> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # "To harm children is to harm all of us." - URL: https://www.ilesanglo-normandes.com/to-harm-children-is-to-harm-all-of-us-frances-gilets-jaunes-join-the-gilets-jeunes-in-national-day-of-protest/ - Published: 2026-10-17T07:12:19.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-21T13:17:40.000Z - Description: In a meeting of movements, the famous "Gilets Jaunes" Yellow Vests of 2018 join the "Gilets Jeunes" the Young Vests - the schoolchildren and students fighting for education with more than 1000 actions planned in the streets, on roundabouts, at tollbooths, train stations and more on Oct 17th. - Author: îles - Tags: Gen Z student protests In 2020, a schoolteacher erupted in anger: "*Macron decapitation, Macron Explosion !*" she shouted on a Yellow Vests protest. The viral video of Jocelyne Chassard reaching for expletives to match her rage cost her a court appearance and a three-month suspended prison sentence for what was judged to be a death threat to the president. In her defence, Chassard argued she was calling for an end to Macron's policies, not his life. The moment has featured in [documentaries](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8KOoVQzhaI&ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com), turned into a techno[ tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc7A6XIF2t8&ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com) and, testament to the Yellow Vests' influence on a generation of children barely out of primary school, sixth-formers marching for their right to education carry banners referencing Chassard's infamous "Macron Explosion !!!" --- ### The return of France's Yellow Vests movement In 2018, a year after Macron's election, France's working-class began a protest movement, wearing the luminous emergency vests legally required in vehicles, to protest against soaring costs of living and austerity measures targeting working people. "Eight years later, we're putting the yellow vest back on," organisers said in their call to action for Oct. 17th, which is also the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. ### More schoolchildren arrested in a month than Yellow Vest protestors in a year In their call to protest, Yellow Vests lamented the French government's deployment of batons, LBDs, tear gas and grenades on children. "The Yellow Vests are very familiar with these weapons of war and have suffered numerous mutilations. To harm children is to harm all of us" organisers declared. The repression faced by school students has been even more severe than that of the Yellow Vest movement. The World Organisation Against Torture observed 6,629 arrests, of which 87% are schoolchildren, as of 7th Oct. That compares to 6,730 arrests of Yellow Vest protestors over a full year from 2018 to 2019\. There have now been almost 8000 arrests in what experts have described as a deliberate [government mass arrest strategy](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2d76OX2nKtY?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com). A petition launched by independent media [Le Media](https://amnistie-lyceens.fr/?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com) and signed by names including award-winning author Annie Ernaux, musicians Youssef Swatt'*s* and Benjamin Biolay, is calling for an amnesty for schoolchildren arrested during these education protests. ### "*On est pas tout seul."* "We're not alone." After Stevie Wonder spoke up for "children of the world" at his Paris concert at Accor Arena, Bercy on Thursday, from the same stage the next night, rapper Gradur closed his show with a stage of dancers wearing Yellow Vests. "The 17th kicks off at Bercy, with Gradur as its *chef d'orchestre*" declared Assa Traoré, a foremost voice against police violence, member of Stop State Violence association, in the video she shared of Gradur's finale. The audience of 20,000 joined in with the chorus "*On est pas tout seul*." "We're not alone." > [ View this post on Instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DekwxgeIzMf/?utm%5Fsource=ig%5Fembed&utm%5Fcampaign=loading) ### 704 demonstrations, 176 roundabouts, 368 garages, 117 train stations: more than 1000 action and protests across France on 17th Oct. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/gilets-jaunes.png) Under the slogan, "*On en a marre !"* "We're fed up!, Yellow Vest organisers cited "ever increasing petrol, food, and rent, while Total Energies rakes in 11 billion dollars in six months," among reasons they are returning to the roundabouts of France. Diesel's 86% hike since 2017, compares to a minimum wage increases of 26%; France's 2027 budget hits the poorest hardest with public sector pay and benefit freezes, and 5.5 billion taken from the pockets of retired people "yet from oil superprofits: not a single penny," the movement said. ### "Firefighters, this summer France burned and you held on, with all your might." Yellow Vest organisers called for unity across those worst hit in the proposed budget cuts - retirees, disabled people, climate marchers and firefighters who are still on strike."This summer France burned and you held on, with all your might." The Yellow Vests also called for solidarity with people living in France's "*quartiers populaires"* the country's working-class neighbourhoods who "faced LBDs and humiliation long before the Yellow Vests." ### Student and schoolchildren unions call to action: "We stand united" ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/2026/10/Screenshot-2026-10-17-at-08-40-09-Instagram.png) ©Union étudiante - France's leading student union ### School student and student unions call to action: "we stand united." France's leading student union published the following in its invitation to join demonstrations. "Faced with the high cost of living, austerity budgets, the ecological urgency, and the repression of our mobilisations, we stand united. High school students, university students, residents of working-class neighbourhoods, residents of overseas territories, young rural people, workers, farmers, Yellow Vests: our demands unite. We refuse to pay for the crisis while the ultra-rich accumulate superprofits, the right and the far-right want to roll back our rights, and the government tries to silence us. Spoiler: they won't succeed. On Saturday, October 17, we will be in the streets all over France to make our voices heard." --- ### 17th Oct. 1961, Paris massacre, 65 years on The date chosen for these protests is significant. In 1961, Maurice Papon's police force massacred dozens of people in Paris, in “the most violent contemporary state repression ever applied to a street protest in Western Europe,” as reported by Melissa Chemam. For her article on the 1961 massacre, see below. [Paris massacre: 60 years on, France must face its colonial pastFrench Algerians don't need ceremonies marking the anniversary of the Paris massacre. We need an anti-fascist movement.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/icon/favicon_aje-ad83745c-9398-4574-872f-71fd005b4ac0.ico)Al JazeeraMelissa Chemam![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/d1/c7/d1c79ccb-3da4-4ed2-8fda-9b60db236f61/content/images/thumbnail/GettyImages-613477186-471ae3f2-66b9-48c6-9d0b-f2f9b13339c1.jpg)](https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/10/17/17-october-1961-60-years-on-france-must-face-its-colonial-past?ref=ilesanglo-normandes.com)