French
Revolution 2.0/American
Revolution Nil
by C.A. Matthews
If a massive series of nationwide strikes and protests occur across France, but American mainstream media completely ignores them, or relegates brief mentions of them to the “back pages,” does this ongoing popular French uprising really exist at all?
This point struck home this week after I had a conversation with a person who said “Huh? What?” when I mentioned the huge number of protests, strike actions, and other activist events happening since the start of the year in France. He didn’t know that France is literally on fire.
It seems odd that an intelligent person who’s reasonably in touch with reality wouldn’t be following the story of how French workers are standing up to President Macron’s unilateral raising of the retirement age. But if you watch mainstream news channels and read rags such as Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post, you might have missed anything to do with the French building barricades and burning automobiles in the streets next to sky-high piles of uncollected garbage bags and brigades of baton-wielding police officers dragging protesters off to jail.
Some days I wonder if it’s all worth it. Should I keep following independent journalists and keeping up with what’s happening in the world? Maybe it’s time to throw in the towel and give in to the propaganda machine. What could it hurt? I could live in darkness and believe that things that average Americans believe, like how we haven’t had a series of war criminals for president and American intelligence agencies had nothing to do with either the 2014 Maidan Coup or the Nord Stream 2 pipelines bombing.
(If you have to look up any of these topics to understand what I mean, might I suggest you check out https://radindiemedia.com and use their search function? You’re welcome.)
Back
to the French protesting and burning cars
in the streets thing: I’ve wondered if this ongoing
protest in France is
somehow a chance for Americans to witness and learn what a real,
honest-to-goodness revolution is like.
Before you object and say, “Hey, Americans
had a revolution in 1776!” I’d like to remind you that the French
also had a revolution in the 18th
century, around 1789.
The thing is, the French working class actually
toppled their monarch off his
throne
and marched him to the guillotine. American working classes
(excluding
enslaved Africans and despised/displaced
Native Americans) simply followed a bunch of wealthy, white,
slave-owning/land-owning males who
threw
a temper tantrum (or “Boston Tea Party”) over having to pay their
fair share of taxes
to the king back home in England—a
king who
never lost one hair on his head due to rude
behavior in the colonies.
If
a despot is still sitting on his or her throne at the end of the day,
you can’t say you’ve experienced a revolution,
now
can
you?
The
French have experienced
a revolution on
several occasions besides
1789,
and it appears Macron is going to be out on his ear before too long
if the people have anything to say about it. Sure, the militarized
police and the armed forces are being used and will be used against the people,
but the French seem bound and determined not to allow Macron to cross
their line in the sand. They’re in it to win it, no
matter how physically, financially, or emotionally damaging it could be.
What’s
the difference between the French and Americans when it comes to
standing up to injustices, such as forcing a raise in the retirement
age? Independent
journalist Patrick
Lawrence in his piece, French
Streets and American Sofas,
puts it well:
...It
is remarkable the world over to watch the French explode into the
streets of dozens of cities and towns to protest the imperial
president residing in Élysée Palace. It is altogether singular to
follow the demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron as an American. The
French are still citoyens
and take to their streets and public squares. Americans long ago
cashed in their citizenship to live as consumers—and take to their
sofas no matter how abusively political elites treat them, no matter
how many wars they start, no matter how corrupt the financial system,
no matter how many people live in poverty, no matter how grotesque
the “defense” budget, no matter how poisoned the environment, no
matter… let me not go on.
Please
pass the Fritos and turn on the big game.
Lawrence
has wisely
discerned the major difference between
the French and the Americans
that demonstrates why the French make
revolutions
and Americans make…
simply
a
change in the TV
channel
and
a choice of chips.
The French still see themselves as one people,
one body,
one class of workers,
standing up against the injustices of the king
or the emperor
or the
president.
The French
don’t sit back and eat junk food and ignore the plight of their
fellow workers. Instead,
they stand up and take their
righteous indignation
to the streets
and fight for justice for all
workers,
for all
citizens,
for
all
their people.
Americans
have, from time to time, attempted
to
do likewise—such as in the Civil Rights protests
of the 1960s—but basically we’ve never been able to keep that
level
of righteous
indignation going for
very long.
We
profess that
we don’t
care all that much about our neighbors, particularly if our neighbor
wears a red hat or votes “blue no matter who” or attends a
different church or happens to use a public restroom we’d rather
they didn’t use. Americans have been divided and conquered for so
long that it’s as natural to us as breathing. We’d rather give
in to the ruling oligarchy and turn on the game and tune out of life
than stand up and fight for what really matters.
Lawrence
further elaborates on how the French see the raising retirement age
problem as an indication of whose side their government
is on: “Macron’s
choice lay between raising taxes on the wealthy and the corporations
or pushing the problem on the shoulders of the working class. He made
the wrong choice.”
Can
you imagine American workers getting upset over the federal government
raising the retirement age? Can you imagine American workers getting angry over how the wealthy and the corporations don’t pay their fair share of
taxes, so the poor
and struggling workers
are forced to make up the deficit? Of course you can’t imagine
Americans having their noses put out of joint over this type of
ill-treatment because these
two things have already occurred in the US, and American workers have done
nothing serious
about
them. Not. One. Thing.
