French protests: What to expect on November 7th

Since October 17th, the Gilet Jaunes (yellow vests) have been calling regular Saturday protests against the rising cost of living, which have attracted hundreds of thousands of people on to the street each week.

After the widespread violence and looting that broke out on the margins of the October 17th demos, subsequent Saturday events have taken place under tight security - some towns have banned marches altogether while in Paris the demos have been pushed to the outskirts of the city. Nevertheless, 300,000 people still showed up at events around the country on October 31st, many of them combining the demo with Halloween and turning up in costume.

November 7th

The 'Act IV' has the theme of 'for real equality', but seems likely to be smaller than the previous week's events.

The Gilet Jaunes interactive map of events has just 33 demos listed, in contrast to hundreds in previous weeks, with major cities including Marseille, Nantes and Nice having no planned events listed - likely due to previous local bans.

However, there are events planned in cities including Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lyon. In Paris, organisers say they want to depart from Place de la Concorde, a route that is unlikely to be approved.

The major unions will not join, having concentrated their energies on Thursday's nationwide cross-sector strikes and demos, but students may decide to join. At the time of writing, their representatives have not confirmed their participation.

As in previous weeks, the police presence is likely to be heavy, and some public transport may be disrupted or diverted.

We will update this article when we know more.

. . . and Friday

The Gilet Jaunes have also called on young people to join a '6-7 mobilisation' on Friday and Saturday, named after the internet meme 6-7 (because Friday and Saturday are the 6th and 7th of November, geddit?).

At this stage, however, it's not entirely clear what, if anything, the Friday action will involve, although some lycée students - especially in the greater Paris region - are continuing to stage school blockades.