France as epicentre of mass protests against oligarchy Analysis by Shereshevskiy

Outbreaks of protests in France and clashes between the police and the population have brought renewed attention to events in this country. In recent days, France has faced the most serious race riots in two decades. The last time something similar happened was in 2005 when two North African teenagers were killed while trying to evade police. In response, young people from poor neighbourhoods populated by migrants from North Africa and their descendants clashed with the regime. This time the clashes broke out after police officers killed 17-year-old Algerian national Nael.

These are clashes in which there are some national or racial overtones. Their participants fight with the police, sometimes using firearms. The authorities, in turn, try to suppress these protests by using violence. Historically, however, French social protests are far more massive and involve workers of all nationalities.

More recently, there were protests in France in the spring against President Macron's pension reforms. Back then, in response to the government's decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, millions took to the streets, while thousands clashed with the police. Before those events, railway workers halted operations by coordinating their protest via the internet. These actions, which French researcher Charles Reeve writes about, came as a complete surprise to the authorities. Trade unions had organised strikes before. These strikes had been controlled by the union bosses, who had been feted by the management of the big companies and had long been out of work in the factories. Trade union strikes did not last long and usually ended in exchange for minor concessions. The bosses always had their finger on the pulse.

Attempts by workers to strike without unions, coordinating their actions through labour collective meetings, social media and relying on activists collaborating on Telegrams are typical of some contemporary strikes. This helps to avoid repression and control by acolytes of power. A similar method is now used in France and Iran.

But it is France that remains unique in relatively stable Western Europe. France is exceptional because about every 5-10 years a real social earthquake sweeps through the country.

When talking about French revolutionariness, one usually thinks of the French Great Revolution and the Commune of Paris, as well as the events of Red May 1968. These comparisons are highly lame. In 1871, for example, Paris was invaded by local workers. They turned the two-million-strong city into an independent Commune, elected its Council (with the right to recall delegates at any time by assemblies of city sections) - the body of direct worker democracy - and began to think about transferring factories and plants into the hands of self-governing labour collectives. All this movement relied on the protection of some 60,000 to 100,000 armed workers, a voluntary militia - the so-called National Guard. For weeks battles took place in Paris between the communards and troops loyal to the French government. The latter still managed to crush the uprising, which lasted a little over two months.

Of course, contemporary protests are a long way from that. They do not even have a clearly articulated alternative to the current social and political order. But their frequency and activity is striking against the background of other Western countries.

In 2018-2019, the Yellow Vests movement took place in the country. Its initial cause was President Macron's intention to increase the carbon tax. Then the demands of the participants broadened and they wanted broad socio-economic changes, from higher wages to improvements in education and health systems. Participants blocked roads in many parts of the country.

Earlier, in the 1990s and noughties, waves of huge strikes swept across the country. Millions of workers in factories and transport networks, as well as teachers and doctors, stopped work and took to the streets in response to government attempts to change labour laws - changing them not in favour of workers. Here too, the protests occasionally got out of the hands of the unions - the decisions were taken by the workers themselves in meetings.

France generally remains an example of an intense struggle of the social grassroots against the power of the ruling oligarchy. The lobbyists of big companies and high-ranking officials, who hide behind political party signs, only imitate democracy. The real power is in the hands of those who, with their big money and connections, can buy up parliament at will and pass any laws that benefit them. But this causes an acute confrontation with the street.