You
owe it to yourself to read the
entirety of Lawrence’s
article. Here’s one last quote that sums up where Americans
have gone wrong in
thinking that once
we actually experienced a revolution:
The
[French]
Revolution
was an attack on the vestiges of divine right, the notion that a
monarch’s authority was God-given. It was about humanity, not the
heavens, as the agent of its destiny. And it was class-conscious.
There were no illusions in 1789 as to the nature of power. The fate
of the French is in the hands of the French: This was the core
thought then and it is the core thought now.
I'm
glad I'm not the only one who sees this fault
in
Americans. We don't really believe in ourselves
as a people. We don't universally believe in anything
really,
other than the oligarchs’ propaganda that
we
gladly
consume
from our mainstream media like
a bag of chips.
Americans
are indoctrinated from a young age and propagandized throughout our
adulthood to do as we're told by our bosses. We have a natural
instinct telling us things aren't quite adding up, that they're wrong
or unfair, but we can never quite
put
a finger on it. We are blind to our society's class conflicts and
never lose faith in the powers-that-be, no matter how blatantly
corrupt
they are or
how perverted the capitalist economic system has become.
Oh,
to be as class-conscious and community-minded as the French! Oh,
to be able to rise up as one people and set the streets on fire
to
scare the corrupt politician-puppets
out
of
power!
Maybe
one
day we shall have the strength, wisdom, and courage to take our
destiny into our own hands like the French have done. Maybe we’ll
even experience that “First American Revolution” that
our
poorly written history textbooks tell us our
ancestors
once participated
in.
Until
then, pass the Fritos and hand me the remote. It’s my turn to pick
the channel.
Related Links:
UPDATE: The French People Battle Pension Reform in Paris (video)https://unicornriot.ninja/2023/the-french-people-battle-p ension-reform-in-paris/
Patrick Lawrence: French Streets and American Sofas
https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/30/patrick-lawrence-french-streets-and-american-sofas/
France Burns! What the F*ck is Going On?! (video) https://youtu.be/drIYG3J86tI
Protests Rage In France For A Tenth Day https://popularresistance.org/protests-rage-in-france-for-a-tenth-day/
'The Movement Has Spread': Strikes Across France Aim to Block Macron Attack on Pensions
https://www.commondreams.org/news/france-protests-macron-pensions-mar-7
Macron Loses Control - Train Tracks Blocked https://youtu.be/lnXOkJzP63U
Women’s rights at the heart of the fight over pensions in France
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/03/07/womens-rights-at-the-heart-of-the-fight-over-pensions-in-france/
Macron Faces National Strike in France (video) https://youtu.be/ChpZ3p6MT9A
Despite Government Attacks: Workers, Students In France Stay Strong https://popularresistance.org/despite-government-attacks-workers-students-in-france-stay-strong/
Workers in France are still refusing to back down to Macron’s pension reforms https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-news/2023/03/23/workers-in-france-are-still-refusing-to-back-down-to-macrons-pension-reforms/
Covering Up Anti-War Protest in US Media https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/31/covering-up-antiwar-protest-in-us-media/
How The Rich Are Prepping For End Times & Why (video about the petrodollar crashing) https://youtu.be/bW1bibPhJfA
CNN Pushes Propaganda on French Protests (video)
https://youtu.be/0_KtcRvxJnY
Fresh Clashes Rock France As Protests Shift To Water Dispute
https://popularresistance.org/fresh-clashes-rock-france-as-protests-shift-to-water-dispute/
No to French unions’ “mediation” with the state! Mobilize workers to bring down Macron! https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/03/30/yyvw-m30.html
Rubbish collectors lead last-ditch strikes against France’s pension reforms https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-news/2023/03/15/rubbish-collectors-lead-last-ditch-strikes-against-frances-pension-reforms/
Massive Anti-NATO Protests Erupt in France (video) https://youtu.be/_sZcC8QAojU
Protesting French Students Denounce Trade Union "Mediation" with Macron https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/04/01/summ-a01.html
UN Security Council Won’t Probe Nord Stream Bombing
https://popularresistance.org/un-security-council-wont-probe-nord-stream-bombing/
Bad Faith UN Report On Nicaragua Whitewashes Violent US-Backed Coup
https://popularresistance.org/bad-faith-un-report-on-nicaragua-whitewashes-violent-us-backed-coup/
Congress Has Been Captured by the Arms Industry
https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/28/congress-has-been-captured-by-the-arms-industry/
The US Has Seen 50 Chemical Spills or Fires This Year, and It’s Only March https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-has-seen-50-chemical-spills-or-fires-this-year-and-its-only-march/
At Least 39 Asylum Seekers Dead After Fire at Migrant Jail in Mexico https://truthout.org/articles/at-least-39-asylum-seekers-dead-after-fire-at-migrant-jail-in-mexico/
Google founder, former Disney exec to get subpoenas in JPMorgan Epstein lawsuit https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/31/google-founder-former-disney-exec-to-get-subpoenas-in-jpmorgan-epstein-lawsuit.html
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