“Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product. The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance, they are revolutionary, they are only so in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat”.

                                                                                                                                                                                The Communist Manifesto (1848)

Today. Great surprise has been caused by the so-called “gilets jaunes movement” (the yellow vests), arising in France in mid November, apparently out of nothing, and, reaching its peak at the beginning of December, subsequently losing momentum and potential for mobilization after the Government concessions of 10 December.

All over the world, proletarians are under attack. The bourgeoisie and its organs of mass disinformation maintain that “we have come through the crisis”.  Yet, disguised as precarious, unemployment grows endlessly.  The pace and conditions of work worsen constantly. The veritable mass murders of proletarians in factories, building yards, on the streets and in the fields reaches shocking figures. What is paid out on rent (if and when it’s possible to find a hole to live in!), food, gas and electricity (which, together with a roof over your head, are basic necessities!), transport (to get to work or look for it!) becomes a stranglehold.