France : Why the roundabout is the meeting point for the yellow is West

For weeks, the yellow West-demonstrators countless roundabout occupy roundels everywhere in France. The ronds, it Points to the heart of the French revolt. First of all, you were blocked with a Truck, and later wooden barracks, Barbecues, and sleeping places were added. Especially in the Land of the roundabouts have been to spaces of communication between people, many of whom have chosen so far never demonstrated, because they were of the opinion that it is of no use anyway, nothing to deal with politics. This is changing now. France Suspended the search for Ways to articulate themselves.

According to their motives questioned, told the protesters in the yellow high-visibility vests, Gilets Jaunes in French media, unlike in the social networks with their virtual circles of friends, in order to spend at the Rond-Point a lot of time to speak and tell his life stories. Previously, several of those by France to hold in breath had experienced their situation as socially Isolated. They felt no party represented, and of the globalized economy will be marginalized. The shame, the Silence and the feeling of failure, Didier Eribon had written in his autobiographical novel "returning to Reims", a huge success, even outside France.

Ironically, at the roundabout take the loneliness will be overcome now – a very inhospitable place. Easy joke is even made of the proposal to transform the ephemeral meeting places, but in cultural centers, in the germ cells of urbanity in the dead space. The daily newspaper "Le Monde" asks, whether the ronds, it Points had not become the new Agora.

interior Minister Christophe Castaner makes the roundabouts in the meantime, spaces, however, whether the traffic is now blocked or not. To their symbolic importance for the Gilets Jaunes hardly something that changes the the revolt came to himself "out of Nothing" as representatives of the intellectual Elite like to emphasize. Since it is only logical that a Non-is calculated on-the-spot. Non-place, from ancient Greek "Utopos": the utopia of a new Society is being tested. In the middle of Nowhere.

A Non-place becomes the new Agora: the Rond-Point of utopia

Historically, the ronds, it Points nevertheless not a random place, but as symptoms of urban sprawl, which is causing the current Malaise, since the fifties, with disastrous ecological and social consequences. The old village, the commercial area, the housing estate, the home settlement, all of this is scattered and far apart. And in the empty middle of the Rond-Point.

The cities in which the new layer of globalisation, think of the winner on Ecology and the future of transport, often over a hundred miles away. Also of the agricultural society, as she wanders in the old ideas are still around, nothing remained. The local farmers are gone, as are the retail and rural infrastructure.

All of civilization fashions of the late Modern age is one thing in common: Whether it's industrial agriculture, the home, in the countryside, or of the "Hypermarché," the giant supermarket, you have a huge space consumption. And they brought the destruction of traditional relationships and jobs, in addition, long working distances, which can only be overcome with the car. In France, the company splits the meantime, in a rich urban class, who lives well without a car, and a poor province that is dependent on the Car. So not only is the notion of class society is celebrating a Renaissance, the Protest is also directed against a model of Civilization from the second half of the 20th century. Century, adherence to the many communities until today: the "Plan local d'urbanisme", by the spatial plans sanctioned destruction of society, the rule of law.

The "Écolo-Bobo", the representatives of the Eco-bourgeoisie, have just collected in record time, with almost two million signatures for the campaign "Affaire du siècle". You want to force the state with the legal means of a consistent environmental policy. "Fin du monde, fin du mois, même combat", say the yellow West: end of the world, the end of the month, the same fight. Their first demand was the abolition of the new Eco-tax on fuels was in fact, nevertheless, you want to know how not to be a stumbling block for the ecological reconstruction of understood.

For the Gilets Jaunes the question of which infrastructure services they get for their taxes and duties. Along the TGV routes, on which the Parisians head to their holiday and weekend homes, gentrification hit the aisles in the province, low-cost airlines bring the English Gentry over the province's airports to your refuges. In such zones, old villages with intact architecture improved, and there has recovered, the infrastructure. In the unattractive urban sprawl areas, by contrast, train stations, post stations, and bakeries are gone.

Many city dwellers do without a car is unthinkable in the province of

Everywhere, France is also continuing over the holidays, the yellow West debate. You don't feel that the traditional explanation of the failure pattern, the revolt in the left-Right Schema situate. Although Marine le pen, and the Rassemblement National tried to establish, especially in the digital networks, xenophobic positions at the Gilets Jaunes. On-the-spot, on the ronds, it Points, by contrast, were supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchons movement "La France insoumise".

turned away were voters in The geographical Boundary, prior to the years of the parties of the political centre. Le pen's party (formerly the National Front) was nine per cent more voters than the national average. Whether this will change now? "Le Monde" quotes Elsa, a young Translator, who quips at one of the roundabouts: "Macrons is of earnings that people close to the Front National, are now talking with followers of La France insoumise'."

with gas masks equipped Parisian Streetfighter have in common with the first political steps of low-wage earners and pensioners in the province, except for the yellow vest anyway little. Attempts by the government to discredit the Gilets Jaunes about with regard to anti-Semitic phenomena, is likely to go into the Void. To the media, in the meantime, performances of Intellectuals who have for the revolt coherent explanations: The French society is divided into left and right winners from Globalization on the one hand, and the left and the right, globalization losers on the other hand, hold the Tricolor high and the Marseillaise roar, because the neo-liberal Europe of Maastricht has brought only disadvantages.

yellow West-protests in France, In the heart of the French society

the revolt of The Gilets Jaunes, the Essayist, and entrepreneur, Charles Gave, the first Revolution since 1789, not coming in from the left says it is. No class struggle, but a geographical war between a company of the group, who feels everywhere at home in the world, and one that is locally located. What is at stake, is the desire and the ability of the two groups to live together. Roundabouts not only connect, they also separate ways.