La Vie En Jaune by Omar Havana

Public Story

La Vie En Jaune

Credits: omar havana

Date of Work: 12/01/19 - 12/25/19

Updated: 01/21/20

Location: Paris,

Archived as: Action, Activism, Arrests and Prosecutions, Capitalism, chaos, city, Civil Rights, Confrontation, Demonstration, Diesel Tax, Documentary, Editorial, Essays, Europe, Europe Photographer, Fire, France, France Photographer, Gilets Jaunes, Globalization, Government, Human Rights, living conditions, Macron, Manif, Media, Paris, Paris Photographer, Photography, Photojournalism, Police, Police Violence, Politics, protester, Protests, Revolution, Rights, social issues, social movement, Street, Violence, Workers Rights, Yellow vests

Hundreds of thousands of “Gilets Jaunes” (meaning “Yellow Vest” in French) have taken to the streets of France every weekend since November 17th, 2018.

During 53 consecutive weekends, French citizens from all over the country gathered in the French capital after government officials rejected to meet with them. “We do not want this, but we will keep fighting for our rights until someone from the Government will meet us,” said Antoine, a retired man from the western region of Bretagne (Brittany). “I hate violence, but this is the only way that we have to be heard, as French citizens we have that right,” he adds.

Protests by the “Gilets Jaunes” originally began in mid-November 2018 in reaction to increases in fuel prices and taxes, but have since continuously expanded to a broader and ill-defined set of demands, including the resignation of French President Emmanuel Macron. Without a leader, the “Gilets Jaunes” have mobilized people of drastically different opinions, unified mostly by their shared discontent with a rising cost life, using social media to spread calls for demonstrations.

People taking part in the demonstrations, which have included professional vandals (referred to as “casseurs” in French) numbering at least in the hundreds, have ransacked storefronts and banks, set vehicles, and buildings on fire, painted graffiti on landmarks and uprooted the pavement, in neighbourhoods adjacent to the Champs Elysées, the Opera and numerous other popular tourist attractions, while overwhelmed police forces responded by launching tear gas and stun grenades and attempted to disperse protesters with barricades and water cannons.

Since the beginning of the movement, 11 people have died (but none since the end of January), mainly in road accidents. According to the Ministry of Interior, 1944 police officers and 2,495 demonstrators have been injured on the demonstrators' side, many of them as a result of the use of extreme violence by police forces who continue to use controversial LBDs, which is criticized by human rights organizations. According to a study by Mediapart, 2 people have died, 315 people have suffered head injuries, 24 people lost an eye and 5 lost hands due to police violence.

“We are a pacifist movement, we don’t like violence, and it is time for the media to make a difference between many of us and others that come here just to create chaos. Just wearing a yellow vest does not make some a yellow vest,” says Pierre, a retired Parisian. “People like me are worried about the future of our family – what future will they have? This government does not care about the people, and we won’t stop until Macron resigns. It does not matter how long it takes, but Macron is going to go, I can guarantee you that,” he concludes.

The movement continues, and more protests are announced for the coming weekends in France… Will it last through a second year? According to a recent poll, 69 % of the French believe the “Gilets Jaunes” movement is still justified.

Photography: © Omar Havana. All Rights are Reserved

Part of this story has been published in Al Jazeera English

1,002

Omar Havana

Also by Omar Havana —

Portfolio NGO Food Security and Agriculture

Portfolio NGO Education

Portfolio NGO

From Rice Fields to Ice Rink: Cambodia’s First Figure Skating Team

The Big C

A Bloodbath in the Name of Gadhimai

The Forgotten

Endurance

35 years searching for justice in Cambodia

CEMENTery

The Bucolic Life of a Cambodian Grandmother Accused of Mass Killings

They Smashed Banks for Pol Pot. Now They’re Founding Them

Breaking tradition among Nepal's Maithil women

Bonjour, Paris

Trapped: the Dark Side of Cambodia's Beer Gardens

When the Earth Shook Nepal

A woman's Cry: The detention of Tep Vanny

Devotees of the Ink

Inside a Cambodian Slaughterhouse

The Way

The Khmer Fighters

My Country Is My Family

Evicting Dreams: The Last Days of the White Building

The Angkor Hell