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France ! We block everything and... then what ?

jeudi 11 septembre 2025, par Robert Paris

France ! We block everything and... then what ?

The Yellow Vests and the class struggle in France, what’s the perspective ?

The so-called "Block Everything" movement, which begins on September 10, 2025, has asserted itself, from its beginning, as the worthy successor to the Yellow Vest movement that began in 2018. It assumes all its commitments : self-organization, refusal to make pacts, to negotiate, to come to an agreement with the institutions of rotten society, organizations that it recognizes and finances, with all its power at the mercy of billionaires, refusal to reform the system, refusal to put the movement under the control of the bureaucracies of unions and political parties, refusal to accept social obedience linked to the system of exploitation and oppression, methods of direct action, refusal to obey the forces of repression, and so on.

It is an old revolutionary tradition of the exploited and oppressed of France that is resurfacing and which has already been expressed many times in multifaceted revolts and revolutions, from Etienne Marcel to the Maillotins, revolts against Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI, the revolutions of 1789, 1793, 1795, 1830, 1848, 1871, 1936, 1968, 2018 and now 2025, not to mention many social movements of revolt in which the exploited were able to organize themselves and make themselves feared by the propertied classes and the rulers. Yes, the working people of France have a power of protest that far exceeds all politicians, even the most left-wing, the most falsely radical, even union leaders when they believe themselves to be radical, and not to mention the others ! In fact, in all these revolts and revolutions, the poor had as enemies many false friends from the left or from unions that pretended to be on their side. They put many obstacles in their way but were never able to completely stifle these great mass movements. Yes, the only major political and social developments in French society were the product of these revolutions and revolts, of this fear of the propertied classes. Conversely, these privileged classes were never afraid of the speeches of politicians and union bureaucracies, nor of their claims to change the social order by reforming it. Do we hunt wild beasts, tigers, boas or lions, by giving them reforming and moralizing speeches or by calmly parading in front of them even in large numbers ? And the parallel is valid because the exploiters are much more ferocious than the worst hyenas and jackals ! We can do nothing, not even defend ourselves, without giving ourselves the means to physically destroy them and not just to denounce them or make ourselves heard by them ! Let us remember that, simply by exploiting the working people, the system of exploitation causes as many deaths per year, per month, per day, per hour as during the Second World War ! And none of these so-called reformers lifts a finger against this, if they even talk about it !

In all these movements, the main deception has always been the practice of the so-called political and trade union representatives of the people : to hide the true goal of the exploited, the oppressed, all the poor. And this goal, constantly hidden, today as yesterday, is this : we want to govern by ourselves, manage the goods that we produce by ourselves and leave no power to the bandits who rule us and have ruled us or who still claim to rule us in the future and who do not want to overthrow the old, rotten and decrepit system.

Of course, our false friends have plenty of fine phrases to criticize everything that is done or has been done by the power, but they are careful not to make a gesture or even to speak of overthrowing this power and even more so they are careful not to make the slightest gesture in favor of the power of the working people. This is why they fight any attempt to set up in neighborhoods and businesses, committees elected by sovereign assemblies of the working people in struggle. Because these committees would quickly become means of controlling the whole of society and then of directing it and of replacing the former power of a tiny minority with that of the working people !

And, even today, all these state, institutional, political, police, military, judicial, union, media and religious forces will still act, each in its own way, to hinder this will of the exploited and oppressed, to prevent it from expressing itself and acting. They will use every possible pretext : not to divide, not to radicalize, not to isolate themselves, to strengthen the movement, not to allow themselves to be manipulated by extremists, not to go to confrontation and violence, not to lose allies and supporters, not to impose objectives on the movement and other nonsense.

Yes, this is nonsense because, faced with the ferocious, wild, and hungry animal, there is no point in moderating ourselves : it’s either him or us. Capitalism, once it has reached its limit, is worse than a wild animal. We won’t convince it to give up its prey ; it’s either him or us. If it can’t make us pay, it’s doomed. Governments, whoever they are, whatever their political stripe, only propose their policies to big capital. Have we not seen, from Mélenchon to the spokesperson for Le Pen’s party and to that of the Communist Party or the ecologists, all in a row presenting themselves as students at the MEDEF summer school, that is, of big business ? Is it to then take up the cause of the people against the billionaires ? Certainly not ! Didn’t we see the union leaders bring forward the date of their inter-union meeting, pressed as they were by the progress of the September 10 movement, all this to affirm that they would not participate and would organize a counter-fire on… September 18 (a single day to avoid going towards a general strike), in order to prevent the employees from blocking by going on strike on September 10… Didn’t we see all the parties rush into Bayrou’s nauvre and his "vote of confidence" to affirm their political ambitions to govern and preside over the power of the billionaires ?

Of course, all these people, from Hollande to Le Pen, including Mélenchon and others like the leaders of the union apparatus, claim to understand and even express the anger of the people to the point that the latter would only need to support them and align themselves behind their wise leadership. They also claim that the 10th will be the expression of "the left" (yet another trick to divide and weaken the mobilization), the one that claims to reform the system and transform hungry wolves into lambs and share the sacrifices between rich and poor, a crumb for the rich and everything for the poor, while sharing the rich, everything for the rich and nothing for the poor !

And above all, all these false friends affirm that the people cannot govern by themselves, decide for themselves or even organize themselves to lead to a new society where the people will themselves own all the wealth they have produced ! These false friends, who have never submitted to the real and direct votes of the working people, who are instead subject to the power of the billionaires, even if they criticize it in order to reform it, they claim, affirm that we do not need sovereign assemblies, no need for committees, councils, directly elected representatives of the working people because their parties and unions would be more than enough to represent us ! All say that their programs meet our aspirations but none introduces our objectives into their program.

