THE YELLOW VESTS Bearers of Values «The only way to support a revolution is to make your own.» - Abbie Hoffman, socialist activist ( ~1960’ )

The Beginning The Yellow Vest movement originates from social media. In early November, an online petition got over 226 000 signatures, asking for a drop of gas prices which were supposed to rise with the upcoming carbon tax. The standalone movement started in October 2018 with road blocks from highway users with their own vehicles. The main sources of information spreading are social media, relaying viral videos on Facebook and Twitter. The movement began to be recognised and followed by a growing number of citizens of all sides of France.

The French Spark Ignites The World : Actions Throughout The World The claims made by the French Yellow Vests have reached other people in other countries. Because other countries have their own social issues, outsiders now relate to the cause of the French Yellow Vests. One of the soonest affected country was Belgium. Their people started demonstrating on the streets on November 16 2018 for the same reasons as French people : the rise of petrol prices. Their reactions on the subject were a bit more organised than the French acting decisions. Indeed, Belgians managed to block petrol sites in Wallonia as well as in Feluy and Heinaut, the Total Petrochemical raffinery was out of access for truckers arriving at the site. The oil storage depot of Lukoil was saved from being blocked after the police arrived. In Germany, people claimed the streets in a small amount of protesters. Withal the streets weren't busy, the claims remain valid : the gas price rise for diesel automobiles has been decried in a weekend-long demonstration. Nevertheless, the demonstration passed the gas prices and taxes in the background and made it political towards the current government. The far right was the most heared and wanted the resignation of Angela Merkel for her compliance to the new immigration laws.

The cry for social justice reaches beyond the European Union and now includes Ireland, Taïwan, Lebanon and Tunisia. The keywords for their own demonstrations are : battle against corruption, lower prices for first necessity supplies and changes regarding unemployment. Social Injustice And Political Instability : Widespread Watchwords Where there's fire there's smoke. The events throughout the world began for a cause. Besides the known cause in France, people of other countries have their reasons to protest. In more details, Belgians have suffered from a gasoil rise of approximately 15% in a year. The current price for it in 2018 is 1.55€. There are similarities between France and Belgium, they both complain about hefty taxes by the State : tax revenue in France represents 47.7% of its GDP whereas Belgium's represents 47.3% (figures of 2018). They both score first on the leaderboard of Tax Burden with France first and Belgium second. Hence it proves Belgium knows its way around an honest protest. When the matter at stake promptly arose from the hearts of the French, some long-term conflicts are at the heart of the matter for foreign Yellow Vests. It is the case of Irak. The head of Parliement is Mohamed al-Halbousi since September 2018. The city in which the Yellow Fever occured is in Basra where there was an armed conflict near an airport in which a rocket bomb was launched by anonymous protesters. The main reason for these demonstrations is the hard access to water supplies and electricity in houses. The conflict over water is not recent for Irak : Turkey and Iran managed the tributaries for themselves and reduced the flow to Irak by 40% on the main tributaries. The low access to water put agriculture in Irak in jeopardy which consists of 80% of the use of water of Irak. Hence people cannot have a minimum access to water supplies in the country. Today, Irak needs 50B m3 of water to satisfy its needs for agriculture, domestic supplies and industrial productivity. The tensions in the streets with Yellow Vests primarily focus on these beforehand geopolitical tensions between states. In terms of youth, Taiwanese made their claims clear : they want a more transparent tax system. The mainly decried issue with governement taxes in Taiwan is how taxes work for low-income people. The average monthly wage is $1,364 and the minimum wage is supposed to

rise up to $750 monthly (figures by The Time). An interview of Yellow Vests in Taiwan reveals that another concern is the high taxes for younger, newly active people earning a low entry job wage. As of today, no country has proved itself exempt of rebuke from its own people. Laws will not always be abode by. The fairness of the government seems at stake in many of the cases of Yellow Vests throughout the world. Then comes taxes and low living standards. These are the traits that are easily widespread and unfortunately easy to relate to for many people in the world.

∴ As a conclusion, the Yellow Vest is easily worn and easily found. It bears a symbol that stems from the French and reincarnated in many places in the world from Europe to the Middle-East and Asia. Unity in despair is what makes the movement special. The events in France led foreign people have their own revolution for their own motives. Mainly governmental issues, they wish for a better lifestyle and less malicious schemes from their respective government. In all fairness to their cause, the Yellow Vest soon became the symbol of unity and battle against political unfairness. As a matter of fact, the Yellow Vest remains a movement without a clear leadership structure. It becomes the Guy Fawkes mask except this time the motives are way too numerous to be acknowledged by each and everyone of the people who take part in the movement. There are so many demands that there ends up being none. Hence it becomes easy for radical winged people to co-opt in the movement and manipulate it. We wish to discuss this further by asking ourselves : - to what extent the strenght in numbers meets practical decision making ? - to what extent does a symbol become the epicentre of ideas ? Sources : https://www.lepoint.fr/economie/la-france-championne-europeenne-de-la-pression-fiscale-29-11-20182275284_28.php http://www.rfi.fr/emission/20181203-mouvement-gilets-jaunes-belgique-taxes https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/dozens-gather-in-dublin-for-yellow-vests-protest-1.3732924 https://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2018/11/18/en-belgique-un-mouvement-de-gilets-jaunes-se-cherche-undebouche-politique_5385244_3214.html https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-46559203/yellow-vests-is-the-movement-spreading-across-europe https://www.france24.com/fr/20181226-gilets-jaunes-liban-tunisie-israel-burkina-faso-france-inspiration-monde http://www.rfi.fr/europe/20181128-allemagne-connecte-phenomene-gilets-jaunes https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/21/asia/taiwan-yellow-vest-protest-intl/ http://jcpa-lecape.org/lirak-dans-la-tourmente-politico-ethnique-et-la-penurie-deau/ http://time.com/5489034/taiwan-yellow-vest-protest/