Decades of neoliberal policies have shattered the French economy and led to low growth, high unemplyment and increasing inequalities. In this article, Cédric Durand and Ramzig Keucheyan argue that the emergence of the gilets jaunes could serve as the basis for a new politics, one that provides an economically just and environmentally protective alternative to the status quo.
Jörn Schütrumpf remembers the last of the great Rosa Luxemburg scholars, Annelies Laschitza, the editor of the German-language Collected Works, who died last week in hospital.
With strong support from employees, manual workers and the self-employed, the gilets jaunes movement has brought together a wide range of different interests. In this interview with Lionel Venturini, Stefano Palombari discusses the 'French crisis' and the difficulty of turning this heterogeneous movement into a new dominant bloc.
Who are the gilets jaunes and what do they want? To answer these questions, a group of sociologists, political scientists and geographers have recently conducted a study of the motivations and socio-demographic profile of the movement. In this article, they present their initial findings.
Giuliana Bruno locates the history of Film in the study of Architecture.
Verso authors share the books they loved in 2018. We hope you'll be inspired to expand your reading lists over the holiday season!
Why make a political arts programme? Juliet Jacques and Tom Overton discuss today's arts broadcasting and left-wing podcast scenes.
The Gilets Jaunes protests have rocked France over the past month, opening up new spaces in contemporary European politics. Yet, the left's reaction to it has either been to passively follow the protests, or to question some of its reactionary articulations. What does this reaction say about the current impasses of left politics, and political strategy today?
With its background in responses to the flurry of reforms that Emmanuel Macron has sought to push through since 2017, the Gilets Jaunes has already become a major political event in Europe. In this article, Cedric Durand looks at the background to the movement, and asks where it might be heading.
Is it possible for a future government to be as devoted to the people as the current French government is to the 1%? In this article, Eric Toussaint puts forward a series of proposals to those currently struggling on the ground, and argues that a future Left government can only begin to remedy the harm caused by neoliberal policies, if it takes a collectively elaborated programme as its basis.
The demands of the gilets jaunes movement centre on work-related measures such as increasing the minimum wage and limiting short-term contracts. Despite converging interests, France's trade union leadership has largely remained quiet. In this article, Étienne Penissat and Thomas Amossé address this silence and urge organised trade unions to rebuild ties with the subaltern workers in the fluorescent vests.
From the continuities with Yeltsin’s disaster capitalism, the rise of the oligarchs to Putin’s ‘vertical of power’ in the post-Soviet state – what future is possible in Russia?