Let’s have a quick look back at the first four weeks of Yellow Vests protests and what they have already obtained:
· Fuel tax hike abandoned
· Pensioner’s tax hike abandoned
· Rise of the minimal wage
· The government considering the idea of implementing popular initiative vote in the constitution
· 75% approval from the population after their 5th week of action
It may seem little to many French people, but remember this year’s four month of traditional hard rail strikes did not obtain a single thing but they have lost four months of salary. And it’s been like this for decades. Despite what the vast majority of media report about this movement, it is not about setting Paris monuments on fire. So far we can learn a lot from the Yellow Vests’ successful methods:
– The Yellow Vests have no representatives, no head to corrupt or to put in jail. The movement uses a multitude of social media platforms to coordinate local groups. Thinkers feed this network and, thanks to the internet, ideas and opinions are debated within a matter of hours. The Yellow Vests achieved efficiency without centralized authority.
– Their organization is highly flexible and reactive. Although the movement started against a fuel tax hike, the idea that direct democracy was the solution became prominent in less than a week. Another example is how quick they asked people to stop reacting to violence by violence between December 8th and 15th as soon as the people realised it was counter-productive and far from their goal.
– Yellow Vests do not focus on the capital city although this is the visible part in the media. They consider it would be giving too much importance to the head of state while they promote the idea of power coming from the people.
– They focus their efforts against the economic interests of those who command the government rather than symbols of power. So far by opening highway tolls, Vinci admitted suffering dozens of millions of loss and their shareholders are now panicking. The national confederation of big retailers are alarmed by 40% sales loss before Christmas. The political elites sure don’t listen to the streets but they sure consider these alarms coming from the conglomerates who finance their way of life.
This isn’t all new, most of it has been not only thought trough but also employed in the past, notably by Charles Stewart Parnell (Boycott https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott) and Gandhi (Salt march https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March).
University of Kansas – Conducting a Direct Action Campaign | Section 17. Organizing a Boycott | Main Section | Community Tool Box: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/advocacy/direct-action/organize-boycott/main
History of Successful Boycotts | Ethical Consumer: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethicalcampaigns/boycotts/history-successful-boycotts
Gilets jaunes : le chiffre d’affaires de la grande distribution en forte baisse – Le Journal du Dimanche: https://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/gilets-jaunes-le-chiffre-daffaires-de-la-grande-distribution-en-forte-baisse-3808691
“Gilets jaunes”: Vinci autoroutes déplore “plusieurs dizaines de millions
– Zone bourse: https://www.zonebourse.com/VINCI-4725/actualite/Gilets-jaunes-Vinci-autoroutes-deplore-plusieurs-dizaines-de-millions-27760628/
France. La police doit cesser de recourir à une force excessive contre les manifestants et les lycéens – Amnesty: https://www.amnesty.fr/presse/france.-la-police-doit-cesser-de-recourir-a-une-force
Yellow vests referendum initiative can be ‘good instrument in Democracy’: French PM – The Nation: https://nation.com.pk/17-Dec-2018/yellow-vests-referendum-initiative-can-be-good-instrument-in-a-democracy-pm
V for Vendetta – MovieReview ChrisStuckmann: https://youtu.be/jIE7XhW0LPo
