What’s Going On in France — And What Does It Have To Do With American Socialism?
Destructive riots rocked France last weekend, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to public infrastructure, historic buildings and local businesses in Paris and surrounding towns.
The night of looting and arson, which reportedly left nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers injured, caps off weeks of escalating violence and unrest that began last month, when French high school students started protesting for improvements to their schools.
How did demonstrations over crumbling schools escalate to devastating riots — and what does it have to do with American socialism?
Let’s break it down.
High school students began protesting deteriorating school conditions at the end of September.
They demanded the French government reduce faculty absences, decrease the length of school days and make critical renovations to crumbling and sometimes rat-infested school buildings.
The protests were undeniably disruptive. Student demonstrators barricaded school entrances to prevent others from attending class. They also lit trashcans and garbage on fire in the streets.
The October 17 riots involved an estimated 500,000 people looting, lighting things on fire and committing other acts of violence and destruction in cities across France.
The day began with a large, peaceful demonstration in Paris. By late afternoon, however, the protest had been overrun by thousands of young rioters, French journalist Nora Bussigny wrote for The Free Press.
The swarm of people stole from or damaged an estimated 3,000 businesses in the area, according to Commerce Minister Serge Papin. In the town of Limoges, rioters torched city hall. It had been built in the 19th century.
Citizens cowered in fear. Those who tried to dissuade rioters or protect their businesses faced violence themselves, Bussigny reported.
A Fox Digital investigation uncovered a network of at least 54 groups which helped organize and amplify the October 17 riots. The protesters in Paris that day were not primarily French high-school students. In fact, investigative reporter Asra Nomani found only about one-third of the groups were student- or youth-led.
As the number of protesters grew, so did the range of issues being protested.
Agitators began waving Palestinian flags in support of anti-Israel policies.
On October 17, demonstrators chanted about inflation and the price of fuel, in addition to the plight of high school students.
Youth Strike, one of the groups that travelled to Paris on October 17, explained they were “supporting the French students who are protesting against militarization and more funds for education.”
The French students weren’t protesting militarization.
French political groups also added to the fray. Jean Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI — France Unbowed), France’s far-left party, came out early and publicly in support of the high school protests.
The party leader encouraged far-left activists and members of his party to join student barricades — and even insert themselves between police officers and students.
In a piece for The Free Press, Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, a senior envoy for Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, notes Mélenchon’s political interest in keeping the protests alive.
France is electing a new President in April — and the LFI leader could win.
“I find the treatment of the students particularly cynical,” Rodan-Benzaquen wrote, continuing:
Most of the 54 groups who supported the October 17 riots, and the 101 groups now organizing and amplifying demonstrations through November, are Marxist.
Socialism is not unique to France or Europe. As the Daily Citizen previously reported, it is experiencing its own renaissance in America under the banner of organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The DSA is one of the country’s largest political membership organizations, with just under 130,000 members. The group supports turning America into a socialist nation administered by a political democracy.
Though the DSA is not a political party, members can — and have — successfully run for political office on the Democrat ticket.
The groups organizing and supporting the French riots share many priorities with the DSA’s sweeping policy platform.
Several dedicated “Palestine-solidarity” and anti-Israel organizations are supporting and publicizing previous French protests and protests to come.
In France, LFI spread online allegations the French government refused to fund public schools, in part, due to discrimination against Muslims.
“LFI has spent years making hostility to Israel a central part of its appeal to young voters,” Rodan-Benzaquen explains.
“Bringing that cause into the school protests helps fuel the racial dynamics and turn a demand for better classrooms into a much broader confrontation with the government.”
“Free Palestine” is one of the DSA’s key foreign policy initiatives. It supports, in part, “recognizing the rights of Palestinian people,” including:
- “The right to return.
- “The right to resist military occupation.
- “The right to self-determination in a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.”
In other words, the DSA supports the violent military elimination of the nation of Israel so the land it stands on can be subsumed by Palestine.
Several groups are using the riotous momentum in France to advertise international youth demonstrations against war.
The lead group, Youth Strike — the same group which participated in the French riots on October 17 to help students protest “militarization” — explains the groups will protest “the constant escalation of wars, rearmament and imperialist oppression.”
The DSA would “End the US War Machine” by:
- Defunding the Department of War.
- Closing all oversees military bases.
- Ending all oversees wars.
- Ending all blockades, embargoes and sanctions against other countries.
LFI’s leader, Mélenchon, demonstrated a disdain for the police when he encouraged activists and members of his party to interfere with law enforcement officials trying to break up student blockades of schools.
The DSA would defund and “demilitarize” police departments as first steps toward “abolishing the police and prison system, which protects the rich and jails the poor.”
Karl Marx, the father of socialism, believed all history was a series of skirmishes between oppressed poor people and oppressive rich people. He thought the working class would inevitably overthrow their oppressors in violent revolution.
Though democratic socialists ostensibly believe socialism can be achieved through the ballot box, not through violent revolution, threads of thought remain excusing violence against “oppressors.”
Consider the DSA’s codified affirmation of Palestine’s right to “resist military occupation.”
In practice, this point has been used to defend the actions of Hamas, the terror group who killed 1,200 Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, as self-defense against its alleged “oppressor.”
The same ideas show up in the French riots.
On October 17, for instance, Mélenchon encouraged members of his party not to participate in violence. In the same statement, however, he blamed any violence that took place on French Prime Minister Sebastien LeCornu.
LeCornu, he argued, had “played with fire.”
Elsewhere, in Saint-Denis, LFI Mayor Bally Bagayoko told protesters to keep demonstrations peaceful. In the same statement, he also acknowledged, “Violence, at some point, can be legitimate.”
Socialist ideologies are responsible for some of the most brutal regimes in human history. Now, the same ideologies are fomenting violence and destruction in Western nations.
The same ideologies are gaining popularity in America. That is why it is vitally important for American Christians to understand what is happening in France, the socialism behind the riots, and why socialism is so dangerous.
To learn about Socialism, and the difference between a socialist, a democratic socialist, and a communist, read the Daily Citizen’s explainer here.
Additional Articles and Resources
What is Democratic Socialism? Here’s What You Need to Know
Antisemitism at Columbia is Alive and Well
Jewish Students Urged to Flee Columbia University Following Antisemitic Protest
Campus Protests Expose Antisemitic Rot In Academia
Who is Hasan Piker — And Why Should Americans Care?
Why Parents Everywhere Should pay Attention to the DSA’s Public School Strategy in NYC
Proposed Federal Resolution Condemns Socialism, Democratic Socialists of America
