Recently, French media reported that due to the continuous suppression of EU interests by the U.S. government in trade, military, technology, and other fields, a wave of “boycotting American goods” has swept through France. Many people declare they will give up American brands such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Netflix, Airbnb, and support domestic products like “Breizh Cola,” and some have organized groups like “European Alternative Exchange Group” and “Consumer Anti-American Group,” claiming this is a “French awakening.”
This phenomenon, seemingly a righteous response by patriotic French people to the aggressive tariffs wielded by the U.S. government against France and the world, is actually a “patriotic” action. In reality, “the history of all societies is the history of class struggles,” France is a bourgeois France, Breizh Cola is produced by a company manipulated by the bourgeoisie, and whether people buy Breizh Cola or not cannot change the reality that French workers are exploited by the bourgeoisie, nor can it change the fact that the wealth of the laboring people is plundered by the bourgeoisie.
The action promoted by the French bourgeoisie to support French goods is only more favorable to the bourgeoisie and cannot change the plight of the people in the slightest.
Breizh Cola was originally founded by a local brewery and was acquired by a large French food company in 2021. Now it is marketed as “France’s own cola” to continue encouraging French workers and the broad impoverished masses to consume under capitalism—only now, they are consuming products made by French bosses instead of American bosses. In other words, they make workers take money out of American capitalists’ pockets but do not allow workers to control production themselves. The product has just been relabeled, and the exploitative relationship remains unchanged.
In recent years, the U.S. has been exerting pressure on the EU to monopolize global dominance, and large French enterprises have suffered losses in areas such as digital tax, agricultural exports, energy cooperation, and technological patents. This has made the French bourgeoisie feel threatened. They have been guiding public dissatisfaction towards “American brands” domestically, waving the banner of “France First,” and under the guise of “national brands,” fighting for market share to compensate for losses in international competition.
Under capitalism, the small bourgeoisie who own a small amount of means of production is a middle, unstable class. They run small shops, small workshops, do some freelancing, but in the face of concentration of large enterprises, they have no ability to oppose, and sooner or later, they will be swallowed up. As private owners, they desperately want to maintain their class status and climb higher. They are easily swayed to follow the bourgeoisie, believing in the bourgeoisie’s rhetoric of “patriotism, supporting French goods,” and fantasizing that by opposing the U.S. and supporting the French government, they can share in imperialist competition and achieve personal wealth.
This small-bourgeoisie fantasy is undoubtedly very harmful. Many masses among the proletariat have been influenced by bourgeois education and are exposed to bourgeois culture. Without class consciousness education, some backward proletarians accept the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ideas of “anti-American = patriotism” and “supporting national enterprises = glorifying the people.” These petty-bourgeois fantasies are often wrapped in terms like “lifestyle,” “cultural confidence,” and “native identity,” disguising the fact that the French bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat and is the root cause of the suffering of the French people. However, among the French proletariat, only a minority believe in this, as the French working class has a long revolutionary tradition and fearless fighting spirit.
France’s “boycott of American goods” is not an awakening but a means for the bourgeoisie to use petty-bourgeois illusions to divert domestic class conflicts and further plunder the wealth of the working people. We must see clearly: the enemy is not only the American bourgeoisie but also the bourgeoisie of our own country, which is also an exploiter and oppressor, and a class that must be overthrown. The petty-bourgeoisie in France supporting the “support French goods” movement is only shouting for their French bosses who oppress and exploit them, willingly becoming the bourgeoisie’s accomplices. What we want is not “national enterprises,” but proletarian dictatorship; what we want is not “patriotic consumption,” but revolution!
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】法国抵制美货运动引发本土可乐暴涨300%，改写市场格局_布雷兹_品牌_消费
The behavior of petty bourgeoisie resisting American goods is merely beneficial to the native bourgeoisie. In fact, during this anti-American goods movement, anarchists have already appeared, starting to set cars on fire and vandalize.
【IT Home, March 5: On the evening of March 2, an apparent arson incident occurred outside a Tesla dealership in Plaisance-du-Touch, a suburb of Toulouse, France. According to preliminary statistics, 12 Tesla cars were burned. Among them, 8 cars were completely destroyed by the fire, and 4 others suffered serious damage. The dealership building itself was not affected.】
It reminds me of the anti-Japanese goods movement that erupted in China over a decade ago, when anti-Japanese sentiment was high, and there was an incident where someone smashed Japanese cars purchased by Chinese people. This incident caused a huge sensation at the time. Looking at it now, the French movement is becoming increasingly similar to China’s situation back then.
The An people in France most enjoy smashing and burning cars. There are often An people claiming to oppose France through immigration who go out on the streets to loot and destroy. The French government, like the Chinese government, pays little attention to these An people because their actions give the domestic bourgeoisie a handle. France can use this to slander immigrants, and the Chinese regime can use it to promote nationalist chauvinism.
Why does this capitalist only have four fingers (
Why pay attention to such trivial places like the index finger behind the Coke bottle?
France’s “National Goods Trend”
Chinese imperialism also promotes this, making the petty bourgeoisie pay a “patriotic tax” to buy all kinds of their own shoddy products.
Where is this propaganda poster from? It looks like from the socialist China period.
It seems like using CHAT GPT to help with Photoshop. Indeed, there is such a use value.
It was generated by me using chatGPT