The Gilets Jaunes uprising in France in 2018 and 2019 was very little, and often very badly, reported in the English-speaking world. Too many people outside France didn’t understand what was happening, what the revolt was about and what exactly was at stake. Here, we tried to help fill that gap by sharing a series of analyses, reports and translations.

Resisting and revealing the plutocratic occupation. Paul Cudenec is inspired by the 2023 screening of a film about the Gilets Jaunes to assess the contemporary state of affairs in France and beyond.

Yellow Vests. “Here we are / Here we are/ For the honor of the workers / And for a better world”. 24-page English-language pdf exploring the Gilets Jaunes struggle in France during 2019. From the communist bulletin Class War.

Woman protester injured by police. She was taken to hospital after being batoned by cops during a protest in Montpellier, southern France, on Saturday May 16 2020. Although the demo had been banned by the authorities, hundreds of people courageously gathered in the city centre.

Neoliberalism is the new fascism. Article from Acorn 54 asks why Emmanuel Macron is still in power after 14 months of non-stop protests against his regime and its hardcore neoliberal agenda.

A Story of Police Violence in France. Powerful 20-minute documentary, subtitled throughout in English, on the way the French state systematically deploys police violence against its own population in a form of internal colonialism.

Yellow revolt takes a striking twist. Article from Acorn 53 looks at the wave of strikes and protests against Macron’s neoliberal pension “reforms”.

“We’re still here because we have to keep on fighting”. Paul Cudenec reports from the first anniversary Gilets Jaunes protest in Montpellier.

How to take back our streets: lessons from 10 months of resistance in France. Translation of article by Cerveaux Non Disponibles.

Some songs from the Gilets Jaunes movement, compiled on the Tridni Valka site.

Crushing freedom in Saint Jean du Gard. To understand the extent to which an authoritarian cancer has riddled French society from top to bottom, it is instructive to look at what has been happening in recent weeks in a little southern village.

Le mur jaune. Website featuring photos and reports on hundreds of individuals who have been injured by the French state since the beginning of the Gilets Jaunes revolt.

Plein le dos. Huge and impressive gallery of photos showing the varied messages on the backs of Yellow Vests from every weekend of the Gilets Jaunes revolt. A contributive and non-profit project.

The significance of the Gilets Jaunes. Gabriel Rockhill on how the movement has revealed, yet again, the extent to which liberalism and authoritarian fascism are not opposites but rather function in tandem as modes of capitalist governance. One of 15 short commentaries on the Yellow Vests published on the State of Nature site.

‘We Will Rise’ – official video for musical tribute to French Yellow Vests by Irish singer-songwriter Jimi Cullen.

Video: Macron’s Assault on the French People. English-language interview with Gilet Jaune video blogger and lawyer Georgia Pouliquen.

Audio: Yellow Vest Realities and Reactions. Gabriel Rockhill describes and assesses the Yellow Vests movement, the Macron regime’s reaction to it, and the French intelligentsia’s opinions of it.

Don’t vote, let’s struggle! Statement on the European elections by the Gilets Jaunes collective of Rungis, Île-de-France. Posted on libcom.org

We accuse. An open letter, signed by more than 25,000 university academics, demanding an acknowledgement of the Gilets Jaunes movement’s demands, the resignation of the Interior Minister, and public inquiries into the violent repression that has swept France. English translation on the Verso Books site.

France deploys ‘fake news’ against the Gilets Jaunes – and fails. With barbaric levels of police brutality failing to quell the rebellion, Macron’s neoliberal government have resorted to preposterous smears. Report in The Morning Star by Paul Cudenec.

Open letter from an imprisoned Yellow Vest. “It’s the most beautiful and strongest movement I’ve ever seen. I threw my body and soul at it, without hesitation” writes Thomas P, who has been locked up for three months by the French state. From the Comité de Soutien à Thomas P.

Green and yellow: our common struggle against liberal-fascism. Translation of an important piece on the French lundi matin website. Radical ecologists call for a convergence with the Gilets Jaunes in the struggle against the neoliberal system which is destroying the living planet.