Well, we affirm the opposite : our friends are only those who defend such a revolutionary program (sovereign and decision-making assemblies directing the entire insurrectional struggle aimed at the power of the working people exercised by committees elected by the assemblies) in words as in deeds and in a public manner, open and discussed before all, who submit to the votes of the people, the only true ones, those of the assemblies of the struggle. And not those of the parodies of capitalist democracy !

All this does not mean, of course, that all workers and all those who are subject to and suffer from the dominant society are aware of their task, that is, that they clearly aspire to govern by themselves. All of social life leads workers to submit to an order in which they have no say. Nothing prepares them to decide for themselves, by equipping themselves with organizations of their own. Everything indicates to them that they have only one democratic right, that of voting for people they have not chosen, who do not defend them in any way, who are attached to a social order that is their enemy.

And the idea of a social revolution is far from enchanting the majority of workers who would prefer that the capitalist system continue to function smoothly, to pay them decent wages for decent work, allowing them to have a calm and serene life rather than having to make a revolution and overthrow power by violently clashing with it and risking their lives. This is completely normal and it is not this which prevents revolutions because it is the unbearable exactions of the possessing classes which provoke them and make them inevitable. It is only when the system demonstrates that any other solution is impossible that the workers revolt to resort to this solution.

The most moderate of workers and those who believe they have a stable and well-paid job are of course the least inclined to embark on such an adventure, but, if the dominant society demonstrates that it can, from one day to the next, make them lose all these advantages, they can join the most deprived, if they do not allow themselves to be deceived by the reformists, constantly ready to make them believe that an arrangement is possible and that the wolf and the lambs can be made to agree...

Despite the considerable weight of institutions, media, organizations, repression, false beliefs, social submission, resignation, and past failures, revolutions are reappearing all over the world, and they are returning to France at the same time as the acute crisis of the system is hitting it, with its increasingly dramatic consequences for jobs, wages, pensions, unemployment, social services, welfare, health, housing, and everything else. The attack is all-out. It is not just this or that government that is responsible, even if the candidates to replace them claim it is. It is a necessity for the ruling classes to make the poorest pay and to continue to enrich the richest, and they cannot do otherwise. It is a necessity for them to confront the workers and crush them. The confrontation does not only stem from the discontent of the poorest, it also stems from the situation of the possessing classes : that of a system which is reaching its limits and can only continue by putting more and more pressure on the exploited.

Even if the majority of workers did not want to fight, the situation will increasingly convince them that the struggle is inevitable and also that it is not a reformist struggle but a revolutionary one. We cannot patch up the system. We cannot continue to serve profits to big capital without squeezing the workers to death. We cannot make political power more favorable to workers because it is entirely at the service of billionaires.

The previous Yellow Vest movement, just like the September 10 movement, is not the product of this or that school of thought, or of this or that leader of the struggle, or of this or that radical tendency, they are the product of a general crisis of the entire social and political system which lands in an impasse, a general bankruptcy, financial, social and political. The boat is taking on water and, if we do not decide to leave there, we will sink with it.

French society is heading towards a dead end, and it’s not just revolutionaries or the poor alone who are pointing this out. The message is coming from all social strata. However, the very definition of a revolutionary situation by Marxists has always been : when the poor can no longer do it, the rich no longer want to do it, and also when the middle class can’t take it anymore. And also, this is happening on all levels : investments, debts, financial, banking, industrial, commercial, social, workers, farmers, employees, the unemployed, retirees, students, young people, women, political, institutional, regime, ideological, union, religious, etc. Everything is in crisis, everything is crumbling, everything is collapsing. Everything is sowing distrust, discontent, revolt. To the point that the global bourgeoisie is wondering if France is not going to be the weak link in the global imperialist and capitalist chain !

Of course, the ruling classes continue the fight, they try to make all the classic political traps work, all the institutional traps, the social and political traps, the repressive, dictatorial and warlike traps. The completely overwhelmed ruling class will not give in without a fight !

The key to all attacks (antisocial, dictatorial, fascist, racist, terrorist, warlike, etc.) lies in the effort of the capitalists and their lackeys in power or billionaire candidates for power to counter the effort of the working people to self-organize in order to build the power of the exploited and oppressed. There is no other alternative. For employees, the unemployed, retirees, young people, women, there is no other hope than to take the lead in the revolt, by uniting with the middle classes (small traders, artisans, taxi drivers, small farmers, self-employed, fishermen, etc.) hit or threatened and revolted by the crisis and also to address the little soldiers and little policemen to bring them to our side or gain their sympathy. We must destabilize state power, establish a dual power of revolutionary committees, then overthrow and completely break capitalist power.

What must be built is the power of the people, which must emerge from the revolt in the form of the election of delegates, committees and their federation, making decisions concerning the whole of society until they control it, then direct it and finally put an end to the old power.

The Yellow Vests have begun. September 10th followed. This is just the beginning ; the fight continues !
We block everything and then what ?

Then we organize ourselves, we structure ourselves, we federate, we elect our delegates, we form our programs, we prepare the new society, we constitute the new power !

Those who weaken us, those who diffuse us, those who deceive us, those who harm us are all those who refuse to move forward beyond mere blockage, who push back the perspective of movement, leaving opposing forces to take back the initiative.

Only by clearly, publicly and in action defending this perspective will we be able to thwart maneuvers, manipulations, attacks and repressions and, already, distinguish our true friends from false ones and defeat our enemies.
We’ll take as long as it takes ! We’ll put in the energy we need ! We’ll make the sacrifices we need ! But the Yellow Vests will win !

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