What Does the Uprising of the Yellow Vests Announce?
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With the yellow vests movement, the masses move with a spontaneous class consciousness from defense to attack. Tens of thousands have been taking to the streets and squares every Saturday since 17 November in France. They block the streets, build barricades, turn down police cars, set banks on fire and resist the police violence. They seek freedom under the pavement stones, just as in May 1968. Much has been said and written about this movement. Some turn up their noses and call the movement a reaction of the petty-bourgeois, while others distance themselves from it on the grounds that it forms a breeding ground for the fascist-nationalist front. Those seeking a "sterile uprising" can find their peers elsewhere as "salon activists". However the movement is commentated, the movement is a spontaneous, militant popular movement of the impoverished French against the rich classes and their state, against capitalism, which is in an existential crisis at the stage of imperialist globalization.


The question of the subject
In the stage of imperialist globalization, there is an incomparable proletarianization on a world scale. Contrary to the claims of thinkers with a western scope, that there is no proletariat anymore, it did not disappear, on contrary its ranks have widened. At the same time, the production process has been internationalized, production shifted to "low-wage" countries. Unemployment has become a chronic condition, part-time and flexible working conditions multiplied. For the working class of the West, imperialist globalization means that they are losing their privileges to a great extent and are more and more resembling the working classes of dependent countries, because the basis on which the working class, in its last analysis, made compromises with the bourgeoisie, is melting, whereas the abyss between the poor and the rich grows and grows. The time of gaining surplus-value through continued technological development is over. Capitalism finds no other source of supply than exploiting labor and financial parasitism. That is why the capitalist state is attacking the achievements of the working people ever more aggressively, making itself the open representative body of the monopolies. As a result, the aristocratized workers are being proletarianized again, petty bourgeois with big dreams are bankrupted in large numbers, students who want to jump to a higher class by studying lose even the hope of a simple job. The working class continues to grow, though it is more scattered than ever before, and the interests of those who have not yet become working-class, the house-laboring women and students merge with the interests of the working class. The most sensitized parts of all these oppressed strata, centered on the working class, will come together as subjects of this new era with the same demands. The yellow vests demonstrate this reality to us.


The question of action
With the fragmentation of the production process, the working class has no reason to expect that a disorganized, scattered working class can gain limited rights with actions in individual factories, let alone stopping the general attacks of the bourgeoisie. Especially under the conditions of imperialist globalization, where capital can move unhindered and shift production to more favorable locations, short-lived actions are not effective. That is why in this new time, it makes sense either to step into action against the entire bourgeois class worldwide or to stop the entire daily life of the system in a single country. The yellow vests now focus on stopping the daily life, and with this, they've gained a new quality. Although their action, which is limited to the Saturdays and the blockade of roads and gas stations, is still far too inadequate, but the fight has just begun. Our world today is a single field in which the contradictions between labor and capital, state and people can spread from a spark in one place to a conflagration, and the oppressed of our time are so well interconnected as never before, they learn from each other like never before.


The question of leadership
This uprising has terrified the Macron government, on the one hand with "the breakage of daily life order" and, on the other hand, with its quality of having no usual leadership. It is neither a trade union movement that the state can control, nor a radical action by anarchists that the state can crush. The yellow vests, however, are united by no organization, but by the anger against impoverishment and their uncontrollability makes the government afraid.
Therefore, the attacks of the state were first in a controlled manner, the tactic was to stifle the actions without igniting them. As the actions continued, so did the state violence increase. The real fear of the state is that this mass anger finds an organized form. The revolters have formed decision-making committees all over the country that are not yet united in one network but complement each other. Of course, this chain of committees does not suffice, the rising attacks of the state require more determined centers and a political organization that achieves a revolutionary program for the movement. It depends on the revolutionary character and dynamics of revolutionary forces, how well they understand this new time, how much they are not in a teaching but in a learning position and, with this learning of the movement, create consciousness and tear down the limits of movement.
In the center of this leadership question stands the need for future ideas, a liberation ideology. Since these are missing, the demands of the movement do not go beyond small improvements within the ruling orders. But capitalism is in such a crisis that it can no longer tolerate even small reforms. The contradictions between all oppressed classes, strata and the capitalist system, the bourgeois state are becoming more and more acute. As the class antagonisms of our present bourgeois order become more acute and the middle classes melt, political inclinations also become more and more. Radical political-Islamist currents or new types of fascist movements can therefore arouse the interest of the oppressed by using the demands of the oppressed. The fascist movements and structures of our time are characterized by being a backward reaction to the attacks of imperialist globalization. The basis of these new fascist currents are the unemployed, impoverished workers, expropriated owners, those who have lost their old positions.
The liberation ideology, on the other hand, manifests itself through organization and struggle. Without the internalization of the demands of the masses, without organizing them, without being on their side and in the front row of them, without participating in the class struggle in one way or another, the question of leadership can not be solved. This question can not be solved in a representative way, but by actively involving the masses in the decisions. While one of the main demands of the uprising is fair pay and social rights, another major demand is popular democracy, the participation of people in political decision-making through referendums, a rejection of bourgeois representative democracy.


