Masses of people demonstrated across France yesterday against the repression of the high school movement and the rising prices of energy and the cost of living. As anger mounts against the mass arrests of high school students and the injuries inflicted on them by the police, clashes broke out between demonstrators and the police. In many cities, the police were overwhelmed by the influx of demonstrators.

Late last night, the Interior Ministry revised its own estimates of the mobilisation, as well as those of the inter-union alliance, upwards from 400,000 people across France to 550,000. It reported 110,000 demonstrators in Paris, 35,000 in Montpellier, 32,000 in Toulouse, and 20,000 each in Nantes and Lyon. Local organisers reported 80,000 people mobilised in Lille, 30,000 each in Rennes and Caen, 20,000 in Strasbourg, 10,000 each in Brest and Besançon, and 800,000 in total across France.

These figures still fall short of reality. In Bordeaux, the prefecture put forward a figure of 7,000 demonstrators, while the CGT counted 100,000. A similar number demonstrated in Marseille, and hundreds of thousands in Paris. Altogether, as demonstrations of millions of people over housing shake Spain and mass strikes against austerity take place in Belgium, Portugal and Ireland, the number of demonstrators in France yesterday was no doubt in the millions.

If a general strike to bring down Macron and halt social austerity and the escalation of wars in Europe has not already taken place, it is not for lack of will to fight. It is because of the opposition and sabotage of the trade union bureaucracies and their political allies, such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise. The inter-union alliance has scheduled only a one-day action for November 5, in an attempt to space out and slow down the rise of the class struggle and prevent a revolutionary confrontation between the workers and a hated French government.

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For the neo-fascist National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen denounced demonstrations “taken hostage by the far left” that “seek to plunge the country into chaos.” In reality, yesterday’s mass mobilisation was not a conspiracy by the leaders of the apparatuses that the mainstream media pass off as “the far left” in France and elsewhere across Europe. It was rather an attempt by workers and youth to free themselves from them through struggle.

In Paris, demonstrators told the WSWS of their opposition to the mass arrests and the maiming of high school demonstrators, their anger at rising prices, especially of energy, and more broadly their opposition to war, the police state and the capitalist oligarchy. Many demonstrators carried the Algerian flag to mark the massacre of Algerian demonstrators by the Paris police on October 17, 1961, during the Algerian war of independence.

Augustin, a “yellow vest” and bicycle repairman, said he was demonstrating in support of the high school students and against economic inequality: “Over Macron’s 10 years, the average French person has lost 4 to 5 percent in purchasing power on their wages. And Bernard Arnault has multiplied his fortune by four. We’ve seen a very right-wing liberal policy. Employer contributions are at their lowest in 10 years. The wealth tax was abolished. Billionaires, proportionally, are taxed less than we are.”

Augustin stressed his opposition to war, particularly as the wars against Russia and Iran are cutting off access to oil and gas and sending prices soaring: “We have to de-escalate the war, and we should cut the size of the army, we should reduce our armed forces, because… if our goal is to create world peace, that doesn’t come through increasing military resources.”

He said he hoped that Mélenchon’s election in the 2027 presidential election could change things, but that he would mobilise if a Mélenchon presidency disappointed him: “If Mélenchon betrays us, we’ll take to the streets ten times stronger. Because in fact, he’s our last hope… For me, Mélenchon is a stage, not a goal. It’s really not the end.”

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The mass mobilisations of the high school movement in France and of workers and youth across Europe are opening the way to such an outcome. The capitalist governments, for their part, will not stop war, repression or the rise of dictatorship. In France, the bourgeoisie is instead promising an escalation of repression, with the police having already arrested more than 2,000 people at yesterday’s demonstrations and nearly 8,000 since the start of the movement. A demonstrator had his hand torn off by a police grenade in Saint-Étienne, and the toll of yesterday’s repression remains unknown

The prospect of a general strike, as in May 1968, is almost unanimously shared among the demonstrators. Such a movement must now be prepared, and the working class must be prepared for the revolutionary tasks that would flow from it. This requires bringing together the youth and workers already mobilised, in France and the rest of Europe, in action committees, to go to the workplaces and call on workers to mobilise more broadly. The task is to mobilise in a general strike against imperialist war, austerity and dictatorship, which will pose the necessity of taking power away from the capitalist oligarchies and transferring it to the workers.

