto. But the comparisons should not be pushed too far.

There was a joyous side to the 1968 rebellion. It was a revolt against
the ennui of postwar social conservatism as much as capitalism. It was
hijacked by the trades unions and then resolved by a general pay rise
and the summer holidays. Above all, 1968 was a time of growing
prosperity in France. In 2018, part of the country is thriving but much
feels abandoned and rejected. The 2005 riots were a shout of anger
against police violence and economic deprivation. They were never the
religious-political “intifada” decreed by some in the French and foreign
media. After exhausting their anger, the very young rioters went back to
normal life.

The gilets jaunes do have a series of demands but they are not accepted
by all. They range from the abolition of next month’s planned rise in
green taxes on petrol and diesel, to a referendum to impeach Macron, to
a new constitution in which all laws would be decided by popular vote.

The yellow vests do have informal leaders or spokespeople but they are
rejected or disputed or threatened with violence by other gilets jaunes
as soon as they emerge. Part of the movement is faux-Maoist in pushing
its hatred of politicians to the point of hating any would-be
politicians who emerge from their own ranks.

A second attempt by the yellow vests to create a delegation to meet the
prime minister, Édouard Philippe, will be made this week. Even if a
programme of negotiations emerges, it is unlikely to be accepted by the
blindly angry people I saw on the streets of Paris last Saturday. Will
Paris burn again? Quite probably.

• John Lichfield is a journalist based in France since 1997. He is the
author of Our Man in Paris