On Friday, May 17th, Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic, spoke again about us [Yellow Vests – ed]. As usual, he talks about us to silence us. Nevertheless, for six months, we exist. We came out of the wood, out of resignation.
It’s been six months since the president wanted us to go home, calm down, and get back into the ranks. But despite our differences, despite our heterogeneity (or perhaps thanks to it, to a certain extent?), we are still here.
He says he “brought answers to the French men and women in relation to what led to this movement”. Two possibilities, one answer: A) Macron is stupid; B) Macron takes us for idiots.
Answer B of course. Macron is not stupid, he is simply greedy for power, and like any big leader, like any bourgeois, he seeks above all to preserve his privileges, those of the possessing class.
Yet our main demand has been clear from the beginning: MACRON RESIGN.
Macron added that for “those who continue today [to demonstrate], there is no longer a political outlet”. He called for “calm”, urged everyone to “find the course of their life”, and to “express their differences of opinion (…) in the manner prescribed by democracy – to vote”. If we no longer have a “political outlet”, why would we vote? Hmm?
We’ve said it since the beginning of the movement: we do not want any change of political staff, we do not want to replace Macron with LePen or Mélenchon or whoever it is. We want something else. We do not need a head, a leader, we do not want a representative, an opportunist-careerist puppet to found a new party. It has been said since the beginning: our movement is beyond institutional politics, beyond parties, unions, we do not want to become the “social partners” of authorities that only serve to reinforce the democratic image of the system and preserve the established order.
The list labeled “Yellow Vests” for the European elections is only pure political recovery. These are attempts to get us back into the ranks, as are the alleged representatives of the Yellow Vests who seek permission for demonstrations from the prefecture. All of this aims at a return to normal through something other than the police method: what is sought is the maintenance of order by simply changing a few leaders.
But we do not want a few crumbs reluctantly released by political power, we want a social revolution. A profound change, which is as far-reaching for us as it is for Macron (who wants us to simply talk to his minions, create electoral lists, perpetuate the system against which we fight …).
Exploited and dominated here and on the other side of the world by the same politicians, the same capitalists, our prospects for social change are not “simple” because everything has to be reversed, both here and elsewhere. Our solutions do not fit into the legal boxes of the system and we understood that the authorities would place obstacles in front of every autonomous initiative, at every moment that escapes their control.
But we will not give up: assemblies, occupation of roundabouts, construction of huts, demonstrations, actions of all kinds, we now live through the fight against this system based on social inequalities, but we also live through mutual aid, self-organisation, and social experimentation. We are the present and the future.
On May 26th, we will not vote. We have much better things to do!
May 2019, Paname, Yellow Vests collective of Rungis, Ile-de-France
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