What's this based on? Hard to find any context to explain the meme, other than that UCL is involved to some extent in the protests
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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Is burning trashcans in the street praxis? But alas, I, an American, have no room to talk. My people are just spreading their cheeks.
It sure is. They're doing it to restrict police movement and their ability to carry out violence against protesters. Can't kettle people or carry out police charges on streets filled with debris.
This is also a fairly essential part of the escalation process. You're not getting a revolutionary fighting force without having your proles go through several stages of fighting the police first.
I'm jealous of their class solidarity, if thats what it is that causes them to do this. We should scientifically study that shit. Maybe it can be reproduced. In my burgerland state protests regularly get 20-100 people on weekends only before sputtering into nothingness.
This is basically how the French do liberalism. A little bit of rioting is how the general populace negotiates with their ruling class whenever they plan something. This does mean that they have suffered way less under neoliberalism than comparable nations in Western Europe, just look at the French vs the German age of retirement, but it is very much not revolutionary even when it involves street militancy.
Yeah unfortunately my impression of these riots is they're mostly like if the pink hat and no kings protestors in the US actually did something?
Mostly, yes. The difference is that they actually inconvenience the state enough to make concessions, both due the higher level of militance and the wider public support they can rely on when needed. Protest movements in France are also really good at general strikes for the latter reason. What it boils down to is that they actually inconvenience the state enough to move the needle and get concessions. But the state is very aware of that and good at recuperating the dissent, letting the masses blow off steam and then walking some decisions back in a way that makes the general public think they won - all of this backed up by the state also being able to call on what's probably the most violent and militarized cops in all of the Western EU.
So i'd say the key differences i see compared to the US are both broader and deeper organizing and higher militancy on the side of the people and a more calculating, flexible and pragmatic cynicism on behalf of the state. But this is absolutely not a revolutionary movement. Ofc the French haven't had an actual revolution^1^ since 1871, so who knows, maybe some day this'll change. The odds of that are probably better than elsewhere in the West.
^1^This only goes for the French mainland. The colonies are a very different matter, as evidenced by the Algerian civil war in the late 1950s.
I agree, but not for the general strike part. Their is no general strike for decades. Their is inter professional day of strike called by central union, but this is nothing close to general strike. Central Unions design this day to "not disrupt too much the economy".
This is an issue directly link with professional unionist and centralism of those unions. Uncentralized unions with nobody paid denounce those strategy, as well as the vast majority of people imply in struggle (even people unionize in central union).
I know orthodox marxist like centralized organization, but (for unions at least) it leads to non-revolutionary position (or liberal, if you'd rather). However, those organization are the last mass organization of our class, nobody could deny it.
Yeah at one point you have to admit you're either going to burn shit in your streets to negotiate forever or you need to actually take the next step. Which, anarchist or communist aside, is taking the means of production. I don't think the French will figure this out soon.
one of these times somebody will kill a cop with an improvised spear and something might kick off
The gilets jaunes protests had open clashes between protesters and cops in full brawls. Cops that got isolated were beaten to a pulp. The confrontations with police are very real and very serious, not just minor clashes. A kid has had his hand blown off, some protesters have been brutally savaged, there's one video of a cop feeling up a highschool girl while he has her pinned down for arrest, there's another video of 3 student protesters beating the shit out of a lone cop.
Short of spilling into full blown revolution and civil war the actual conflict occurring is as serious as it can get. The orgs are not ready to push for that yet though, they're pursuing reformism until it is absolutely proven that it is not an option before moving to the next stage, the wider population is unlikely to support revolution without reformism proving itself unavailable.
Aren't those protests largely made up of ppl from the intelligentsia? How are they "proles"?
The current student walkout in France is led by high schoolers, not university students, protesting unsafe and untenable school conditions. Class sizes of 30-40, water infiltration in classrooms, not enough teachers or paraprofessionals (no subs so classes just get cancelled), not enough furniture. Fac and staff walked out in solidarity, because civil servants are underpaid and overworked without substantial paid sick leave, etc. University students joined in after the protests were underway.
It's not French intelligentsia, though the right-wing press and politicians are accusing the left parties and La France Insoumise in particular of fomenting violent riots across the country. Police escalated first by using tear gas against the peaceful high schoolers, and continued to escalate to rubber bullets. Dozens of children aged ~14-17 have been maimed, beaten, and gassed by police in the last week and a half.
Humanite.fr has good coverage if you can read French
Are the French right-wingers blaming it on migrants too? Or is this just fascist onlookers from other countries? I've seen a lot of that in comment sections.
Great question. In Paris and its surrounding region in particular, there are large immigrant populations. Often they come from former French colonies in North Africa, and these groups have been racialized, otherized, and ostracized (different language, different religion, different skin color and facial features, etc). There has been a lot more mask-off racist aggression from cops being caught on camera hurling racial epithets, invoking the age-old racist trope of sexual aggression being "normal" in Muslim cultures, and essentially calling everyone else race traitors who "deserve what's coming to them". These cops are covering their badges and identification with fascist and misogynist symbols. One local politician who joined the protest was pushed to the ground and clubbed while the cop said "you may have been elected but you're still a piece of shit like everyone else".
So to answer your question: yes, the fascists in France are posing it as a racial issue.
They are students yes but the majority are still definitionally proles. Only around 10% of graduates go on to become bourgeoisie, the rest become employed. A solid chunk end up as PMC or professional roles but a surgeon is still a prole, well educated or not.
Current protests are public high school students from low-income and/or hyper-dense urban areas. These are oberwhelmingly working class children.
Only around 10% of graduates go on to become bourgeoisie
I'm guessing it's actually much lower than that
I think petty-bourgeoisie is included in that. The figure was very very roughly derived from how many people go on to start or own businesses.
Seize power? Like ze Napoleon? Non!