The following observations on the violence of French Gilets Jaunes demonstrations over the week-end (12/1-12/2) was written in French by a colleague economic historian and sent over the distribution list of the French Association for Economic History. I thought them worth translating (with his agreement). Full disclosure: I am a Union member, and did not participate in the demonstrations, being wary of it at first like all the Union members I know, so I don’t have any direct experience of the situation. This colleague does, though, since he did go to the demonstration to check them out as he explains, and what he describes fits with everything I have seen and heard in my (public higher education) workplace and in Paris in the past few days. The pure rage and widespread acceptance of violence in particular was extremely striking. It was first pointed out, AFAIK, by the Senate Majority Leader, François Patriat (as quoted last week by Canard EnchaÎné, the very well -connected satirical weekly —no direct link available, the old-fashioned Canard shuns the internet, but one mention here)
Promised Russian bonus: as of 12/3 in the morning, GiletsJaunes-related hashtags were trending at the top of all the Russian-manipulated hashtags, as per Hamilton68. This seems to imply that Putin and his circle, too, find the whole situation interesting and the protests more than anecdotal. I suspect we will see a lot of interventions of Russian trolls trying to whip up controversy around the issue in the next few days.
Anyway. Follow below the fold for a testimony on what may turn out to be either a pointless riot, or a violent revolution (and everything in between). And h/t to bcallan whose diary prompted me to translate this.
