and then wait TEN paragraphs in to really mention the protests but then it's back to state visits and the really important stuff. Brave and fearless.
King Charles’s visit to France postponed amid protests
Emmanuel Macron says it would not have been ‘serious or good sense’ for next week’s visit to go ahead
Emmanuel Macron has defended the last-minute postponement of King Charles’s state visit to France next week, saying it would not have been “serious or good sense” for it to go ahead as it clashed with another national day of mass strikes and social unrest.
The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch. He was due to visit Paris and Bordeaux before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
Asked if the cancellation was humiliating for France, the French president replied: “What would have been detestable for the British people, as well as for ourselves would have been to maintain it with (possible) incidents in the process.”
In a statement earlier in the day, the Élysée Palace said the decision to postpone the visit had been taken by the French and British governments following a telephone conversation between Macron and Charles on Friday morning after mass protests against the French government the previous day.
“From the moment last night when the unions announced a new day of mobilisation on Tuesday and the king’s visit was scheduled for Monday to Wednesday, I think it would not be serious and would lack a certain common sense to propose to his majesty the king and queen consort to come on a state visit in the midst of demonstrations,” Macron said.
“As we have much friendship, respect and esteem for his majesty the king and queen consort and the British people, I took the initiative and called him to tell him the situation and the announcement of a new day of action and good sense and friendship led us to propose a postponement.”
He added: “When calm returns perhaps at the beginning depending on our diaries we can schedule a new state visit and we can welcome the new king and queen consort in conditions that will allow them to enjoy Paris as well as Bordeaux.”
In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “The king and the queen consort’s state visit to France has been postponed. Their ajesties greatly look forward to the opportunity to visit France as soon as dates can be found.”
People angry at the French president were continuing protests on Friday after mass demonstrations on Thursday and had planned a further day of action next Tuesday during the royal visit.
The Élysée statement said it hoped to welcome the king “in conditions that correspond our friendly relations” and that the visit would be rescheduled “as soon as possible”.
More than 450 protesters were arrested on Thursday as about 300 demonstrations drew more than a million people nationwide to protest against unpopular pension changes that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Unions said more than 3 million people took to the streets to demonstrate against a fiercely contested law that was pushed through parliament without a vote last week.
The president and his wife, Brigitte, had been due to host a banquet for Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, at the former royal palace at Versailles, which critics viewed as having echoes of Marie Antoinette feasting while Paris revolted.
Fabien Villedieu, of the Sud-Rail union, had called on protesters to demonstrate at Versailles. “We have two kings today; one in England and one in France. Let’s all go to Versailles and give them a proper welcome,” Villedieu told BFM TV.
Olivier Besancenot, of the New Anticapitalist party, had said: “We’ll welcome Charles III with a good old general strike.”
On Thursday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) told French television that the king was welcome in France but “it is not the right time”.
After learning that the visit had been postponed, Mélenchon tweeted: “The meeting of kings at Versailles broken up by popular demand.” Raquel Garrido, an LFI MP added: “Two kings were due to meet at Versailles. One down. One to go.”
After their arrival at Orly airport for the three-day visit on Sunday, and a welcome by the French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, the programme included a ceremony under the Arc de Triomphe and a visit to the Musée d’Orsay. Charles was due to give a speech at the Sénat, the upper house of the French parliament. The royal couple was then due to travel by train to Bordeaux on Tuesday to witness the devastation caused by last summer’s wildfires, before marking the opening of the British consulate in the city and visiting an organic vineyard.
Shortly before the announcement that the visit was to be postponed, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, was still insisting the visit would go ahead despite threats of disruption. “We are obviously ready to welcome him [the king] in excellent conditions,” he said.
However, there were threats to disrupt the visit. French strikers had reportedly refused to literally roll out the red carpet, while the powerful CGT union had said in a statement: “We will not be doing the furnishings, the red carpets or other flags and decorations.” Officials at Mobilier National, the government agency responsible for the state’s furniture and fittings, insisted enough people would be found to do so.
About 4,000 police and gendarmes were expected to be mobilised for the state visit, which would have put additional pressure on law and order forces already stretched from policing weeks of protests.
“What does it say about a country that it is unable to welcome with dignity one of its closest allies because of the obstinacy of its president,” Julien Bayou, an MP with Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, said.
Éric Ciotti, the leader of the opposition conservative party Les Républicains, added: “What an image for our country to not be able to ensure the security of a head of state.”...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
King Charles’s visit to France postponed amid protests
Emmanuel Macron says it would not have been ‘serious or good sense’ for next week’s visit to go ahead
Emmanuel Macron has defended the last-minute postponement of King Charles’s state visit to France next week, saying it would not have been “serious or good sense” for it to go ahead as it clashed with another national day of mass strikes and social unrest.
