Story-Building for Revolution: Post-Marxist and Neo-Nationalist Perspectives on the Yellow Vests Movement

On 17 November 2018, hundreds of thousands of French joined in protest against the ecological tax rise on hydrocarbons announced by Emmanuel Macron. The Yellow Vests phenomenon had been born. Since then, it has been active for several months and there seems to be no end in sight. As the movement began to get organized, it created websites and pages on social media, producing a challenging storytelling based on more than 40 demands and 25 proposals for the crisis. Thus it gave voice to the middle and middle-lower classes, which are deeply dissatisfied with their present socioeconomic conditions. Naturally, this narrative appealed to the extremist parties, from Melenchon’s radical left to Marine Le Pen’s neo-nationalist right, as they immediately declared their support for the cause. Shortly afterwards, it was time for the intellectuals to manifest their views. On one hand, post-Marxists such as Slavoj Zizek and Antonio Negri wrote their articles on the subject. On the other, Russian nationalists, from leftist Boris Kagarlitsky to traditionalist Aleksandr Dugin, did not hide their enthusiasm about the movement either. For, in fact, all these intellectuals have something in common: they all are story-building for revolution. Resumo A 17 Novembro 2018, centenas de milhares de franceses aderiram ao protesto contra a subida da taxa ecologica sobre os hidrocarbonetos anunciada por Emmanuel Macron. Nascia, assim, o fenomeno dos coletes amarelos, o qual tem perdurado ao longo de varios meses e parece nao ter fim a vista. A medida que o movimento se foi organizando, criou um site e paginas em redes sociais, produzindo um «storytelling» de caracter reivindicativo com base em mais de 40 exigencias e 25 propostas para a crise; o qual dava voz a um clima de profunda insatisfacao quanto a situacao socioeconomica em que vivem as classes media e media-baixa. Claro esta que esta narrativa agradou aos partidos extremistas, desde a esquerda radical de Melenchon a direita nacionalista de Marine Le Pen, que imediatamente declararam o seu apoio a causa. Pouco depois, era a vez dos intelectuais se manifestarem. De um lado, destacaram-se os artigos dos pos-marxistas Slavoj Žižek e Antonio Negri. Do outro, os nacionalistas russos, desde o esquerdista Boris Kagarlitsky ao tradicionalista Aleksandr Dugin, tampouco esconderam o seu entusiasmo quanto ao movimento. Com efeito, todos estes intelectuais tem algo em comum: a producao de um «story building» de cariz revolucionario.