The trashing of Greece by the European Commission and Central Bank – in cahoots with the IMF- conveniently disappeared down the collective memory hole of the UK’s political class and media establishment. This is entirely explicable. The brutal rape and ruin of a member state knocks the gloss off cosmopolitan cuddling.

In similar vein 13 weeks of protest in France have been disappeared by the mainstream media. David Studdert has noticed the blackout.

  It is only necessary to go onto Gilets websites to witness the violence being metered out to the yellow vests. Does any of this appear in the mainstream media? Rumour has it a D notice has been issued in Britain forbidding any positive mention of the Yellow Vests. In France, it’s the same. Huge crowds in almost every main city are barely reported, grievances are never discussed. Many colour revolutions are staged by the MSM especially for audiences in Western Europe and the ‘first world’, as the current case of Venezuela illustrates. Instead of this colour revolution simulacrum, what confronts the Gilets Jaunes is a black-out. Draw your own conclusion.

The British debate on how to exit the EU has for more than two years provided a daily deluge of cant delivered by hundreds of expensively employed MPs. Their goal is BRINO – Brexit in Name Only- a ploy to defy the popular vote and keep the UK effectively within the EU. It’s basically Parliament against the people. To block similar betrayals the gilets jaunes have proposed a Citizen Referendum Initiative(RIC) that cuts out the middle-man. Capitalism’s little helpers will no longer be able to masquerade as their representatives. Law professor and activist Etienne Chouard believes this is the stuff of genuine revolution.

What is extraordinary is that in the list of grievances, there is a sort of precious stone, like a star in the sky, called the Citizen Initiative Referendum (RIC). Why is this very precious? This is because it is not at all legislative, it is constituent. It is not a question of saying “here is a law we want”, it is a question of saying “this is how we want to write the laws ourselves”. It is extremely subversive. When I saw this, I realized that it was something very important and I told them: “This line, in your grievances, is completely different from all the rest. If we get that, we will have everything else. That is to say, we will have the means to vote ourselves the laws that we will find important.”

In late January a hundred delegations of the gilets jaunes called for an ‘assembly of the assemblies’.

Since 17 November, from the smallest village, from the rural world to the largest city, we have risen up against this deeply violent, unjust and unbearable society. We won’t let it happen again! We revolt against high cost of living, insecurity and poverty. We want our loved ones, our families and our children to live in dignity. 26 billionaires own as much as half of humanity. That is unacceptable. Let us share the wealth, and not poverty! Let us put an end to social inequality! We demand the immediate increase in salaries, welfare benefits, allowances and pensions, and the unconditional right to housing and health, education, free public services, for all. It is for all these rights that we occupy roundabouts every day, that we organise actions and demonstrations, and that we debate everywhere. With our yellow vests, we are taking the floor, we who never have it.

The writer Diana Johnstone who lives in France has described the violent police response, the attacks by so-called ‘anti-fascists’ and the slander and propaganda unleashed by the French state in an effort to crush the gilets jaunes.

This may not be a revolution, but it is a revelation of the real nature of “the system”.  Power lies with a technocracy in the service of “the Markets”, meaning the power of finance capital.  This technocracy aspires to remake human society, our own societies and those all over the planet, in the interests of a certain capitalism.  It uses economic sanctions, overwhelming propaganda and military force (NATO) in a “globalization” project that shapes people’s lives without their consent.  Macron is the very embodiment of this system.  He was chosen by that famous elite to carry through the measures dictated by “the Markets”, enforced by the European Union. He cannot give in.  But now that people are awake to what is going on, they won’t stop either.  For all the lamented decline in the school system, the French people today are as well-educated and reasonable as any population can be expected to be.  If they are incapable of democracy, then democracy is impossible.