Vs:
Due to today’s news about the passing of Queen Elizabeth, the Rebellion Planning team, and other groups involved, have made the difficult decision to postpone the Festival of Resistance this weekend in London until further notice.
It was felt that the risks to our mobilisation efforts outweigh the desire to continue, and occupying a Royal Park at this time would not be practical. The decision has not been made lightly and in full appreciation that it will impact so many who have put much time, heart and commitment into making this festival the beautiful reality it was gearing up to be. This message comes with immense gratitude and respect for everyone involved and every single person who was about to attend Rebellion for the first time. This decision comes as multiple groups who had protest plans over the coming week make similar announcements. - https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1662728573.html
How embarrassing...
re: India I always go back to John Newsinger's 'The Blood Never Dried' for a reminder of the limitations of Gandhi's movement and all the other actions - some decidely not nonviolent - which led to the British empire finally quitting India. Some paragraphs I copied out years ago:
*****
On 6 April [1919] there were general strikes in most Indian towns and cities with widespread displays of Hindu-Muslim unity. The protests were generally peaceful, although there were some clashes, particularly in Punjab, where the governor, Michael O’Dwyer, was a strong proponent of repression. When Gandhi was arrested (he was soon released) to stop him travelling to Punjab, however, serious rioting broke out. In Ahmedabad the textile workers took to the streets, fighting with the police and burning down government buildings, offices and police stations (51 buildings were destroyed). By the time the police had regained control of the city, 28 people had been killed, including a British police sergeant. There was a two-day general strike in Bombay on 10 and 11 April that went off without violence, but in Calcutta on the 12th troops machine-gunned a crowd, killing nine people. Gandhi was appalled by the violence which he blamed on the people rather than the police. According to his doctrine, there should never be retaliation against police attack. indeed, on 14 April he wrote to the viceroy to condemn events in Ahmedabad as “utter lawlessness bordering almost on Bolshevism”. He expressed “the deepest humiliation and regret” that the people were not yet ready for non-violence, that he had “underrated the power of hatred and ill will”. This completely ignored the fact that deaths and injuries were overwhelmingly inflicted by the police and troops. And, of course, he had not yet heard of the massacre at Amritsar the previous day. (p.111)
[...]
One particular episode best demonstrates the British response to the Congress campaign of civil disobedience. On 5 May [1930] Gandhi informed the authorities that he would be leading a protest at Dharasana salt works later in the month. That same day he was interned under a regulation dating from 1827. The protest went ahead without him on 21 May when some 2,000 Congress supporters confronted the police at the salt works. A horrified American journalist, Webb Miller, reported that in “18 years of my reporting in 20 countries, during which I witnessed innumerable civil disturbances, riots, street fights and rebellions, I have never witnessed such harrowing scenes as at Dharasana”. He described how:
"In complete silence the Gandhi men drew up and halted a hundred yards from the stockade. A picked column advanced from the crowd, waded the ditches and approached the barbed wire stockade…at a word of command, scores of native policemen rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on their heads with their steel-shod lathis [long bamboo sticks]. Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off blows. They went down like ninepins. From where I stood I heard the sickening whack of the clubs on unprotected skulls… Those struck down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing with fractured skulls or broken shoulders.
And after the first column had been beaten down, another advanced and once again the police “rushed out and methodically and mechanically beat down the second column”. This went on for hours until some 300 or more protesters had been beaten, many seriously injured and two killed. At no time did they offer any resistance. Irwin [Lord Irwin, viceroy of India] wrote to the king, “Your Majesty can hardly fail to have read with amusement the accounts of the several battles for the Salt Depot at Dharasana”. "
While the spectacle of the police savagely beating unresisting demonstrators rallied support for Congress, the fact was that most of those who took to the streets were not prepared to stand by and be beaten. (pp.142-3)
[...]
The non-cooperation movement’s increasing militancy and popular involvement caused Gandhi serious concern. Its potential for radicalisation and for spilling over into violent struggle led him to decide to call the whole movement off. The occasion was provided by a clash between police and peasants at Chauri Chaura in Uttar Pradesh. After the police had beaten one of the peasant leaders and opened fire on demonstrators, a crowd, chanting “Long Live Mahatma [‘Great-Souled’] Gandhi”, burned down the police station and killed 23 policemen. Gandhi responded by calling the movement off on 12 February. … The movement that had seriously shaken British rule collapsed almost overnight. When at last the British moved to arrest Gandhi on 10 March 1922 and sentenced him to six years in prison, there were no protests. (pp.115-6)Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
Re: The town hall in Bordeaux torched...two things....
1. to psingh -"Burn baby, burn" What the heck is that supposed to signify? This is highly destructive and criminal crowd behaviour that benefits no-one, least for those guilty of starting or celebrating the fire. Non violent passive resistance returned India to its own people and ended two hundred years of foreign control. Perhaps the French could emulate this instead? .
