What colour is your vest? Reflections on the yellow vest movement in France

Abstract

This paper analyzes the gilets jaunes revolt in France in the current political conjuncture. It argues that the yellow vest phenomenon is both symptom and cause of the ongoing political crisis in France and Europe. To develop this argument, the paper situates the yellow vests within the balance of political forces and unpacks their novel spatial dynamic of mobilization, including the implication of this dynamic for political ecology and the meaning of the right to the city.

Keywords:

• French politics
• gilets jaunes/yellow vests
• organic crisis
• political ecology
• the far Right
• the right to the city

Notes

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editors, the reviewers, and Karen Wirsig for many helpful comments on the draft submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Comité Rosa Parks, “Des gilets jaunes au(x) gants noirs.” All translations are the author’s.

2 Due to space limits, I can only signal the importance of tracing the relations between political crisis in the European Union and political crises at national scales, including France. Neo-Gramscian and neo-Poulantzian strands of research have begun this work, in multiple languages.

3 Kouvélakis, “France”; Lindner, Die Hegemoniekämpfe.

4 Kouvélakis, La France en révolte; Khiari, La contre-révolution.

5 Amable and Palombarini, L’illusion.

6 Bouamama, La manipulation; Lindner, Die Hegemoniekämpfe; Godin, “Les origines”; Kipfer, “Macronism”; “Projecting Shadows.”

7 Boubeker and Hajjat, Histoire politique; Gordon, Immigrants; Hajjat, La Marche.

8 Kouvélakis, La France en révolte.

9 Masclet, La Gauche; Beaud and Pialoux, Violences; Mischi, Le Communisme.

10 Tissot, L’Etat; Dikeç, Badlands; Kipfer, “Neocolonial Urbanism?”

11 Kouvélakis and Arnaud, “Paroles.”

12 Delaporte, “Gilets jaunes”; Noiriel, Les gilets jaunes, 16–23.

13 VISA, Ces gilets bruns; Mayer, “Le mouvement.”

14 Camus, “Des mots d’ordre.”

15 Boggio Ewanjé-Epée, “Le gilet jaune”; Chapuis, Leclerc, and Vincent, “Cinq mois après.”

16 Statius, “Dans les manifs.”

17 Suc, “Gilets jaunes.”

18 Gilets Jaunes de Belleville, 2019; Kouvélakis and Arnaud, “Paroles.”

19 Aubenas, “La révolte”; Bonnet, “A Commercy;” Kouvélakis and Arnaud, “Paroles.”

20 Bonnet, “Dans le bassin minier.”

21 I participated in Saturday demonstrations in Marseille (mid-November 2018), Paris (mid-December 2018, late May, early July 2019), and Toulouse (early July 2019). First insights were published early in 2019 with Karen Wirsig (“What Colour is Your Vest”).

22 Thörn, Mayer, and Thörn, “Rethinking.”

23 In the tradition forged by Antonio Gramsci and his analyses of the relations of force that shape political crises, a conjuncture represents a confluence of various historical rhythms from the short-term to the longue durée. In the following, I place the yellow vests in the conjuncture since 2008 and relate this historical moment to dynamics underway since the end of the postwar period (the crisis of Atlantic Fordism), and to longer-term patterns (those shaping the formation of the modern French state since the middle of the nineteenth century).

24 Sana, Simbille, and Clerget, “À la marche pour Adama Traoré.”

25 Peugny, “Les classes”; Masclet, “Ce mouvement”; Fassin and Defossez, “An Improbable Movement?”

26 Rimbert, “La puissance.”

27 Bedock et al., “Gilets jaunes”; Plateforme d’Enquêtes militantes, “Sur une ligne de crête”; Guerra et al., “Qui sont vraiment les gilets jaunes?” Collectif Quantité Critique, “A qui va profiter le mouvement”; Farbiaz, Les gilets jaunes, 19–20.

28 Behar and Delpirou, “Gilets jaunes”; Marchal and Stébé, “Le périurbain”; Charmes, “L’embourgeoisement.”

29 Tricot, “Les catégories.”

30 Deprat, “La France”; Lussault, “La condition périurbaine.”

31 For analyses of such arguments in French electoral geography, Kipfer and Dikec, “Peripheries.”

32 Desmoulières and Noblecourt, “CGT.”

33 La Voix du Nord, “Calais.”

34 Dumay, “La CGT”; Farbiaz, Les gilets jaunes, 105–7; Greeman, “Yellow Vests”; Goanec et al., “Cela peut être.”

35 Allouch and Bréville, “Lycéens”; Battaglia and Stromboni, “Mouvement lycéen.”

36 Meyer, “De l’instrumentalisation.”

37 On neocolonial urban policy and policing in France, see Kipfer, “Neocolonial Urbanism?”

38 Chapuis and Couvelaire, “Violences policières.”

39 Marlière, “Les ‘gilets jaunes’”; Xelka, “Quartiers populaires”; Ahmed et al., “Gilets jaunes.”

40 Brakni and Louis, “La politique.”

41 Collectif Rosa Parks, “Des gilets jaunes.”

42 Brakni and Louis, “La politique”; Marzouk, “Comité Adama.”

43 Sall, “A la marche”; Les Invités de Médiapart, “Appel”; Gilets Jaunes de Toulouse, “Acte XXXVI.”

44 Plenel, “La bataille.”

45 Rouen dans la rue, “Gilets jaunes.”

46 Malingre, “Les 80km/h.”

47 Spire, “Aux sources”; Spire, “Voir les ‘gilets jaunes.’”

48 Wahnich, “La structure.”

49 Confiant, “Pourquoi.”

50 Aubenas, “La révolte.”

51 Bedock et al., “Gilets jaunes.”

52 Guerra et al., “Qui sont vraiment les gilets jaunes?” Collectif Quantité Critique, “A qui va profiter le mouvement”; Audureau and Sénécat, “Plongée.”

