RAOUL VANEIGEM ON THE GILETS JAUNES

This is an article I translated from the Marseille-based anarchist-sympathizing newspaper CQFD of Feb. 2019 (page7)

"Le Nouveau Magazine Litereraire interviewed Raoul Vaneigem about the Gillets jaunes, which according to the review are 'revolting in order to preserve their place in consumer society, where the auto is god.' In response the philosopher exposed this form of disinformation. 'Stop reducing these demands to the level of a shopping cart! You know very well that these demands are global. They come from everyone, the retired, the highschoolers, farmers, those drivers for whom the auto is a necessity to get to the job... all the men and women, those anonymous people who are aware of their existence who want to live and have had enough of a Republic based only on the bottom line.'
 

' We have entered a critical period where the smallest conflict can articulate an ensemble of global contestations. A tomato plant is more important than the boots of the militarists and statists who would crush it, as we see in Notre Dame-des-Landes. 1 The political leaders, and those who would replace them, think the opposite, as they think they can tax the gasoline of those who find the use of a car indispensable. The "Zones a Defendre" ZAD were not created to combat the nuisances by the multi-nationals, who despise the peoples of the Earth, they are the location of, or the new experience of, a new form of society taking its first step. "All is possible", this is also the message of the Gilets jaunes. All is possible, even self-managed assemblies of the roundabouts and cross roads, and in the villages and neighborhoods.

1. A E580 million airport was slated for 2008 in this area near Nantes. It was occupied by farmers and activists, a village created which became known as a kind of "anarchist utopia". This became known as a ZAD (Zone a Defendre) The airport project was abandoned by the govt in 2018 in the face of this sustained opposition. The state still tried to destroy the ZAD nonetheless, April 2018, sending 2500 police to attack the village with 11,000 projectiles (gas and stun grenades) About a third of the site was destroyed before a halt was called to the police operation. The village and its projects still exist and is in the process of "legalization,"