The riots in Paris have sent a shiver down the spine of the French ruling elite, which has been following a policy of austerity for some time. The state mobilised its coercive apparatus by deploying 90,000 cops across the country. These cops have been armed to the teeth to confront the protesters. In Paris, 8,000 policemen were supplied with 180,000 tear-gas grenades and provided 14 armoured cars to deal with demonstrators.
Several parts of the city wore a deserted look, with many shops, museums, galleries andtourist attractions closed and top football games cancelled. The police fired tear gas at the ‘yellow-vests’ protesters besides making arrests in advance to thwart the demonstrations.
But they failed to contain the simmering anger that has radicalised several layers of French society. Protesters have found support from various sections of society. Rail workers, postal workers, anti-fascist groups and others gathered at Paris’s Saint-Lazare station and marched to join the yellow vests movement.
Protests have spread to other parts of the country as well. There were some very big yellow-vests protests outside Paris, including Marseille, Dijon, Bordeaux, Lille, Mantes, Strasbourg, Nice and Montpelier. In Toulouse, protesters seized control of the city square and pelted police personnel with material from a construction site.
The situation has forced the French ruling elite to bow to the demands of the angry mobs. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe initially announced that the increase in fuel tax would be paused for six months. He then claimed that planned tax increases on fuel would be suspended completely. He added that electricity prices would be frozen for six months, the national minimum wage would be increased, and there would be a “national debate” on taxation and public spending.
But it appears that these protests weren’t just about having a few demands met. They seem to be against a system that allows the French ruling elite to lavishly spend on non-productive sectors and follow stringent methods while spending on the social sector.
Like the US and the UK, France also spends a huge amount on defence. Its military budget is one of the highest in the world. For this year, it is 34.2 billion euros (1.82 percent of GDP) as compared with 32.7 billion euros (1.77 percent of GDP) in 2017. The military budget will increase by 1.7 billion euros per year until 2022 and by three billion euros per year starting in 2023. The total military expenditure over the period will be 300 billion euros.
The budget would allow the acquisition of more than 1,700 armoured vehicles for the army as well as five frigates, four nuclear-powered attack submarines and nine offshore patrol vessels for the navy. The air force will receive 12 in-flight refuelling tankers, 28 Rafale fighter jets and 55 upgraded Mirage 2,000 fighter aircrafts. It is surprising that the country spends around 42.5 billion euros on a few thousand soldiers and only 70 billion euros on the education of 67.12 million people in France.
This military budget is largely used to benefit arms-manufacturing companies. The French ruling elite also used such whopping amounts to sow the seeds of anarchy in various parts of Africa and the developing world. The French acted as junior partners in Syria and Libya to destabilise those states. It was their failed policies that plunged the Arab states towards political turmoil, destroying the modern infrastructure of the state. Syria suffered a loss of over $200 billion and Libya is still grappling with the situation that was partly created by France and its Western allies.
France is not the only country that uses the hard-earned money of its people to fund war and destruction. The US and the UK have also been following the same policies.
London repeatedly complains that it doesn’t have enough funds to buy more snorkels for firefighters. The ruling elite in the UK also claims that it cannot build more council houses and new hospitals or hire nurses and medical staff owing to the paucity of funds. But the UK is ready to pump billions of dollars into the Trident nuclear programme to fight an imaginary enemy. It has spent billions of dollars to destroy countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya, but doesn’t have enough resources to save the lives of people at an apartment in London.
The UK’s ruling elite tends to pander to the sentiments espoused by xenophobic elements instead of focusing on its social sector that could go a long way in solving people’s problems and undermining far-right forces.
The US has also been following a policy of destruction instead of addressing the pressing issues confronting the people of the sole superpower.
American politicians are vehemently opposed to the idea of extending health insurance to the underprivileged, but are not reluctant to increase the country’s defence budget, which is the highest in the world. The country that is trying to dominate the world doesn’t have enough resources to tide over natural catastrophes. It leaves its people helpless when forest fires hit them or when storms destroy their homes and businesses.
The ruling elite might argue that there is no way to fight natural calamities. But what about the 19,000 or more lives claimed by gun violence in the US every year? Why can’t there be a ban on guns that have claimed over 300,000 lives over the last two decades?
The uprising in Paris should also prompt the American and British people to revolt against their ruling elite, which is not only sowing the seeds of chaos across the world but is also selling death and destruction to various states of the world. The British and American people should also ask their rulers why they need to pump over $700 billion into arms when millions of people have been denied access to quality education and decent housing.
This uprising shouldn’t just be confined to asking the Western ruling elite a few questions about its actions. People should also raise questions about the policy of war and conflict that the ruling elite of London, Paris and Washington have been following for decades.
We can only hope that such an uprising will also create tremors in the developing world where politicians are presenting the gospel of the free market as a panacea. People should rise in India, where the ruling elite thinks all problems can be solved by giving Hindu names to a few
Muslim sites.
More than 600 million Indians should make it clear to their ruling elite that their lives cannot be changed through communal slogans. What they need are policies aimed at providing free healthcare, quality education and decent housing.
The Paris riots are also a lesson for Pakistan, where clerics are still busy telling people how to cut a cucumber. People need to tell their leaders that austerity won’t work anymore.
More than 60 million hapless Pakistanis who are living at the bottom layer of social stratification need to make it clear that they want an end to this subhuman life.
Empty patriotic slogans won’t extinguish the fire in their belly, provide clean water to the majority, and extend succour to the teeming millions who cannot afford expensive treatment. Will the rulers finally listen to people or will we have to wait until every city in the world turns into Paris?
The writer is a freelance journalist.
Email: egalitarianism444@gmail.com
