France – La Cause du Peuple: October 31 – The State on the Edge
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by La Cause du Peuple on November 4.
On Saturday, an estimated 500,000 people marched in the streets, even though many gatherings had been banned. Following the chaos of recent weeks, the Interior Ministry had gone all out to prepare for the day, deploying 70,000 police officers nationwide – the same number as the previous Saturday. A total of 779 people were arrested that day.
Laurant Nuñez had announced it at a press conference, and the Ministry of the Interior confirmed it on its website: the repressive measures for this “Act III” of October – and soon November – movement were massive. While bourgeois propaganda hopes to make us believe in its intention to “preserve the freedom to protest,” such a deployment can only be put in place to crush the will to protest.
After October 24, we noted that “the regime had gone all out to prevent the second act of this mobilization at all costs,” with 70,000 police officers mobilized. The same was true this Saturday: 70,000 police officers mobilized – again! Traumatized by the battles on the 17th, the State spared no expense in deploying repressive measures. The BRI, RAID, and GIGN were among them, along with specialized resources such as drones, helicopters, mounted police, and K-9 units. We also saw 26 Centaure armored vehicles from the National Gendarmerie and 15 water cannon trucks patrolling the cities.
Pictures: City centers were completely overrun by police,
as seen here in Toulouse.
Curfews, the restriction on civil liberties par excellence, made a massive comeback this weekend, in effect from Saturday night through Sunday and/or from Sunday night through Monday. For minors, they were enforced in numerous cities such as Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Aubagne, Valenciennes, and Avignon… In Grenoble, a general curfew was in place, as it was in certain areas of Paris and Tours.
Already tested on October 24, house arrest orders were issued left and right to prevent activists from attending demonstrations. This state-of-emergency provision, initially intended for the counterterrorism arsenal, became part of ordinary law in 2017. Nationwide, and particularly in major metropolitan areas such as Paris, Lyon, or Toulouse, the government has carried out numerous preventive searches, as well as intimidation tactics against activists to force them to stay home – whether by sending a letter requiring them to report to a police station on the other side of town or by stationing officers outside their homes all day long. The government’s message is not a preventive measure, but first and foremost a means of exerting pressure: we know who you are and where you live. In an internal document from the Ministry of the Interior made public by Libération, the government justifies its actions as follows:
“The insurrectionary movement observed since October 17, 2026 that aims to seriously destabilize France’s public and social structures, has caused massive destruction, particularly to public buildings and businesses. By targeting republican symbols such as city halls and prefectures, in a context intended to severely intimidate the population and public authorities and to overthrow the established government, such acts may be regarded as acts of terrorism.”
Picture: The yellow dotted line shows the “Yellow Vests” route banned by the Police Prefecture. The red dotted line shows the route submitted by the CGT and banned by the Police Prefecture. The blue line shows the route authorized by the Police Prefecture and approved by the Council of State.
Picture: The yellow dotted line shows the “Yellow Vests” route banned by the Police Prefecture. The red dotted line shows the route submitted by the CGT and banned by the Police Prefecture. The blue line shows the route authorized by the Police Prefecture and approved by the Council of State.
The Ministry of the Interior announced that it had conducted 40,000 checks throughout the day on roads, railways, and in train stations. The 779 arrests made that day will further fuel the judicial slaughterhouses that are being prepared.
The masses’ response to this police-judicial crackdown was not what the State had hoped for. Half a million protesters took to the streets on Saturday, and there were reports of paving stones and even firebombs being thrown, to the point of setting a police officer on fire.
Picture: A police officer caught fire after a firebomb was thrown at him in Paris.
Not only is the mobilization not waning, contrary to what they claim, but, on the contrary, the combativeness is growing. What the bourgeois State cannot understand is that repression, used to instill fear, has a far worse effect for them: it fuels anger. Greeting people who are protesting against the high cost of living and for decent living conditions with fire from military equipment, such as “defensive ball launchers” (better known as LBDs, responsible for blinding 16-year-old Maël in one eye), can only be seen as an admission of weakness. Fear does not lie with the masses but with the State. The recent fire at a factory producing these infamous LBDs in Switzerland for which no one has yet claimed responsibility, but whose timing leaves no room for doubt, attests to the radicalization of the masses within this movement.
Picture: The fire at the LBD factory in Thun, Switzerland, on the night of October 29.
And this week, France’s youth are once again taking action, with several high schools blockaded starting Monday: Déodat and Bellevue in Toulouse, Emmanuel Mounier in Grenoble, and in Rennes… Repression, of course, was not long in coming for students and adults alike, as seen at the Jean Monnet high school in Montpellier, where two 15-year-old students and a school nurse were taken into police custody. The blockades resumed on Tuesday at the Le Corbusier high school in Aubervilliers and at the Pasteur high school in Lille, where three high school students were arrested.
