The world wants to know how the protests in France got together. In Ardèche, it turns out that organisation, like the protestors’ politics, is unstructured, meetings often just talking shops, and the roundabouts tribal.

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The weekly meeting in Branceilles was starting as I arrived. During the evening nearly 150 people got up to speak, people who found themselves homeless because they could no longer pay the rent or depended on charities for food. Their pain and anger were suddenly public after being kept private so long. One said, ‘I used to spend my evenings yelling at the telly.’ They were angry at all the political class: Emmanuel Macron and his ministers, members of parliament they barely recognised, and other elected representatives.

The discussion was unstructured, but participants blamed politicians for everything: wages that barely lasted till the second week of the month, pitiful pensions, rising rents, hospital staff shortages. People felt at breaking point. A call for Macron to resign was cheered. An organiser asked, ‘Anyone against?’ and a woman gingerly raised her hand and said, ‘Don’t get me wrong. I can’t stand him. That’s why I’ve been on the roundabouts for three weeks. But who’ll he be replaced by if he goes?’ A commotion ensued.

Almost nobody mentioned the private sector’s responsibilities; it is perfectly screened by the political class. No one mentioned capitalism or the private ownership of the means of production; the economic system was taken for granted, even if they agreed its excesses needed restraining, bosses should earn less and their employees make a decent living in a ‘moral economy’.

The hardest thing is trying to organise anything. This is just a talking shop. We debate, but nothing gets decided and attendance drops every time Rémi

Journalists from news channel BFM TV persuaded a platform speaker to go outside for an interview. When people realised what was happening it was the speaker, not the TV crew, who was noisily ejected. People shouted, ‘We don’t want spokesmen!’ and the meeting was abruptly wound up. Another speaker, Rémi, said angrily as he left the platform, ‘The hardest thing is trying to (...)