Mayday in Paris 2019
5/5/19 T.H.
It’s been quite a momentous few months in France. The Yellow Vest movement initially began as a protest against proposed carbon taxes in November 2018, but quickly transformed into a mass movement for economic, political and ecological justice. Donning the illuminous vests French drivers are required to carry by law, they have demonstrated en masse across France for 25 Saturdays in a row.
Many of these demos have descended into chaos. The police have come under criticism for their use of teargas and flashball grenades on peaceful protesters. President Macron believes the measures are justified to combat anarchist rioters who use the demos as a cover to wreak havoc.
With my friend Tod being a wannabe photographer, and myself a wannabe journalist, we went to Paris on May 1, a traditional day of protest, to check it out for ourselves.
The main Yellow Vest demo that day in Paris was at a place called Montparnasse, about a forty minute metro journey from our hotel. On our way to the station we stopped for breakfast. As we wolfed down our omelettes, columns of riot police marched past. Being so far away from the main demo this caught us off guard.
We popped our heads onto the street. A cohort of maybe 1000 people marched towards us. They were trade unionists and students headed towards Montparnasse to join the Yellow Vests. We were leaning against a bus stop advertisement, sleepily taking in the sights, until a ‘THUMP, THUMP, THUMP’ on the other side of the ad forced us to get moving.
A group of five teenagers, dressed in all black and covered with gas masks, were smashing up bus stops, chain stores and gas stations from the comfort of the demo. They couldn’t have been older than sixteen. Every time they smashed something, the crowd gave a roar of approval followed by chants of “AYA, ANTI, ANTI — CAPITALISTE!”
What must have been a thousand policemen were shadowing the march. The atmosphere was getting tenser — everybody wanted to be at Montparnasse. In the middle of one avenue it occurred to someone that we should take a side street to dodge the police and take a metro. What developed next was the largest game of chasing I have ever witnessed. We must have looked like lunatics, running through shopping centres and onto motorways.
Eventually, a police charge cut us off from the main group. We regrouped with some other stragglers who said our best way of getting there was the bus, as police had closed the metro.
After 10 minutes on the bus, a policeman told the driver we could go no further. After walking for an hour, we finally reached Montparnasse. Joining the main demonstration was overwhelming. 40,000 people had turned up to protest.
The chants of the day were ‘Macron Resign!’, ‘Police Everywhere, Justice Nowehere!’ and simply ‘Revolution!’. The sun was glaring and there was a beautiful colour to the occasion. People of all ages wearing yellow vests with elaborate signs and banners.
The atmosphere at the front of the protest was far less jovial. The Black Bloc, far-left activists who conceal their faces, clashed with the police all day. Cars were set alight and two banks were ransacked. We first got caught by tear gas in a crowd of people and couldn’t move. It isn’t pleasant, and you could see how it turns people against the police. Thankfully there were hundreds of medics present with sprays to relieve the irritation.
Pavements were smashed up with hammers as some looked for objects to throw. Both sides are well used to this kind of clashing, and there seems to be a set of unwritten rules. For example, no protesters threw any petrol bombs and in return, no flashball grenades were fired at head height.
The procession finished at Palace D’Italie where the atmosphere resembled a festival. Everyone was dancing to the techno music playing off multiple speakers. Indian men were selling warm cans of beer from trollies at €4 a pop. However, the police did a good job of splitting up the protest into manageable sections and it started to fizzle out.
At about 8pm we nipped off to a nearby restaurant. When we came back to Palace D’Italie, it was eerie to see cars back on the roads like nothing ever happened. After all the talk of revolution, it felt a bit anti-climactic.
Still, though, I had never seen such a mobilisation in Dublin. The main demands, which you can discern from their banners, are for Macron’s resignation and the introduction of citizen-initiated referenda. As one protester explained to me “We are fed up of begging to be heard. By allowing citizens to initiate referenda, power will be transferred from the corrupt politicians back to the people.”
Their complaints about growing income inequality, climate inaction and a lack of democracy are all relevant here in Ireland. Although we’re not at the same level of discontent, the Yellow Vests should serve as a warning to politicians becoming isolated from public opinion. The public, like the individual, has a limit to their temper.
