Introduction to the Yellow Vest Movement
It’s Sunday afternoon and ten people are gathered for a theater rehearsal in a community center in Lille, a city in northern France. Most of the amateur actors here didn’t meet through the art scene. They met during the “yellow vest” protests in France. The grassroots protest movement peaked in 2018 and 2019, when demonstrators in yellow high-visibility vests blocked streets across France in response to fuel tax increases intended to partially fund climate action.
The Movement’s Decline and Legacy
Since then, the movement, called “gilets jaunes” in French, has declined somewhat. Smaller, local actions are still taking place, but the larger protests have more or less ended. But many of the participants have not forgotten what it felt like to belong to the movement. One of the actresses, 66-year-old local Marine Guilbert, arrives at rehearsal with a bright yellow vest hanging under her backpack. On it are the words “fiere d’etre un gilet jaune” or “Proud to be a yellow vest,” flanked by two butterflies that she painted herself.
Violence and Injustice
At the height of the yellow vest movement, some demonstrators gathered peacefully. Others threw smoke bombs, looted stores and burned barricades. French police retaliated with water cannons and tear gas, leading to allegations of police brutality. The clashes left four people dead and hundreds injured. Seven years and many protests later, 66-year-old Guilbert is still angry about the political and economic situation in France. “It’s even worse than before,” she says. As a cleaner, she earns less than 1,000 euros a month and is therefore dependent on cash transfers from her son and food parcels from charities.
The Theater Group
The theater group was founded by Anne-Sophie Bastin, a lawyer and also yellow vest from Lille. “We have seen so much violence and injustice at the hands of the police that we decided to reflect it on stage,” says Bastin, explaining why she founded the group, which writes scripts and also serves as director. The group performed for the first time in 2019 and theirs was a play about the Yellow Vests themselves. The new play, which will be performed at the end of November in a 400-seat theater in Wasquehal, a town near Lille, is about the Irishman Bobby Sands.
France in Crisis
A new protest movement called “bloquons tout,” or “let’s block everything,” in English, has largely taken the spotlight away from the yellow vests in recent months as France lurches from crisis to crisis. A survey published by the French newspaper Le Monde in mid-October found that 96% of respondents were dissatisfied with the state of the country. One of the members of the theater group, pensioner Yolaine Jean Pierre, composed protest songs in her free time. On the day of the rehearsal, she wears a badge with a yellow vest and a red heart on the collar.
Economic Woes
France’s national debt is at more than 100% of the country’s income. But attempts by various French governments to rein in the deficit – from reforming France’s pension system to cutting national holidays – have been met with backlash from the public and political rivals. A recent report from France’s Inequality Observatory shows that the country has seen an increasing poverty rate for 20 years. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine that a change of head of state would automatically solve France’s political problems.
Calls for Macron’s Resignation
In the Lille community hall where the rehearsal is taking place, most of the actors argue that President Macron’s resignation is long overdue. Pensioner Jean Pierre doesn’t think that will happen. She jokes that Macron will remain in power “because he thinks he is God.” Another actor in the starting blocks says he believes little will change no matter who is in office. Paris feels so far away, he says. The cleaning lady Marine Guilbert says she channels her desires for change into the theater. “I hope that our voice is heard locally and on stage,” she says.
Unity in the Face of Adversity
Jean Pierre’s eyes light up as soon as she talks about the theater group. "We [the members of this troupe] are fighting the same battle," the pensioner said. "We think the same thing. There is unity." The theater group has become a way for the yellow vests to express themselves and find unity in the face of adversity. Despite the decline of the movement, the theater group remains a powerful symbol of resistance and a reminder that the struggles of the yellow vests are far from over.
