France is about to return en masse from summer vacation, and they will find that the Yellow Vest anti-government movement hasn’t gone anywhere. For the 41st consecutive Saturday scores of demonstrations were held nationwide. RNA - Social movements in France have always taken summers off, so the Yellow Vests’ commitment, motivation and determination is unprecedented. They have also been forced to brave shocking state repression, with thousands imprisoned and nearly a thousand seriously injured by police.
On every Saturday since late March France has banned protests and deployed thousands of cops and soldiers, but this weekend a huge force was deployed to completely lock down the southwestern town of Biarritz, which is hosting a summit of the G7 nations.
French President Emmanuel Macron does not want to be embarrassed by the presence of Yellow Vests, whose presence would also undermine the West’s claim that their democracies are superior to those in other parts of the world.
According to Press TV, the theme of the G7 meeting is economic inequality, which many here find ironic: the primary demand of the Yellow Vests has always been to end the far-right economic austerity policies which have gutted purchasing power and caused inequality to explode across France and the entire Euro zone.
Macron is back from his vacation and announced his plans to force through deeply unpopular cutbacks to the pension system and other austerity measures.
Many expect that this autumn will see protests during the week by unions, teachers and hospital workers, with the Yellow Vests continuing to demonstrate every Saturday.
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