Some photos are hard to forget. that This was posted on Twitter in April, when a black street sweeper in Paris wearing a yellow fluorescent vest was seen there the night before by young petty bourgeois protesters protesting against France’s new pension law. Sweeping up the trash left behind.
This snapshot shows that a real revolution has not yet broken out in France.
There were certainly many young people among the demonstrators, who declared their solidarity with the working class. Ultimately, legally raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 would be especially difficult for workers who start working young and often take on physically demanding jobs.
With this in mind, this spring some teenagers raised slogans such as “Even the bankers’ children are against it” in solidarity with the working class affected by this law. They briefly occupied a lycĂ©e in a wealthy area. One of them reportedly said, “We don’t want a world where workers are run over, right?”
It’s great that the younger generation is learning about politics. But as long as politically charged teenagers overturn trash cans out of social outrage, and the lower classes clean them up the next morning, we still have a ways to go.
However, these demonstrations showed that social protests can mobilize more people from diverse social backgrounds than protests over gender, racial, religious, and cultural identity issues that dominate the media. ing.
French political scientist Olivier Roy said, “Since the end of the last century, no more than a few thousand people have been mobilized in identity demonstrations against immigration, Islam, and Wokism, or conversely, in demonstrations against immigration, Islam, and cancel culture.” No,” he said. he told Le Monde newspaper.
“But since 1995, tens of thousands of people have been protesting against the social crisis,” he said.
The political climate in the United States is polarized. The country is divided down the middle, and the two camps are engaged in a never-ending culture war.
Fortunately, Europe is less polarized. As sociologists often point out, in most European countries there is very high consensus on social issues and values.
For example, ultra-conservative protests against drag queens reading to children have recently erupted in cities such as Rotterdam and Vienna. However, only a handful took part in the protests.
Polls show that most Dutch people, and even more conservative Austrians, have no problem with drag queens reading to children. On Twitter, book clubs may attract angry clicks, but in real life they rarely receive political recognition.
The Dutch Democratic Forum, which rants against Muslims, immigrants and anything else deemed “culturally progressive,” all but disappeared in the last election.
French far-right politician Eric Zemmour, who is involved in similar activities, also suffered major losses last year. In contrast, Marine Le Pen of the Rassemblement National Party, who no longer opposes abortion or same-sex marriage and instead focuses on broader socio-economic issues, received a better score.
“Cultural issues divide people, and social issues unite people,” Michael Fakhri, the UN’s special rapporteur on food, said in a recent interview.
The right to food is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Hunger is on the rise around the world as a result of geopolitical turmoil. Most governments do little about it.
Fakhri is trying to persuade them to limit food speculation and strengthen local production. He says he is being helped by various organizations in many countries.
food is not happening
“The great thing about issues like the right to food is that it has nothing to do with left or right, woke or unwoke,” he said. “This is a social theme. Everyone can unite behind this theme. Only then will anything change politically.”
For him, a case in point is the fact that rivals Russia and Ukraine managed to reach an agreement to restart Ukrainian food exports despite international pressure.
This is how politics is born. It happens not when cultural bubbles that feel oppressed by each other keep colliding, but when they come together on issues that can affect everyone. This is about organizing society and adapting it to new times.
With that in mind, two things are necessary. First, young people need to break out of their cultural bubbles and address larger socio-economic issues.
In France, many people are currently mobilizing, not just because of the pension law, but rather because the government has forced the bill through parliament.
But they won’t get there just by spontaneously taking to the streets, knocking over trash cans, and setting fires to the rubble.
If they want social change, they must collaborate with other social groups and drive change through democratic institutions.
The need for coordination can turn the masses into political weight, and demonstrations can become a means to achieving political ends rather than an end in themselves.
However, one more thing is needed for this to happen, and that is an effective political party. In many European countries, with a few exceptions, traditional political parties that once appealed to voters from different social classes are no longer able to do so.
Instead they are fragmented and splintered, with spin-offs often using issues of identity to differentiate themselves from others.
These battles distract from broader socio-economic and political mobilization. In France, they were traditionally entrenched in trade unions that negotiated wages and pensions. However, trade unions are weak and the three main political parties are highly disorganized, with strong leaders serving as their main pillars.
In short, the problem exists, but there is a lack of political coordination and direction. This photo of street sweepers in Paris makes this painfully clear.