Blog

Who Makes Cents is a monthly program devoted to producing engaging stories that explain how capitalism has changed over time.

Sebastian Budgen discusses the Yellow Vests protests in France, the social composition of the movement, its relationship to established political forces, and the absent strategy of the Macron project, with Alex Doherty on the Politics Theory Other podcast

The publication of Felwine Sarr and Benedicte Savoy’s report recommending the restitution of stolen African objects and the approach of what is called a “migrant caravan” toward the US is not a coincidence.

Much has been written about the gilets jaunes and their relation to both politics, of the left and the right, and historical waves of labour unrest. In this article, Joshua Clover argues that the gilets jaunes are in fact a texbook example of a contemporary riot, and may be best seen as an early example of an approaching wave of climate riots.

Historian Sophie Wahnich compares the current period with the French Revolution, from the Marseillaise to the image of Macron as Louis XVI: possible parallels, excessive comparisons and potentialities at work.

Eric Hazan interviewed about the Gilets Jaunes protests.

Antonio Negri on the Gilets Jaunes and the new wave of protests in France.

The gilets jaunes protests have been marked by a variety of different actions, ranging from the attempts to block oil refineries to the racist attitudes expressed during selective blockades. So what does the yellow vest really mean? A yellow vest is a banal object – it is itself devoid of meaning. In this article, Félix Boggio Éwanjé-Épée argues that this is precisely why progressive forces must fight back against the appropriation of the movement by the Far Right, and hegemonize the meaning of the gilets jaunes. 

Capitalist climate governance has always relied on pseudo-reforms that leave the richest free to accumulate capital, while dumping taxes on working people to nudge them in the 'right direction'. But as the protests of the gilets jaunes show, many working people no longer accept the moralising terms of capitalist approaches to climate change. In this article, Andreas Malm argues that if we really want to save this Planet, we must pursue a different kind of climate politics, one that could learn a great deal from the methods and tactics of the gilets jaunes.

History is filled with cases of left wing governments whose economic plans were sunk by the disciplinary power of global financial markets. With the very real chance of the Labour Party winning any forthcoming general election, would the same happen to them? In this article, Scott Lavery analyses the current conjuncture of global capitalism to see what room to maneuver Corbyn's Labour would have.

The social warfare unleashed by Macron in the past 18 months has sparked anger in the French population. In this article, Frédéric Lordon analyses the gilets jaunes protests.

Emmanuel Macron's regime is in tatters, with plummeting approval ratings and the growing wave of "gilets jaunes" protests. But could this growing discontent be the start of an anti-bourgeois bloc to challenge the neoliberal consensus?