A call for solidarity actions to be carried out from
tomorrow, in English, German, Italian, French:
https://giletsjaunesintergalactiques.home.blog/
Twitter @gjintergalact
Report actions via #GJIntergalactiques
Here is the call in English:
ACT 5: THIS TIME IT'S INTERGALACTIC
A call out from the gilets jaunes (yellow vests), for solidarity actions
everywhere.
On Saturday the 15th of December 2018.
It began as anger against neoliberal climate policies, a revolt against
unfair petrol taxes that pass on the cost to working people rather than
the rich and the very multinationals most responsible for polluting our
planet. Now four weeks later, it has become a popular uprising for
dignity, a rebellion against the elite and their world, a cry for
equality. It has evolved into a powerful refusal of representation, of
spokes people, political parties and unions. We have all been overtaken
by what has been happening, everyone has become more than themselves;
because we are impossible to define, the only code we have is a colour
code, all the other codes are broken. We are too diverse and
decentralized to be called a movement, too different to be categorized,
let's simply say we are an uprising ! Some in Europe have tried to turn
this into an emblem of ideas from the extreme right, attempting to
instrumentalise our heterogenity..The yellow vests was at first a piece
of road safety equipment, now it become an unprecedented event which
opens up the fault line that charts our future, a chasm we must bridge,
between social and environmental justice. It invites us all to make a
choice between the political classes and the people, between closing
borders and opening possibilities, between despair and hope.
This Saturday 15th of December, will be a key moment, ACT 5. Each
Saturday has been called an act, an acknowledgment that the most
beautiful popular theatre takes place in the streets, when we are
dressed in costumes of fluorescent yellow, swarming like disobedient
bees. During the week days, our call has been to block the flow of the
economy - roads, oil refineries, factories etc. Already the minister of
the economy is saying that more than 10 billion euros have been lost and
that France's economic growth will be affected. Every Saturday the
instruction is to shut down consumption - supermarkets and malls - and
to gather around symbols of state power - the president's palace in
Paris and the prefectures in the regions. Whilst all the world's cameras
have been focused on the capital's Champs-Elysee, our swarm of yellow
vests does not come from the metropolises, but from the forgotten
peripheries, and the uprising continues with blockades in villages and
towns up and down the country. Those of us who cannot spend our days and
nights in the makeshift cabins that have popped up on occupied the
roundabouts, or join those shutting down motorway toll gates, bring
cakes, palettes for firewood, hot morning coffee or legal advice to
those who have never disobeyed a law before.
In theatre, Act 5 is the final one, it either ends with catastrophe or
victory. This Saturday the future of this rebellion is in the balance,
this is why we are calling on you, across the world and beyond, to join
us, to put on your yellow vests and take action in solidarity. In the
past, France has already provided the spark that set light to the powder
keg of history, and today's sparks needs the breath from afar to keep it
alight. This Saturday we need to show that Act 5 is not the last one and
that we are still writing the script and becoming actors of our own lives.
In the lead up to Act 4, last Saturday (8th December), the French state
tried to put out the fire with the weapon of fear, “people are going to
come with guns...they are ready to kill” the Minister of Interior told
the cameras. He announced France's biggest police mobilisation since May
68 - 89,0000 officers across the country, twelve armored vehicles in
Paris, helicopters firing tear gas, water cannons. “The republic is
safe” he reassured the nation. Then they began to arrest and humiliate
high school students rising up against the reform of the school system
and people who had made call outs on the social media networks which
have been the lifeblood of this uprising. But it did not work, we did
not stay at home, tens of thousands of us came out for Act 4, and
continued to call for Macron's destitution. 1700 of us were arrested
(hundreds as preventative arrests), over 200 injured, some journalists
stopped from doing their work by the police and riots breaking out in
several cities.
The elite, and their live TV channels are dumb struck, they try to
label, to understand, they search for spokes people, a representative,
clear demands. But they are looking for the old world, we are making the
new one. Their greatest fear is that despite their attempts to split us,
to claim we are far right, or far left, 'violent hooligans',
'professionals of chaos', the population remains with us, 72 percent,
whilst only 18 percent are in favor of Macron, according to recent
polls. To their ridiculous fantasy labels, many of us reply we are
simply revolutionaries, we are those who were once nothing in the eyes
of power, and now make it tremble.
On Monday night, President Macron, whose deep contempt has poured fuel
on the fire, broke his aloof silence, 23 million watched him live as he
tried do fein authority and calm the anger. He promised things he had
promised never to fold on two days earlier: a small raise in minimum
wage, no tax on overtime. (The petrol tax was already cut last week). He
never mentioned the word ecology and made sure that the rich and capital
would not be taxed. But few were duped by the crumbs he threw us, as
the yellow jackets watched, every announcement was booed: “He doesn't
give a shit about us... Macron has not grasped the extent of what was
happening,” said one to the press “we are now asking to change the
system !”
Huddling around a bonfire in the middle of a roundabout, one of us
reminded everyone about the force of friendship we have made this
month, “We meet, we kiss. Our silence killed us.” he says “We've been
silent too long. We were invisible. Yellow saved us.” Meanwhile scrawled
on the walls and chanted everywhere are the words "we do not just want
to survive, but to live".
Last Saturday in Paris a cop, told one of us: “If you want to stay
alive, go home.” His chilling words simply echo the violence that all
governments are prepared to use when they feel like the people have
become ungovernable. The yellow vest was once an everyday symbol of
safety, a colour to avoid danger, now it has become a magic cloak of
visibility, a fluorescent force that asks who will be in charge of
safeguarding our fragile future, either those who see it as an
opportunity to make money, increase their control of the population, or
the people...
We were once invisible, just nothing, we are now everywhere...
Saturday 15 December, ACT 5 this time it's intergalactic, block
everything (especially French multinationals, symbols of the French
state and banks in your territories).
ps
As we finish this call to action, we hear that Egyptian authorities have
ordered commercial outlets to restrict the sale of the yellow vests
fearing that Egyptian protesters might copy us, especially in light of
the eighth anniversary of the 2011 spring...
#GJintergalactique
Anarchimedes@riseup.net
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