What American activists can learn from France right now

Source: Salon

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Source: Salon

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Source: Ida Susser

Ida Susser is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, with a PhD from Columbia University (1980) and an MA from the University of Chicago (1974). She has authored acclaimed books such as *Norman Street* and *AIDS, Sex and Culture*, the latter winning the Eileen Basker Memorial Prize in 2012. Student evaluations on RateMyProfessors average 3.3/5, praising her knowledge but criticizing disorganization and TA grading reliance.

Missing Context

Quentin Deranque was a 23-year-old activist affiliated with the far-right or nationalist Collectif Némésis group, providing security for a counter-protest, and was beaten to death by members or associates of the banned far-left antifascist group Jeune Garde during clashes outside a pro-Palestinian event hosted by La France Insoumise MEP Rima Hassan.

This fact reframes the incident from generic protest violence or implied right-wing aggression to a specific far-left attack on a far-right activist, which contradicts the article's narrative of left-wing violence backfiring against rising fascism and instead shows left militants as aggressors.

Missing Context

The Yellow Vest protests originated primarily from opposition to a fuel tax increase affecting rural and working-class drivers, attracting a politically diverse crowd including right-wing populists, apolitical novices, and some leftists, rather than being a unified left-wing movement.

Portraying Yellow Vests solely as a model for left nonviolent coalitions omits their mixed ideology and right-leaning elements, which complicates the article's selective lesson-drawing for US left activists.

Missing Context

Jeune Garde, the group linked to Deranque's attackers, was dissolved by French authorities in June 2025 for repeated calls to violence and prior assaults, including on a minor after a pro-Gaza event.

Omitting the group's violent history and ban highlights left-wing militancy as the escalatory force, altering the perception of who is provoking fascism vs. responding to it.

Source Credibility

Published by Salon, rated Left-biased by AllSides and Media Bias Fact Check, and authored by Ida Susser, an anthropologist whose work focuses on progressive social movements, urban commons, and positive framing of left coalitions like NUPES and Yellow Vests.

predisposes the analysis toward left-leaning interpretations of protests, selectively drawing 'lessons' for US activists that align with restraining left violence while emphasizing right-wing 'fascism' threats.

Framing

Frames recent French violence (e.g., Deranque death) and Yellow Vests as cautionary tales for left activists to avoid escalation that 'plays into right-wing hands,' while analogizing current right to 1930s fascists (Mussolini, Franco, Spanish Civil War).

Creates a false asymmetry by portraying right as existential fascist threat warranting coalition-building restraint on left, without equivalent scrutiny of left militancy or right non-aggression.

Omission

Selective historical truncation: Presents French municipal elections as far-right surge enabling fascism, omitting that far-right (RN) won small towns but no major cities, with center-left/right retaining large urban centers.

Inflates far-right success to heighten urgency of 'fascism' framing, without comparative context on limited gains.

Factual Error

Implies or frames Deranque incident as part of left escalation mirroring right violence, without noting victim was far-right and attackers far-left Jeune Garde (already omitted fact).

Misleads on agency: Far-left militants killed far-right activist, not symmetric violence hurting left cause.

Framing

Uses "rising fascism" and historical analogies to Mussolini, Franco, Spanish Civil War, 1934 French riots to frame current French right (RN, Le Pen) as existential threat, citing left-leaning historians like Paxton, Evans, Hobsbawm.

Mechanism-free moral labeling smuggles "fascist" connotations without demonstrating specific structural mechanisms (e.g., suppression of opposition, corporatism), creating asymmetry where right is existential danger but left militancy (Jeune Garde killing) is mere tactical error.

Omission

Omits that Deranque was providing security for far-right counter-protestors against LFI's pro-Palestinian event hosted by Rima Hassan.

Contextual amputation: Changes incident from left militants attacking right-wing security to generic "violence" hurting left cause, hiding left agency.

Source Credibility

Author Ida Susser, anthropologist who has positively analyzed left coalitions like NUPES/Mélenchon and Yellow Vests as models of "progressive social transformation" and "commoning."

Her expertise biases toward framing protests as left successes needing tactical refinement, not scrutiny of left violence.

Factual Error

Presents Yellow Vests as nonviolent coalition model for US left, despite their involvement in widespread vandalism, arson, and 11 protester/police deaths.

Cherry-picks nonviolent image, omitting violent reality that led to movement's decline.

Missing Context

French municipal elections March 2026: Far-right RN won control of over 60 small municipalities but zero major cities; center-left/right held Paris, Marseille, etc.

Undermines "far-right surge enabling fascism" by showing limited, localized gains not national takeover.