What do the Protesters in France want?

What do the protesters in France want? Check out the 'official' Yellow Vest manifesto

Sott.net

Sat, 08 Dec 2018 17:38 UTC

The following list of demands has been circulating among French social media users in recent days. We do not know its exact origins or author(s), but it seems to have first appeared here on December 5th. You'll have to click on the image to enlarge it if you want to read it in French. We've translated it into English (in summary, not word-for-word) below... 

Gilets Jaunes' List of Demands (summary) 

Economy/Work

• A constitutional cap on taxes - at 25%

• Increase of 40% in the basic pension and social welfare

• Increase hiring in public sector to re-establish public services

• Massive construction projects to house 5 million homeless, and severe penalties for mayors/prefectures that leave people on the streets

• Break up the 'too-big-to-fail' banks, re-separate regular banking from investment banking

• Cancel debts accrued through usurious rates of interest

Politics

• Constitutional amendments to protect the people's interests, including binding referenda

• The barring of lobby groups and vested interests from political decision-making

• Frexit: Leave the EU to regain our economic, monetary and political sovereignty (In other words, respect the 2005 referendum result, when France voted against the EU Constitution Treaty, which was then renamed the Lisbon Treaty, and the French people ignored)

• Clampdown on tax evasion by the ultra-rich

• The immediate cessation of privatization, and the re-nationalization of public goods like motorways, airports, rail, etc

• Remove all ideology from the ministry of education, ending all destructive education techniques

• Quadruple the budget for law and order and put time-limits on judicial procedures. Make access to the justice system available for all

• Break up media monopolies and end their interference in politics. Make media accessible to citizens and guarantee a plurality of opinions. End editorial propaganda

• Guarantee citizens' liberty by including in the constitution a complete prohibition on state interference in their decisions concerning education, health and family matters

Health/Environment

• No more 'planned obsolescence' - Mandate guarantee from producers that their products will last 10 years, and that spare parts will be available during that period

• Ban plastic bottles and other polluting packaging

• Weaken the influence of big pharma on health in general and hospitals in particular

• Ban on GMO crops, carcinogenic pesticides, endocrine disruptors and monocrops

• Reindustrialize France (thereby reducing imports and thus pollution)

Foreign Affairs

• End France's participation in foreign wars of aggression, and exit from NATO

• Cease pillaging and interfering - politically and militarily - in 'Francafrique', which keeps Africa poor. Immediately repatriate all French soldiers. Establish relations with African states on an equal peer-to-peer basis

• Prevent migratory flows that cannot be accommodated or integrated, given the profound civilizational crisis we are experiencing

• Scrupulously respect international law and the treaties we have signed