Also known as the yellow jackets movement, or mouvement de gilets jaunes, this collection includes digital and audiovisual media--archived websites, digital video recordings, digital photographs--as well as physical publications and ephemera.

The yellow vests movement is a populist, grassroots political movement for economic justice that began in France in October 2018. After an online petition posted in May had attracted nearly a million signatures, mass demonstrations began on 17 November. The movement is motivated by rising fuel prices, a high cost of living; it claims that a disproportionate burden of the government's tax reforms were falling on the working and middle classes, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. The protesters have called for lower fuel taxes, a reintroduction of the solidarity tax on wealth, a minimum-wage increase, the implementation of Citizens' initiative referendums, as well as the resignations of President Emmanuel Macron and the government. The protests have involved demonstrations and the blocking of roads and fuel depots in France, some of which developed into major riots and attacks, described as the most violent since those of May 1968. The movement has received international attention, and protesters in many places around the world—some with similar grievances, others unrelated—have used the yellow vest as a symbol.

To learn more about this collection and see the related materials: http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/99153808618003941/catalog

Back to Distinctive Collections.