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Yellow jackets: continue the mobilization against the high cost of living

Saturday 1 December 2018, by NPA - Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste

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Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, demonstrated today all over France against the cost of living and against the government, including the cries of “Macron resign!”

The breadth of the mobilization, despite the police repression, despite the weather, shows the determination of the working classes throughout the country, fed up with the increase in taxes, the CSG (social security contribution), while the ISF (wealth tax) has been abolished and the possessors are doubling their arrogance. The clashes that have taken place are the responsibility of the government, which, with the gassings, water cannons and blows, tried to prevent the demonstrators from gaining access to the Champs-Élysées. These state acts of violence are an illustration of Macron’s obstinacy, refusing to respond to popular demands, of a government that wants to maintain the increase in fuel tax and electricity, while promising "months of consultation"... The policy pursued by Macron and his predecessors is now massively rejected as it is: a class policy for the benefit of the richest, the "first in line" like Carlos Ghosn [1], to the detriment of the incomes and jobs of the working classes. And the fact that tonight it is Interior Minister Castaner who is responsible for replying to demonstrators on television says a lot...

The NPA is in solidarity with this mobilization and hopes that it will continue – giving itself its own democratic organization – mobilizing against all indirect taxes, for the return of the wealth tax, for an increase in salaries and pensions, for the defence of public services. Across the country, we support democratic blockades and popular debate assemblies.

In this context, trade union, political and campaign organizations must also take their responsibilities by rejecting any division, as already exists in many cities around converging calls and actions, to build a mass mobilization that also isolates the extreme right, in particular through strikes that block the economy.

Mobilization is a revealing sign of the political crisis that has been latent for several months. What we are experiencing is potentially a social explosion against the ravages of capitalism suffered by the working classes over the years. Those who sows misery reap anger!

NPA Executive Committee

Montreuil, December 1, 2018

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Footnotes

[1Managing Director of Nissan-Renault held for questioning in Japan for tax fraud.