American on the Ground in France - The Yellow Jacket protests - Part 5 The Revival Greetings Patriots, It has been a long while since my last installment regarding the Yellow Jacket movement in France. Although on a few occasions I wanted to give you an update as to what is going on here, I had nothing particularly interesting to relay to you. Today that is changed. I recently attended a Yellow Jacket rally that was being held in our town's movie theater. A documentary about the movement followed by a debate. Many questions were answered during the event so I come to relay this to you. The movement is not dying or dead, by any means. From what I have learned, the initial protests, that is to say, the first few weeks of the movement which were the most attended, had a very large contingent of people that were there primarily for the Gas Tax. These people ceased attending after the first month. The initial dwindling of attendance can be completely attributed to this group of single issue activists. By the time December rolled around, the remaining protestors were the die hards. The ones that were out because they had nothing left to lose. The retirees, the unemployed, the underemployed, the activists, the true believers and above all the ones who were truely fed up. These are the people whose motto became "We are not concerned with the end of the world, we are too worried about the end of the month". Many of these people are workng poor or retirees who spent their life working and paying into the system only to be given too little in return to live. They are unable to make ends meet and seeing their revenue diminish while taxes increase have taken their gripes to the roundabouts across the nation. By December's end, a temporary "ceasefire" was declared that the protestors should spend Christmas and the New Year with their families. A number of the movement's members had neither and continued to man their outposts spending the holidays together. The national police used this opportunity to demolish the barricades and structures setup over the prior 2 months. When the other protestors returned it was too late. They began to rebuild, many on private property adjacent to the roundabouts. Attempts were made by the Police to demolish those structures as well, however, lawyers and various representatives intervened and put an end to that real quick. There are a few videos of people that were live streaming that are must sees. The faces of the police when confronted by a lawyer while they are in the act of breaking the law is priceless. I got to see one of those live, I'll never forget it. The rough weather in January and February took their toll on the numbers as well, but a solid core of winter soldiers remained and held the lines. They make up the backbone of the movement currently. Meanwhile, in Paris... The number of protestors in Paris has been dwindling and until the rally I thought that this was solely due to fatigue. Not so. It turns out that there are thousands of protestors that are currently sitting in prison either awaiting trial or already convicted. Thousands. The exact number is uncertain but is no less than 2000 and may actually be as high as 6000 or higher. That is a good chunk of the missing protestors. Another issue in Paris is that there have been increasing numbers of police checkpoints searching people for yellow jackets and other protest related paraphanelia. All main roads leading to the protest staging grounds are blockaded on the protest days and people must submit to search in order to get through. Anyone suspected of going to the protest is turned back. One of the people at the rally I attended goes to Paris every weekend. He stated that in order to get to the protest he must hide his jacket in his underwear and he takes allyways to get around the checkpoints. According to him there were over 20000 police searches of people in Paris last Saturday. Violence on the protestors by the police has not subsided. In fact, it may be even worse than before. They are not picking who to beat on. Videos are surfacing every week of old women being bludgened or manhandled by police. Indiscriminate violence by the police is more commonplace now than it has been in weeks prior. Things may be reaching a breaking point. People are fed up with the way the media and government are dealing with the situation. There has been no lessening of support by the population since my last article. If anything, the people are more resolute now than ever. A few weeks ago, representatives from 200 different towns across the country met in St Nazaire for a council of councils. Over the course of 3 days a declaration was put together that all could agree upon. It is somewhat long but I will try to find time to provide a translation of it in the near future. You may read it in french on this website: https://reporterre.net/Gilets-jaunes-l-Appel-de-Saint-Nazaire . At this event they also began to compile an official list of grievances and dedmands. None of these are complete or final. This is a work in progress. A second council of councils is planned for July and another for September if I remember correctly. The last new information I have is regarding a new call to action. A rally call has been sounded for the 4th of May. All people supporting the movement are being called out to the original roundabouts to once again take control. This is vital to the ongoing movement as the most effective actions of the Yellow Jackets have come from their ability to block highway traffic and disrupt national commerce. Although I have been staying back up to this point, I am strongly considering attending this one. I suggest any people who read this and are in France to do the same. All are welcome, all are welcomed. May the 4th be with us! WWG1WGA