Macron denounces growing wave of protests in France

[wsws.org]

(After the arrival of a group of a few hundred people dressed in black and wearing masks, who passed through all the police barricades, clashes broke out between protesters and police. Around 80 well-known store brands on the street suffered damage, including the Fouquet’s brewery, the Gaumont cinema, the Swarovski jewellery store, and the Tarneaud bank.)

This is how they quell legal peaceful protest. By arranging a violent group, often of some type of law enforcement and or intelligence agency, infiltrating the protest and adding public destruction or confronting the original protesters. Until last weekend, the only destruction seen were of barricades and tires being set on fire for smokescreen type coverage. Last weekend stores fronts sudden became targets. That's not productive towards the original protesters goals, it only contradicts their calls for a better, equal society. Which would turn the rest of the public against them. We seen this same tactic used during OWS.

(As masked protesters arrived at the Champs-Elysées, yellow vests who spoke to the WSWS expressed their hostility toward the rioters and their suspicions that they were collaborating with police. One protester from Lyon said: “You come once to protest, and you get hit and tear-gassed. At a certain point there is no longer any respect for the people. In Lyon the fascists come, and they are protected by the police. It’s not normal. We went to find the riot police to get them to protect the yellow vest protesters. They ran away in the other direction.)

I'm rather surprised they let it go for 17 weeks before using this tactic.