The following statement from France’s anarchist CNT-AIT union analyses the nature of yesterday’s general strike, which has brought out millions of people and affected everything from schools and transport to legal services and hospitals. The battle for pensions begins. But this is not a simple union battle for the defence of social gains, let alone
Tag: France
We are here, even if Macron doesn’t want it: One year of the Gilets Jaunes
On November 16th the Gilets Jaunes movement marked one year since it burst onto the scene and threw a spanner in the works of President Macron’s agenda.
French migrant hunger strikers communique: ‘No Liberty, No Equality, No Fraternity for us’
Immigration Detention Centres, Centre de Retention Administratif or CRA in French. Let’s call them what they are: prisons for people that have committed the “serious crime” of not having the correct visa, or of not having been born in the right country. In a Europe, which likes to wax lyrical about the importance of freedom
Mutu: rethinking our radical media
The seriousness of our times hardly needs restating. In contrast to the temporary “tightening of belts” we were promised, we’re now over a decade into what is increasingly being understood as a permanent austerity that the ruling class wanted all along, while Britain’s biggest far-right demonstrations since the 1930s combine with Tory overtures towards overt
Paris: anarchist bookshop attacked
Librairie Publico, the anarchist bookshop in Paris run by the French Anarchist Federation, had been attacked. According to reports, “an anarchist comrade was violently attacked with a knife the afternoon of 2nd May 2019 in the FA bookshop Publico. There is nothing to suggest the attack was targeting him in particular, but rather the organisation
IWA: Solidarity with Yellow Vests, for a general strike
The anarcho-syndicalist international has published a public call backing a general strike and supporting a statement on the Yellow Vest movement written by its French section, CNT-AIT. The International Workers Association (IWA) would like to show its solidarity with the social protests occurring in France which are yet another example of resistance to the overbearing
France: Act 12 rallies in face of repression
After months of clashes, “Act 12” of the main Gilet Jaunes (yellow vest) marches today is setting itself squarely against police and fascist violence – and calls are growing for a general strike. A fascist attack launched against a procession at Act 11 by anti-capitalist party NPA last Saturday shook the left sections of the yellow vests. Several
The Movement as Battleground Fighting for the Soul of the Yellow Vest Movement
This analysis of the happenings in France was originally published by Crimethinc on 6th December 2018. In response to Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to increase the tax on fuel for “ecological” reasons, France has experienced several weeks of unrest associated with the yellow vest movement. This grassroots uprising illustrates how the contradictions of modern centrism—such as
Don’t abandon your Yellow Jackets
The name sounds a bit like something to do with a lifeguard’s alliance, but this movement’s name (gilets jaune) comes from their high vis jackets, something that all drivers are legally required to carry in their car in France. And what better way to protest rising fuel costs than sticking them on and blocking 350
French and German anti-nuclear campaigners block uranium transport
At early morning hours last Saturday, a group of French and German anti-nuclear activists blocked the uranium transport train. The train, believed to carry 33 uranium containers, was travelling from Hamburg to the the Orano uranium conversion plant in Narbonne Malvesi in south of France. The train track was blocked from about 5.30am, when two