Authored by Etienne Fauchaire via The Epoch Times,
PARIS - Five weeks have passed since students in the Paris suburbs blockaded a high school to protest overcrowding and staff shortages. Within a month, they joined forces with the Yellow Vests, and rioting led to nearly 8,000 arrests.
On Oct. 17, at least 3,000 shops were looted or damaged, according to French Commerce Minister Serge Papin. The movement's next round of protests followed on Oct. 24, with 70,000 police officers deployed across the country.
Statements from trade unions, social media posts, and the far-left, as well as foreign flags and slogans seen and heard at the protests, show that the movement was backed and promoted by a range of left and far-left actors, including LFI lawmakers, Trotskyist groups, and activists linked to political Islam.
Since Oct. 1, the French government has blamed France Unbowed (LFI), a hard-left party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for the upheaval, calling it "a maneuver organized by LFI and its ultra-left proxies." Mélenchon, LFI's presidential candidate and a former deputy of the National Assembly, once belonged to the International Communist Organization (OCI) and has voiced support for socialist regimes, including those of China, Cuba, and Venezuela.
LFI denies this accusation. Manuel Bompard, LFI's national coordinator, called on the government "not to descend into conspiracy theories.