The existential crisis of capitalism
After the fourth action, Macron was forced to negotiate with the yellow vests and announced an increase in the minimum wage by 100 €, along with further successes of the revolt, whereas the movement has gained self-confidence. This struggle is far from being over. The bourgeois social order is in crisis and this crisis can not be solved with capitalist production relations. Social development has stopped. Now decay, war, impoverishment, extreme exploitation, grave pension, chronic unemployment, violence, drugs, mental and cultural degeneration determine our society. On this basis, all kinds of fascist political filth strengthen. Without rejecting this foundation as a whole, without destroying it, without sweeping away the bourgeois social structure, no social solution will be possible. On the other hand, the level of development of the productive forces is as ripe as never before for a new form of society, for communism. By turning the means of production into social property, these questions can be solved. While humankind is as close to communism as it has never been, mentally it is as far away from it. This contradiction can not solved by mental work, but by revolutionary practice, by even greater participation in mass actions, by learning from the masses. Because only revolutionary practice can create new mental production.
 

 

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What Does the Uprising of the Yellow Vests Announce?
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With the yellow vests movement, the masses move with a spontaneous class consciousness from defense to attack. Tens of thousands have been taking to the streets and squares every Saturday since 17 November in France. They block the streets, build barricades, turn down police cars, set banks on fire and resist the police violence. They seek freedom under the pavement stones, just as in May 1968. Much has been said and written about this movement. Some turn up their noses and call the movement a reaction of the petty-bourgeois, while others distance themselves from it on the grounds that it forms a breeding ground for the fascist-nationalist front. Those seeking a "sterile uprising" can find their peers elsewhere as "salon activists". However the movement is commentated, the movement is a spontaneous, militant popular movement of the impoverished French against the rich classes and their state, against capitalism, which is in an existential crisis at the stage of imperialist globalization.


The question of the subject
In the stage of imperialist globalization, there is an incomparable proletarianization on a world scale. Contrary to the claims of thinkers with a western scope, that there is no proletariat anymore, it did not disappear, on contrary its ranks have widened. At the same time, the production process has been internationalized, production shifted to "low-wage" countries. Unemployment has become a chronic condition, part-time and flexible working conditions multiplied. For the working class of the West, imperialist globalization means that they are losing their privileges to a great extent and are more and more resembling the working classes of dependent countries, because the basis on which the working class, in its last analysis, made compromises with the bourgeoisie, is melting, whereas the abyss between the poor and the rich grows and grows. The time of gaining surplus-value through continued technological development is over. Capitalism finds no other source of supply than exploiting labor and financial parasitism. That is why the capitalist state is attacking the achievements of the working people ever more aggressively, making itself the open representative body of the monopolies. As a result, the aristocratized workers are being proletarianized again, petty bourgeois with big dreams are bankrupted in large numbers, students who want to jump to a higher class by studying lose even the hope of a simple job. The working class continues to grow, though it is more scattered than ever before, and the interests of those who have not yet become working-class, the house-laboring women and students merge with the interests of the working class. The most sensitized parts of all these oppressed strata, centered on the working class, will come together as subjects of this new era with the same demands. The yellow vests demonstrate this reality to us.


