The Joy of Socialism: The People Are Hungry: Scenes from the 'Yellow Vest' protests in Paris

GUÉRET, France — At the bare bottom of Florian Dou’s shopping cart at the discount supermarket, there was a packet of $6 sausages and not much else. It was the end of last week, and the end of last month. At that point, “my salary and my wife’s have been gone for 10 days,” he lamented.

The Joy of Socialism: The People Are Hungry: Scenes from the 'Yellow Vest' protests in Paris Merlin_147611490_c06a98e6-f14d-4117-83bd-d913e4b3f440-articleLarge

The Joy of Socialism: The People Are Hungry: Scenes from the 'Yellow Vest' protests in Paris Merlin_147611490_c06a98e6-f14d-4117-83bd-d913e4b3f440-articleLarge

How to survive those days between when the money runs out and when his paycheck arrives for his work as a warehouse handler has become a monthly challenge. The same is true for so many others in Guéret, a grim provincial town in south-central France. And it has made Mr. Dou angry.

So he used what money he had left and drove 250 miles to join the fiery protests on Saturday in Paris, where the police moved in with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

“We knew they were sent in to get rid of us,” he said the day after, “and believe me, they were not into Mr. Nice Guy.” But he vows the protesters are not going anywhere.

The “Yellow Vest” protests he is a part of present an extraordinary venting of rage and resentment by ordinary working people, aimed at the mounting inequalities that have eroded their lives. The unrest began in response to rising gas taxes and has been building in intensity over the past three weeks, peaking on Saturday.

With little organization and relying mostly on social media, they have moved spontaneously from France’s poor rural regions over the last month to the banks of the Seine, where they have now become impossible to ignore.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/02/world/europe/france-yellow-vest-protests.html

The Joy of Socialism: The People Are Hungry: Scenes from the 'Yellow Vest' protests in Paris

The Joy of Socialism: The People Are Hungry: Scenes from the 'Yellow Vest' protests in Paris

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