Yellow vests

The yellow vests (also known as gilets jaunes in French) is a massive ongoing populist movement that started in France in late 2018, originally to protest the neoliberal policies of president Emmanuel Macron.[1]

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Co-opted by the far right

While the yellow vests includes volunteers from across the political spectrum, some far righters have used this to push their own agenda.[2][3]

Neo-Nazis and anti-semites seized this movement for their own nefarious racist purposes.[4] Just look at the glowing endorsements by the knuckle draggers back at the Daily Stormer.[5]

In Chile, the tiny fraction of people who oppose the ongoing anti-capitalist protests against the Piñera regime (mostly reactionaries, anti-Venezuelan conspiracy theorists, and Pinochet apologists like John Cobin, the American far right "libertarian" and neo-Confederate terrorist who opened fire on a group of peaceful Chilean demonstrators)[6] have adopted the yellow vest as their symbol.[7]

Possible foreign influence

It is unclear how organic the movement has been, with some suggestion of the Kremlin's involvement.[8]

Demands of the yellow vests

The yellow vest's demands are mostly supporting a stronger welfare state. They are, of course, opposed to the gas taxes which caused the movement to start, and they oppose the neoliberal reforms of Macron and the governments before him. They also support a popular referendum, a proposal largely influenced by Etienne Chouard, a far-left internet activist and supporter of sortition of political rulers.

Spreading beyond French borders

The yellow vests also inspired other similar protests to occur in Belgium, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Central African Republic, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.[9]

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References
  1. The Yellow Vests: Who they are and why their tax protest is a big deal The Mercury News. November 20th, 2018.
  2. The Far Right Is Trying to Co-opt the Yellow Vests The Daily Beast. January 8th, 2019.
  3. The Ugly, Illiberal, Anti-Semitic Heart of the Yellow Vest Movement New Republic. January 7th, 2019.
  4. Antisemitism among yellow vest protestors demoralizes France's Jews The Jerusalem Post. January 14th, 2019.
  5. Macron Speaks Out! 'Yellow Vests Are Very Bad Goys!' by Roy Batty (January 3, 2019) Daily Stormer (archived from February 2, 2019).
  6. A Californian economist loves neoliberalism. When Chileans started protesting it, he opened fire on them. The Washington Post. November 11, 2019.
  7. Hay que desarticular a Kast y a los "chalecos amarillos" (Kast and the "yellow vests" must be disbanded) by Francisco Mendez. El Desconcierto. November 10, 2019.
  8. Carol Matlack and Robert Williams, "France to probe possible Russian influence on Yellow Vest riots," Bloomberg, Dec. 7, 2018, accessed Sep. 14, 2019.
  9. See the Wikipedia article on Yellow vests movement.
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