For
centuries, the “left” hoped popular movements would lead to
changes for the better. Today, many leftists seem terrified of
popular movements for change, convinced “populism” must lead to
“fascism.” But it needn’t be so, says Diana Johnstone.
by
Diana Johnstone
Part
4 - The Government Misses the Point
Initial
government responses showed that they weren’t listening. They
dipped into their pool of clichés to denigrate something they didn’t
want to bother to understand.
President
Macron’s first reaction was to guilt-trip the protesters by
invoking the globalists’ most powerful argument for imposing
unpopular measures: global warming. Whatever small complaints people
may have, he indicated, that is nothing compared to the future of the
planet.
This did
not impress people who, yes, have heard all about climate change and
care as much as anyone for the environment, but who are obliged to
retort: “I’m more worried about the end of the month than
about the end of the world.”
After
the second Yellow Vest Saturday, November 25, which saw more
demonstrators and more tear gas, the Minister in charge of the
budget, Gérard Darmanin, declared that what had demonstrated on the
Champs-Elysée was “la peste brune”, the brown plague,
meaning fascists. (For those who enjoy excoriating the French as
racist, it should be noted that Darmanin is of Algerian working class
origins).
This
remark caused an uproar of indignation that revealed just how great
is public sympathy for the movement – over 70% approval by latest
polls, even after uncontrolled vandalism.
Macron’s
Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, was obliged to declare
that government communication had been badly managed. Of course, that
is the familiar technocratic excuse: we are always right, but it is
all a matter of our “communication”, not of the facts on the
ground.
Maybe I
have missed something, but of the many interviews I have listened to,
I have not heard one word that would fall into the categories of “far
right”, much less “fascism” – or even that indicated any
particular preference in regard to political parties. These people
are wholly concerned with concrete practical issues. Not a whiff of
ideology – remarkable in Paris!
Some
people ignorant of French history and eager to exhibit their leftist
purism have suggested that the Yellow Vests are dangerously
nationalistic because they occasionally wave French flags and sing La
Marseillaise. That simply means that they are French.
Historically,
the French left is patriotic, especially when it is revolting against
the aristocrats and the rich or during the Nazi Occupation. (The
exception was the student uprising of May 1968, which was not a
revolt of the poor but a revolt in a time of prosperity in favor of
greater personal freedom: “it is forbidden to forbid”. The May
’68 generation has turned out to be the most anti-French generation
in history, for reasons that can’t be dealt with here. To some
extent, the Yellow Vests mark a return of the people after half a
century of scorn from the liberal intelligentsia.)
It is
just a way of saying, We are the people, we do the work, and you
must listen to our grievances. To be bad, “nationalism” must
be aggressive toward other nations. This movement is not attacking
anybody, it is strictly staying home.
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