Why aren’t Corbynistas celebrating the gilets jaunes?

Why aren’t we Brits talking about the revolt just across the English Channel? Our silence on the gilets jaunes and their spectacular, sustained rebellion against the increasingly tyrannical rule of Emmanuel Macron has become pathological. There’s been barely any BBC coverage, no words of solidarity from Corbynistas, not a peep from the trade union movement. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary French people have marched, raged and clashed with the Macron government and Britain looks the other way. It’s bizarre. Our disregard deserves an explanation.

This weekend was Act 24 of the gilets jaunes revolt. Named after the yellow vests that all motorists in France must have in their vehicles, the gilets jaunes revolt kicked off last November. It started as a mass demonstration against the raising of fuel taxes but it has since morphed into a broad and frequently furious opposition to Macronism. Many of the marchers are Frexiteers, too. Every weekend since November, these mostly working-class people who feel they have been trampled upon by the neoliberal order and the borderline aristocratic elite of the Macron administration have taken to the streets to demand change.