Yellow is the new red

Red has been the colour of rebellion for a long time, though it has also been used to signify no surrender/no quarter in combat and siege, and as the signal of martial law. However, by the mid-19^th century the red banner had become the symbol of working class revolt, and many labour organisations adopted it. Then, during the October Revolution in Russia, red flags became popular rallying signs, and the subsequent soviet government put a hammer, a sickle and a star on a red background to make the national emblem. The red flag came to represent communism worldwide. But “communism”, in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Eastern Europe etc., turned out to be highly centralised, absolutist, totalitarian and very incompetent, a far cry from the promise of a common weal. The red flag lost its appeal and liberal progressive parties replaced it by a red rose. The red flag had first been raised during the 1848 revolution and the Paris Commune. The rose symbol also originated in France (Mitterrand 1981), where the French word “rose” means both a rose and the colour pink, watered down red, a sign of the times. And the hopes raised by the pink parties have long since evaporated, leaving the working classes in disarray and easy preys for all kinds of demagogueries, from Thatcher and Reagan to Blair and Obama, to Trump Macron and May, just to mention a few pre-eminent ones.

High visibility yellow vests were first worn as a rallying sign by disgruntled French drivers protesting a lowering of road speed limits at the start of 2018. Then, in May, a young working mother started an on line petition for tax cuts on fuels. In October two lorry drivers called on line for a general blockage to protest fuel prices. November saw the first yellow-vested actions, free passage at a motorway tollgate and going slow on a city circle road. Then, on November 17, came the first Saturday of general mobilisation with some three hundred thousand yellow vests disrupting things right across France, notably in Paris. This has been repeated on the four consecutive Saturdays, with climactic scenes of street fighting in Paris on December 1, while weekdays have seen occupied roundabouts, blocked refineries and shopping malls, and closed tollgates. There may be a truce for the end of year weekends - though most of the participants are unable to afford much of a festive season anyway – but the popular anger shows no sign of abating. Meanwhile, people wearing yellow vests are assembling in large numbers throughout Europe and round the world (their sale has been banned in Egypt) to express discontent and rebellion. Yellow is the new red.