The State Department has issued a level two advisory to American tourists in France, including these disturbing words: “Avoid demonstrations and areas of unrest.”
What is the State Department talking about?
Protests began in France five weeks ago, Thursday September 17, in Créteil, a suburb over seven miles southeast of Paris, with student demonstrations triggered by incidents like a math teacher quitting and not being replaced in time to allow the students to get through make-it-or-break-it exams that would determine whether or not the high schoolers would get into university and have a shot at a high-paying career.
At another school in Créteil, Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry, it was the teachers protesting because there was no one to teach mathematics, French and history. Some students went without math classes for ten months. Students joined the teachers’ protests and blockaded the school on September 21.
In yet another school, two math teachers were transferred and the students went without math classes for a week. That may seem like a petty interruption—unless it determines your career, income, and status for the rest of your life.
The mood of protest continued to build slowly, like kindling catching fire twig by twig. On October 7th, a call went out on Tik Tok, Instagram and X calling for demonstrations nationwide. And on October 17th, just a few days ago, the protests turned into riots that swept the country. On that day, over half a million people demonstrated in 110 French cities. 2,400 were arrested. A thousand police were injured. More than 3,000 shops were looted or damaged. And an estimated billion dollars worth of damage was done.
No wonder tourists were in danger. One wealthy Dutch visitor was in Paris to visit a friend and moved his wife and kids out of their expensive hotel near the famous Place de République because he said it was like a war zone. Even the Louvre was shut down. Meanwhile, curfews have been instituted and security has been ratcheted up. But that’s the least of it.
The flame of demonstrations is spreading. It is showing up in Spain, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Germany, and Albania. And someone is reaping the rewards: Russia. For example, TV station France24 points out that the chaos is dramatically boosting the odds that the right wing’s Marine le Pen will win France’s upcoming 2027 election. Le Pen was once propped up with a loan of over ten million dollars from a Russian bank, money that some sources believe came from Vladimir Putin.
Le Pen is about to pay it back. As soon as she gets into office, she plans to drop all financial support for Ukraine.
But keep your eyes peeled. The real trouble will come this weekend. Remember the Yellow Jackets, the Gilets Jaunes, who took over the streets of Paris and 300 other locations in 2018 with demonstrations that involved crowds of 280,000 and that lasted well over a year? They’re back. The Gilets Jaunes plan demonstrations starting this Saturday, October 24th, just days from now. They are throwing 341 separate actions and a march across Paris to demand increased purchasing power, public services, and the really big one, the resignation of French President Emanuel Macron.
The authorities begged the Gilets Jaunes organizers to call the event off. The organizers refused. They said that to shut down their freedom of speech would be to give the rioters of last weekend a big win.
France’s security authorities fear the worst. They have vowed to augment the police with between five and ten thousand soldiers. But as news desk reporters at the French television station France24 have pointed out, there’s little that military men trained to kill and to hold territory can do to stop rioters when they have massive assault rifles strapped across their chests.
But this is just the beginning. French labor unions have called for a national strike and street demonstrations November 5th. And when French unions demonstrate, they can draw crowds in the millions
One more tiny thing. It’s wise to remember that the French have a gift for street demonstrations that turn into riots. Remember that the French were inspired by a revolution that started with a property-damaging demonstration in 1773, the Boston Tea Party. The French response to the American Revolution was a violent street demonstration that turned into its own unique revolution in 1789. That riot-born revolution not only did away with the office of the king, it cut off the king’s head. And the head of his wife, Marie Antoinette. Not to mention over the next few years removing the heads of roughly 17,000 aristocrats and assorted citizens.
What’s more, keep in mind that, astonishingly, the current riots are nothing compared to the French demonstrations and riots of 1968, when between seven and nine million workers took to the streets. And rioters burned cars and battled with police, almost bringing down the French government.
Something in the French soul seems to love demonstrations that turn into riots. Now the problem will be to what extent these riots catch fire in more of Europe.
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About the author: Howard Bloom of the Howard Bloom Institute has been called the Einstein, Newton, Darwin, and Freud of the 21st century by Britain’s Channel 4 TV. Bloom’s new book is The Case of the Sexual Cosmos: Everything You Know About Nature is Wrong. Says Harvard’s Ellen Langer of The Case of the Sexual Cosmos, Bloom “argues that we are not savaging the earth as some would have it, but instead are growing the cosmos. A fascinating read.” One of Bloom’s eight previous books–Global Brain—was the subject of a symposium thrown by the Office of the Secretary of Defense including representatives from the State Department, the Energy Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT. Bloom’s work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Psychology Today, and the Scientific American. Not to mention in scientific journals like Biosystems, New Ideas in Psychology, and PhysicaPlus. Says Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Evolution’s End and The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, “I have finished Howard Bloom’s [first two] books, The Lucifer Principle and Global Brain, in that order, and am seriously awed, near overwhelmed by the magnitude of what he has done. I never expected to see, in any form, from any sector, such an accomplishment. I doubt there is a stronger intellect than Bloom’s on the planet.” For more, see http://howardbloom.net or http://howardbloom.institute
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Marine Le Pen Paris Rally Coverage
This video provides direct broadcast context on how France 24 reports on Marine Le Pen’s political rallies and political messaging in Paris during periods of heightened tension.
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