“This is a turning point in history!” Paul Cudenec talks to some of the Yellow Vests taking part in a huge protest in Montpellier, southern France, on Saturday April 13.

The Gilets Jaunes: what violence? “The political act, as opposed to voting, is when people invite themselves in and break into an institutional game determined by power”. Article on the Enough is Enough Site, originally published by Paris Luttes Info. Translated by Autonomies.

Call of the assemblies of assemblies at Saint-Nazaire. A translation by yellowvests.wtf of the statement issued on April 7 2019 following the weekend gathering of 800 Gilets Jaunes delegates from across France. This is now submitted for adoption by votes of the local assemblies.

Police brutality in Nice. On March 23, protester Geneviève Legay was brutally thrown to the ground by police in Nice, suffering severe injuries. This press release from the Maritime Alps Yellow Vests, originally posted on Facebook by Gilet Jaune Priscillia Ludosky, was translated by comrades at yellowvests.wtf

Roadblock! A report from south-east France, where Gilets Jaunes blocked a main road on a national day of action against the Macron regime.

Paris is Ours! A report on the astonishing scenes in the French capital on March 16, when the Champs Elysées, symbol of elite wealth, was taken over for the day by the Gilets Jaunes. Originally published in French on the ACTA site. English version first published by ill will, translated by Inhabit and republished here by our comrades at Enough is Enough.

18 weeks of Gilets Jaunes protests in France: ‘the levels of repression are unimagineable’. Eliza Egret of Shoal Collective writes about Act 18 of the Yellow Vest uprising in Paris, in a report for The Canary.

The sunshine revolution. Paul Cudenec joins 3,000 Gilets Jaunes for an open air screening of J’veux du soleil, a new film about the movement.

Yellow Voices. A collection of up-to-date translations from the Gilets Jaunes movement in Winter Oak’s Acorn bulletin, showing the revolutionary nature of the uprising.

Ultimatum. A Winter Oak translation of an article from Lundi matin, a website close to the Invisible Committee.

The Gilets Jaunes: a question of time. Reflection from the Enough is Enough site on the re-appropriation of time as revolution within the Yellow Vests insurrection.

Tear gas and rubber bullets on the streets of southern France. Paul Cudenec provides an eye-witness report from Act 16.

Gilets Jaunes: Creative violence against state brutality. How long has it been since the ruling classes (of a “developed” country) have feared their poor? Article on the Enough is Enough site originally published by Autonomies.

Yellow is the new bloc. A news round-up of Act 10 of the Gilets Jaunes protests across the whole of France. From The Acorn.

May our yellow sparks of revolt set the world ablaze in 2019! A Winter Oak translation of a New Year Yellow Letter distributed on the occupied roundabouts and on social media.

“Police everywhere, justice nowhere!” – Gilets Jaunes on the streets of Nîmes. Paul Cudenec reports from Nîmes on December 29 and finds that a deeply-rooted belief in social justice lies behind the Gilets Jaunes protests.

Gilets Jaunes: unfiltered anti-capitalism. Reflecting on the first two months of the Gilets Jaunes, Paul Cudenec concludes that the movement is part of a broad global popular uprising against the industrial capitalist system.

Christmas with the gilets jaunes. A report which steps away from the front lines of protest to discover the community spirit behind Yellow Vest culture. Written by Paul Cudenec for Red Pepper.

The heartbeat of the yellow jacket revolt is rural. The Gilets Jaunes movement is a revolt of the impoverished countryside, reports Paul Cudenec, in an interview with local rebels published in The Morning Star.

Yellow fever: long live the revolutionary mob! We argue that anarchists and anti-capitalists worldwide should get behind the Gilets Jaunes revolt. Published on December 9 2018.

You could see the embers smouldering. The Gilets Jaunes revolt spread to French overseas territories, such as the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. This article in Fumigène magazine was translated by comrades at yellowvests.wtf

France on the brink: either we topple the system or it will crush us. A Winter Oak translation of an important article on the Gilets Jaunes insurrection from the lundi.am website.

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