The question of action
With the fragmentation of the production process, the working class has no reason to expect that a disorganized, scattered working class can gain limited rights with actions in individual factories, let alone stopping the general attacks of the bourgeoisie. Especially under the conditions of imperialist globalization, where capital can move unhindered and shift production to more favorable locations, short-lived actions are not effective. That is why in this new time, it makes sense either to step into action against the entire bourgeois class worldwide or to stop the entire daily life of the system in a single country. The yellow vests now focus on stopping the daily life, and with this, they've gained a new quality. Although their action, which is limited to the Saturdays and the blockade of roads and gas stations, is still far too inadequate, but the fight has just begun. Our world today is a single field in which the contradictions between labor and capital, state and people can spread from a spark in one place to a conflagration, and the oppressed of our time are so well interconnected as never before, they learn from each other like never before.


The question of leadership
This uprising has terrified the Macron government, on the one hand with "the breakage of daily life order" and, on the other hand, with its quality of having no usual leadership. It is neither a trade union movement that the state can control, nor a radical action by anarchists that the state can crush. The yellow vests, however, are united by no organization, but by the anger against impoverishment and their uncontrollability makes the government afraid.
Therefore, the attacks of the state were first in a controlled manner, the tactic was to stifle the actions without igniting them. As the actions continued, so did the state violence increase. The real fear of the state is that this mass anger finds an organized form. The revolters have formed decision-making committees all over the country that are not yet united in one network but complement each other. Of course, this chain of committees does not suffice, the rising attacks of the state require more determined centers and a political organization that achieves a revolutionary program for the movement. It depends on the revolutionary character and dynamics of revolutionary forces, how well they understand this new time, how much they are not in a teaching but in a learning position and, with this learning of the movement, create consciousness and tear down the limits of movement.
In the center of this leadership question stands the need for future ideas, a liberation ideology. Since these are missing, the demands of the movement do not go beyond small improvements within the ruling orders. But capitalism is in such a crisis that it can no longer tolerate even small reforms. The contradictions between all oppressed classes, strata and the capitalist system, the bourgeois state are becoming more and more acute. As the class antagonisms of our present bourgeois order become more acute and the middle classes melt, political inclinations also become more and more. Radical political-Islamist currents or new types of fascist movements can therefore arouse the interest of the oppressed by using the demands of the oppressed. The fascist movements and structures of our time are characterized by being a backward reaction to the attacks of imperialist globalization. The basis of these new fascist currents are the unemployed, impoverished workers, expropriated owners, those who have lost their old positions.
The liberation ideology, on the other hand, manifests itself through organization and struggle. Without the internalization of the demands of the masses, without organizing them, without being on their side and in the front row of them, without participating in the class struggle in one way or another, the question of leadership can not be solved. This question can not be solved in a representative way, but by actively involving the masses in the decisions. While one of the main demands of the uprising is fair pay and social rights, another major demand is popular democracy, the participation of people in political decision-making through referendums, a rejection of bourgeois representative democracy.


The existential crisis of capitalism
After the fourth action, Macron was forced to negotiate with the yellow vests and announced an increase in the minimum wage by 100 €, along with further successes of the revolt, whereas the movement has gained self-confidence. This struggle is far from being over. The bourgeois social order is in crisis and this crisis can not be solved with capitalist production relations. Social development has stopped. Now decay, war, impoverishment, extreme exploitation, grave pension, chronic unemployment, violence, drugs, mental and cultural degeneration determine our society. On this basis, all kinds of fascist political filth strengthen. Without rejecting this foundation as a whole, without destroying it, without sweeping away the bourgeois social structure, no social solution will be possible. On the other hand, the level of development of the productive forces is as ripe as never before for a new form of society, for communism. By turning the means of production into social property, these questions can be solved. While humankind is as close to communism as it has never been, mentally it is as far away from it. This contradiction can not solved by mental work, but by revolutionary practice, by even greater participation in mass actions, by learning from the masses. Because only revolutionary practice can create new mental production.