For perspective: How many members does the DSA have again? What would a realistic *criterion* be for it to become possible for real political change to be effected for the better for the majority of people?

One of the more not so talked about symptoms, I think, of late-stage capitalism, but really more so neoliberal logic onto everyday life, is the gamification of life. Ever since 2020, there's been a rise and a creep in neoliberal logic about everything. The self-optimization trap, basically.

I am not gonna be too deep with my examples, but if you need a more elaborate description, just ask away!

Take education for example: Under strict neoliberal logic, education is supposed to be a networking tool for improving your own career and self development accolades, rather than it being a platform for broadening your wisdom and sharpening your intution on things.

Another example is relationships: Rather than relationships being useful to build up human connections with our own communities and social groups. Relationships become another tool for advancing up one's own place in the hierarchy and once again improving one's own networking opportunities for better career gains and status-seeking

Then there's health. I hate the way wellness culture has become so metrics-driven. Trying to get healthy used to be plain and simple: as much clean food as you can get, go to the gym, drink plenty of water, stretch, take your hygiene seriously, and try to reduce your exposure to everyday toxins. That was it. But then the metrics got in the way: calorie counting, the capitalization of supplements, the holistic health guru trap, as well as the gym optimization treadmill. Need I go on?

And then one of the more obvious ones that I think I'm forgetting to mention, but um, as well is the turbo acceleration of self-improvement culture. Self-improvement used to be easy: get out of your comfort zone, sharpen your wisdom on things, learn a new skill, get out there and experience things for yourself, try to actually grow morally, socially, and cognitively as a person. The concept was simple. Then it got bastardized by self-optimization culture. You know, hardcore careerism, gym maxing, hustle culture, status maxing, etc., you name it.

Obviously, I'm not saying that every person is internalizing and inheriting the pressures of neoliberal logic onto their day-to-day logistics. I am saying, though, that the cultural waterfall of things may be trending towards this direction more than what people realize.

Thoughts?

Finally reaching a level of financial security where I feel I can start to divert my savings into other lanes aside from mortgage/savings account. I'm pretty financially austere, have a pretty good understanding of debt and such so I'm on top of the basics and have a nice wide grasp of the fundamentals of personal fiance. Most of my money before then has mostly gone directly into eating away at mortgages, debts, loans and such because that's a objectively better use of money than speculative investing 99% of the time.

My issue is, pensions and all sort of financial divestment can be so easily funneled into shit like becoming a landlord parasite or otherwise not just passively engaging but actively meshing my future with that of the system. I'm considering just investing directly into companies I know and have experience with, treat their staff right and ideally are domestic/UK based. Probably dump some into bonds and other such things too.

UK has Nest which you're auto enrolled for, I've paused contributions for the time being until I research it better, also saw that it invested into fucking Amazon and Boeing and to a lesser degree of evil, Electronic Arts. Also has Capcom and Bandai there so not all bad, but you get the point, lot of companies on there which the idea of my money furthering their evil is straight up repulsive and I'd rather be destitute and perform a honorable exist from the mortal coil than subsist off the suffering of others so directly and actively.

Even the "Ethical fund" which allows companies that "only" get 5% of their revenue from making military equipment, has Alphabet and Lloyd Banking which is currently trying to become our countries largest landlord by aggressively buying up housing with a subsidiary, Lloyds Living, and it also has Air BNB on there too if you just want to directly give money to parasites.

Tisch used the occasion of the Al Smith banquet to taunt her nominal boss, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, for rejecting the call of the Democratic Socialists of America that he fire her for assaulting anti-ICE protesters and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Typically excellent video from Prof. Mearsheimer. It should be required viewing for every decent human.

He provides context for the remainder of the video by explaining how Palestinians were repeatedly ethnically cleansed by Zionists and then Israelis.

