Press reports are showing pictures this morning of police being issued with automatic assault rifles. It can surely now be only a matter of time before the police shoot dead their fellow Frenchmen and women. Older readers may recall the shootings at Kent State University in 1970, in which four protesting students were killed by the National Guard, and which traumatised a nation. And many more younger people in the UK today will draw a direct parallel to the Peterloo massacre in 1819, at which 11 were killed by Yeomanry. Mike Leigh released a film about it last year; few would imagine that Macron now fills the role played by William Hulton two hundred years ago.
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| 11 were killed at the original Peterloo |
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| So far, 93 have have been seriously injured by Macron - including 13 blinded |
- Increasing inequality
- Living standards down
- People excluded from decision making
- Decline of working class power
- Globalism / AI causing disempowerment
- Cultural loss - damage to cultural identity
16 comments:
What's going on in Macron's France is a tea party, compared to what happened under Thatcher here: Toxteth etc. ablaze, poll tax riots, miners' strike etc.
You're being rather selective again.
In France, "on peut s'exprimer"
It doesn't make any difference if the violent authoritarian is a man or a woman, it's the fact that they're violent authoritarians! As Anonymous said, what's going on in France is a tea party in comparison with the early eighties. I notice that both the Left, Right and well as the middle of the road voters are up in arms in France. It won't be any different here. We do however have a greater propensity for violence
Macron is the puppet, the tool of the French elites, how else could he have won the office from nothing. France will need to re-learn democracy.
Anonymous. No it wasn't. Thatcher had rather more public support than Macron. She did win three elections. Do you think Macron will?
In 1968 Japanese students came better prepared:
https://timeline.com/japan-zengakuren-riots-anarchist-6b6cbcac0a97
For a very long time after seeing the film "Fame Is The Spur" I hoped to find an ancestor who was among the people who demonstrated for social justice at Peterloo in 1819. At last I have found someone who was there. It seems he was an officer in the Militia. Tally ho!
Following the last, more recent riots and burning of property in London, it was proposed to use live ammunition against those in the act of committing crimes here too.
Remember?
2011 wasn't really a pro-democracy movement, was it?
More smashing and burning shops to steal trainers and widescreen TVs
Agreed, but in what way are any people, who break the laws passed by a democratically-elected legislature "pro-democracy"?
You mean pro-mob rule, don't you?
Look, any form of democracy requires the rule-of-law first, then you can talk about that. That's what happened after the 1968 riots in France. Maybe it will again when calm returns?
Ah yes .. our old friend Roland Freisler was a stickler for the rule of law. All those children he sent to the Fallbeil were all 100% legally convicted and executed, all according to a democratically created law. Had he lived he would not have been guilty of one single war crime.
The EU are very big on the rule of law, too. With their corrupt political court. All those decisions in favour of the Federation, however they twist the evidence to reach them, are all fully legal.
The only problem with the rule of law is that it's not the same as the upholding of justice. Never has been. I've always preferred Justice.
I was going to say damage to life or property is never acceptable - but of course it is, isn't it? Such as our bombing Caen to rubble in 1944 - 800 innocents died within 48 hours of 6th June. In a higher cause, of course. And many other examples. In peace as well as war.
It's no excuse to say that when the State does it, it's fine - but otherwise not.
So I'm not really persuaded that the 'rule of law' should always be applied unquestioningly.
@Rapscallion - the two million dead after the French Re3volution shows clearly we do not have a greater propensity for violence than the French. Does it not?
But France has a written constitution, guaranteeing its people rights, freedoms, and protections, rather more far-reaching and durable than out paltry Human Rights Act.
Its laws cannot violate those.
It would require supermajorities to change that too.
But make an absurd comparison, ironically, with exactly the kind of set-up that the teeth-grinders and pitchfork-wavers would like to see here if you like. That is, retrospective laws, to allow the persecution of those whom they hate, for actions which were not crimes when carried out.
@Elby the Beserk
Oooh, I dunno, what about the Civil War, then of course there was The Anarchy!
Anonymous, what's your actual point? You began with your usual disparaging comparison between Britain and Europe. Whatever.
We don't have a codified constitution, France does. So, correct me if I'm wrong here, our lack of one allowed the monster Thatcher to run riot.
The trouble you cite was an understandable reaction of desperate downtrodden masses, brutally crushed as said unwritten constitution allowed said monster so to do.
Whereas in France, because they have the protections of a written constitution those people in the picture are just uppity troublemakers who deserved everything they got?
I believe France has had quite a few constitutions and quite a few periods of anarchy. Do you think they'll get it right one day and become as boring as we are?
My point is that any comparison between the Peterloo Massacre and what is happening in France is downright silly.
Those at the first were peacefully trying to discuss steps towards a tiny fraction of the very rights, which are enshrined in the modern French Constitution.
A lot of the agitation here and there today seems intent on *removing* those protections, to enable the persecution of hate targets.
It's not clear what the various strands of the French protests are yet.
Yeah. Let's just give them some brioche, eh? See if that disperses them.
Then M. Macron can talk at them from his big gold desk in his palace and tell them that he feels their pain.
Look, you purblind fool, people only risk being blinded, crippled or shot when the suffering that can be inflicted on them matters less than the deficit in their being.
And if you think the Peterloo protesters were sunday school children, grow up. They were every bit as angry and demanding as the vests.
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