2. To Raskolnikov - Fraudian leading, ok, but why not just post the URL and a brief summary if needed, along with your comment? It is actually copyrighted material, and to post the whole article is not fair use. If you listen to Mercouris, he regularly will only read snippets of articles behind paywalls. for the same reason. Just because the Guardian doesn't make use of a paywall doesn't alter the fair use principle.
Re: The town hall in Bordeaux torched...two things....
Your bourgeois liberal slip is showing.Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Rubbish about Indian non violence. Credit to Mohammed Singh Azad, The First War of Independence,
was also posted on this page. Should it not have been? I don't get your objection. And what's the difference between posting the full text here or just the URL? You've lost me. It will cost the UK taxpayer £132bn to decommission all the UK’s civil nuclear sites and the work will not be completed for another 120 years, according to latest estimates. Report -- May 2022:
Judging by John's tone, I get a feeling there is a relatively strong disapproval, on moral grounds, that somehow something has been stolen methinks. Intellectual property by any chance? .. omg . Cataclysmic!
Perhaps we need to consult copyright/public domain specialist (eyes roll).
Re: Rubbish about Indian non violence. Credit to Mohammed Singh Azad, The First War of Independence,
The current protests in France, like the earlier gilet-jeunes movement, began peacefully. The response of the French state was, as usual, extraordinarily violent. Thugs in police uniform half-blinded a number of gilet-jeunes protestors and got away with it. No-one in authority bothered much about the victims. A lesson well learned by some of those protesting today. When someone is trying to kill or seriously harm you, non-violence might not be the way to go.
Re: The town hall in Bordeaux torched...two things....
I think we can be reassured that Brits wont be rising in violent evolution: some of them still get the bunting out for "Royal Celebrations"... as for the rest:
"It is actually copyrighted material, and to post the whole article is not fair use. "
Hmmm...well I'm as "guilty" of that as the next man but as this site is dedicated to "media criticism" I otherwise I think it unfair to decontextualise selected passages from an entire article so I generally give the whole piece. I also give a live link to its source so in effect I reckon I'm disseminating the article rather than plagiarising it, which is what the "fair use" idea was originally meant to prevent.
I have no excuse for using Doug Savages chicken cartoon above mind, aside from the fact that it might similarly popularise his work. I have noticed that both my and my partners work have been plagiarised by others: often corporates just lift what they like because they have money and lawyers. I did once find a piece of my own writing with a copyright stamp on it...better not copy that right?
"highly destructive and criminal crowd behaviour that benefits no-one..."
A general strike would work just as well. Riots and disturbance in this situation are not helpful. People get hurt, police and protesters, and things get damaged. So the state is violent? maybe, but in which case why copy it. So India did have violence, but for the most part Ghandi tried to do things differently, a worthwhile example in my book. There's a bellicosity in many posting here, and that includes their attitude to the Ukraine/Russian/NATO war.
...referring to some US media hack excoriating the Palestinians for resisting with violent tactics:
'it’s very easy to recommend to victims, “You be nice guys.” That’s cheap. Even if it’s correct, it’s cheap. What matters is what we say about ourselves. Are we going to be nice guys? That’s the important thing, particularly when it’s the United States, the country which, quite rightly, is regarded by the—internationally as the leading threat to world peace, and the decisive threat in the Israeli case.' - https://chomsky.info/20140811/
I would add 'patronising' - how do you know a general strike would 'work just as well'? The French have been striking, Macron pushed the reforms through anyway, using undemocratic measures because of course around 70% of the country is opposed to them. It looks like this fire was started using a pile of rubbish and bins. I heard that's what was happening in Paris and elsewhere - the refuse collectors went on strike, rubbish built up in the streets, and after the vote of no confidence failed people went around setting the piles on fire. Seems fair to me in response to such a collossal failure of the democratic process. They tried being 'nice guys', it didn't work, time to move on to other tactics. In fact a segment of French society has understood this for a long time, especially the poor in banlieues around Paris - they have no representation, nobody cares about them, so the only way to make themselves heard is to riot and exact a price from the state for their oppression.
In any case, it's up to them to decide what is and what isn't an appropriate form of resistance. IMHO of course... ITell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
I am trying to imagine what French Revolution would have looked like if Ghandi - like figure led it
Phew - luckily words like "terrorist" and insurgent" hadn't been dreamt up when Tea Parties and massacres were becoming terrifically popular - all the rage if you will - in and beyond Boston circa 250 years ago.
Oh yeah - and Germany sided and fought WITH the British against those evil American terrorists / insurgents / freedom-fighters 250 years ago.
on March 24, 2023, 2:34 pm
. Cataclysmic! 