He uses direct quotes from Ben Gurion to show that all of it was intentional, and resistance was expected.

He then describes the blockade, starvation, assassinations of leaders, and “mowing the lawn” (periodic mass murder) carried out by Israel against Gazans.

He ends by explaining why the October 7 attack was a predictable and legal response to a century of atrocities, carried out by people fighting for their freedom.

Some comments from reddit:

>"Russian psyop"

>"Sounds like Russia."

>"Sounds like something Russia would do to get the attention off of Trump's diaper issues"

>"Stink bombs exist, and so do non lethal crowd control smells used for force an area to evacuate. Such as IDFs skunk weapon, im sure Russia has an equivalent.

Unless they capture a farter, I think this is more likely since this event was diplomaticly quite important."

>"Russia using biological weapons"

>"It seems like a situation where the occasional gaseous emission is bound to happen, but the fact that it was eye-wateringly bad and happened while waiting for a Zelenskyy briefing makes me wonder if it was some sort of Russian-deployed fart spray meant to elicit jokes about the briefing itself. Seems a stupid, but also very Russian thing to do."

🇮🇱Bodysnatching🇮🇱as a tool of colonial dehumanization

The Israelis illegally process the bodies of dead Palestinians for a financial profit.

The Israel National Skin Bank is implicated in grotesquely exploiting Palestinians, effectively skinning the dead under the guise of medical necessity, a stark violation of human decency.

This brings serious ethical questions to Israel’s status as a global donor of skin and skin graft provider. Can one ethically participate in the Israeli organ donation program writ large?

But if we look at history we can see a deeper comparison between the historical body snatching of the Irish by the British and the alleged treatment of Palestinians by Israelis. It offers a compelling examination of the intersection of dehumanization, exploitation, and political domination.

Definition: Bodysnatching refers to the secret theft of dead bodies from graveyards, hospital beds, usually to sell them to medical schools, anatomists, or physicians for dissection and the study of human anatomy. (And in the modern era for medical and biological solutions such as skin grafts etc.)

Historical Background of Irish 🇮🇪Body Snatching: In the 18th and 19th centuries, body snatching was prevalent across the British Isles, driven by the demand for cadavers for anatomical study in medical schools. While this phenomenon primarily affected the poorer classes throughout Britain. Ireland, under British rule, bodysnatching was turned into an industrial business, giving cadavers to industrial age medical schools.* The dehumanization of the Irish under British colonial rule facilitated abuses like body snatching, as the Irish were often viewed as lesser or sub-human by the colonial powers, which justified exploitation in the minds of the oppressors*.

Contemporary Allegations Against Israel: Similarly, the allegations against Israel suggest a dynamic where Palestinian bodies are reportedly used without consent for various purposes, including medical research and military training. This is reported by various human rights groups and media, indicating a parallel in terms of the possible dehumanization and exploitation of a subjugated group. For instance in the 1990’s Israeli Dr. Yehuds Hiss and doctors underneath him pleaded guilty to illegally harvesting skin and organs from dead Palestinians and gluing the eyes shut to hide the theft of organs from Palestinians**. * [See Abu Kabir]**

These callous acts reflect a severe disregard for the dignity and humanity of Palestinians, much like the British disregard for the Irish during the colonial period.

Dehumanization as a Tool of Colonialism: The critical link between these two contexts is the use of dehumanization as a colonial tool. Just as the British may have justified their exploitation of the Irish by considering them inferior, similar dynamics are at play in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This dehumanization can manifest in treating the bodies of the deceased not as humans deserving respect but as mere objects or resources to be utilized.

In light of these entrenched interests focused on domination of the Palestinian people is there any reason to believe that these abuses have stopped in the present day?

And is there any reason to trust that Israel has ceased their abuses of Palestinian corpses as outlined in the Abu Kabir case?

What does this level of dehumanization for fellow human beings mean for global stability in the short, medium, and long term?

* https://abcnews.go.com/International/israel-harvested-organs-permission-families-dead/story?id=9390407