53 Hervé and Marchand, “Les revendications;” Michel, “Gilets jaunes”; Bonnet, “Grand débat”; Camus, “Des mots d’ordre”; Roger, “Sur les petites routes”; Farbiaz, Les Gilets jaunes, 83–103.

54 Leclerc, “Magali Della Suda”; Farbiaz, Les Gilets jaunes, 45–52; Descamps, “La justice sociale.”

55 Combes, “Gilets jaunes.”

56 Lalucq, Lettre; Farbiaz, Les Gilets Jaunes, 129–39.

57 Lipietz, “Ecologie politique.”

58 Brand and Wissen, Imperiale Lebensweise, 95–124.

59 Rouen dans la rue, “La résistance.”

60 Sebbata, “Le rond point.”

61 Goanec, “Autour de Mulhouse.”

62 Renahy, “L’appropriation”; Aubenas, “La révolte”; Souchon, “Avant”; Neyrath, “La politisation,” 145–47.

63 Leclerc, “Durcir.”

64 Rouen dans la rue, “La résistance.”

65 Noiriel, Les gilets jaunes, 16.

66 Farbiaz, Les gilets, 67–82.

67 Neyrath, “La politisation,” 148–50.

68 Petitdent, “Sur la journée”; Hazan, “Paris.”

69 Gueugneau and Rouget, “A Paris”; Rouen dans la rue, “Caen”; On the black vests, see Gilets noirs en luttes, “Les gilets noirs”; Mathieu and Sall, “Les gilets noirs.”

70 Hazan, “Paris.” Tartakowsky, “Les gilets jaunes.”

71 Pinçon and Pinçon-Charlot, Sociologie 14–16.

72 Kipfer, Saberi and Wieditz, “Henri Lefebvre.”

73 Odin, Pwofitasyon, 220–72, 299–301.

74 Cited in StreetPress, “Une répression d’Etat.”

75 Cited in Schneider, “Gilets jaunes.”

76 Chapuis, “Gilets jaunes.”

77 Halimi and Rimbert, 2019; Schneider, 2019.

78 Bacqué, Chemin and Malingre, “Depuis la crise.”

79 Bonnet, “Le vertige.”

80 StreetPress, “Une répression d’Etat.”

81 Noël, “Le lanceur;” Médiapart, “Allô”; Hourdeaux, “Les gilets jaunes”; Leclerc, “Violences policières”; Kessous, “Vie et mort”; StreetPress, “Une répression d’Etat.”

82 Codaccioni, La répression.

83 Amnesty International, Usage excessif; Palidda, “Pourquoi.”

84 Pinçon and Pinçon-Charlot, Le Président.

85 Pinçon and Pinçon-Charlot, Le Président, 9–14, 103–18.

86 Plenel, La victoire, 17–34, 68, 97–124.

87 Gilets Jaunes de Commercy, “Appel 2.”

88 Palmobarini, “Les gilets jaunes”; Kouvélakis, “Gilets jaunes”; Pinçon and Pinçon-Charlot, Le Président.

89 Hayat, “Les gilets jaunes”; “Six mois.”

90 Goar, “Les gilets jaunes”; Bacqué, “D’Eric Drouet à ‘Fly Rider’”; Bedock et al., “Gilets jaunes”; Guerra et al., “Qui sont vraiment les gilets jaunes”; Vincent and Chapuis, “Après dix semaines”; Farbiaz, Les gilets jaunes, 21–23.

91 Collectif Quantité Critique, “A qui va profiter”; Compare with Rouban, “Avec le mouvement.”

92 Trotsky, “La clé.”

93 Souiller, “Gilets jaunes.”

94 Delaporte, “Yann le Lann”; Bonin et al., “Elections”; Bredoux et al., “Le vote.”

95 I am alluding to Eric Fassin’s distinction between Left-wing and Right-wing passions (Populisme) and a strand of research on popular support for the far Right (Mischi, “Essor du FN”; Vignon, “Le FN”; Girard, Le vote FN).

96 Mestre, “Gilets jaunes”; Leclerc, “Violences policières.”

97 Riondé, “Toulouse”; Delaporte and Goanec, “Gilets jaunes”; Delaporte, “Gilets jaunes, gilets noirs”; Fessard, “A Marseille”; Plateforme d’enquêtes militantes, “Blocage”; Graulle, “A Pantin.”

98 Gilets Jaunes de Commercy, “Appel”; Gilets Jaunes de Commercy, “Deuxième appel”; Bonnet, “A Commercy”; La Maison du Peuple de Saint-Nazaire, “Appel”; Goanec, “Troisième assemblée”; Leclerc, “Les ‘gilets jaunes.’”

99 Balibar, “Gilets jaunes.”

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Stefan Kipfer

Stefan Kipfer teaches in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.