France: Yellow Vests call for run on banks today

[Snær Pîlâjikson]

https://www.france24.com/en/20190111-france-yellow-vest-protesters-call-run-banks-macron-economy-money-taxes-police

Protesters called for the first wave of cash withdrawals to start at 7pm (local time) on Friday, ahead of nationwide demonstrations planned on Saturday.

“We’re going to frighten the state with legal means, without resorting to violence. We know that it isn’t the government that’s in charge, but the banks. If the banks are weakened, the state is also weakened,” a protester identified as Tahz San said in a video posted on YouTube on January 7.

The goal is to maintain pressure on the government to heed Yellow Vest protesters’ demands – in particular the right to propose and vote on new laws – by hitting them where it hurts: the economy. If every customer withdraws all the cash they have deposited with even a solvent bank at the same time, no financial institution has the sufficient funds to pay out to their clients. Yellow Vest protesters hope that if they can cripple at least one bank, it will have a knock-on effect.

“There are a lot of people who are prepared to… withdraw their money from banks,” Maxime Nicolle, a prominent member of the movement, said in a video posted on Facebook also on January 7. “Because you’re making money with our cash, and we’re fed up.”

[Kurt Barlow]

What could go wrong?  

It's not like the banks and the secret ruling class would do anything dangerous or violent to protect their money....

As long as you don't count WWI and II.

[Warpig]

Well come on, are you going to hold a couple of world wars against them?

Jeez, you're strict!

[Snær Pîlâjikson]

Don't forget the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune#Demographics

In 1871 France was deeply divided between the large rural, Catholic and conservative population of the French countryside and the more republican and radical cities of Paris, Marseille, Lyon and a few others. In the first round of the 1869 parliamentary elections held under the French Empire, 4,438,000 had voted for the Bonapartist candidates supporting Napoleon III, while 3,350,000 had voted for the republican opposition. In Paris, however, the republican candidates dominated, winning 234,000 votes against 77,000 for the Bonapartists.

Of the 2 million people in Paris in 1869, according to the official census, there were about 500,000 industrial workers, or fifteen per cent of all the industrial workers in France, plus another 300,000-400,000 workers in other enterprises. Only about 40,000 were employed in factories and large enterprises; most were employed in small industries in textiles, furniture and construction. There were also 115,000 servants and 45,000 concierges. In addition to the native French population, there were about 100,000 immigrant workers and political refugees, the largest number being from Italy and Poland.

During the war and the siege of Paris, various members of the middle- and upper-classes departed the city; at the same time there was an influx of refugees from parts of France occupied by the Germans. The working class and immigrants suffered the most from the lack of industrial activity due to the war and the siege; they formed the bedrock of the Commune's popular support.


This Paris Commune situation in 1871 and all the ensuing debates about it ended up inspiring Marx & Engels.

This all feels way too familiar.

[Kurt Barlow]

"at the same time there was an influx of refugees from parts of France occupied by the Germans."

The French have been surrendering to the Germans for so long they don't know whether to go shit or go blind.

Snær Pîlâjikson wrote

This all feels way too familiar.

[Warpig]