Nearly 200 people were arrested yesterday after “Black Bloc” anarchists — known, occasionally, as “Antifa” — took to the streets of Paris, setting fires, ransacking buildings, and starting a riot to “protest” French President Emmanuel Macron.
Much of the destruction was documented on social media, as bus stations and businesses, including local McDonald’s restaurants, went up in flames. Black Bloc, of course, considers McDonald’s a symbol of global corporatism and “destructive” capitalism.
#1erMai Dans le McDonald’s saccagé, une forte odeur de restes de lacrymo. pic.twitter.com/5ezcL1748S
— Yann Thompson (@yannthompson) May 1, 2018
The writing on the wall says, “Death to Capitalism.”
According to France24, the “activists” also “launched projectiles at police” and “set a bulldozer alight.”
The May Day March is an annual event held by French labor unions, and it’s mostly peaceful. This year, the unions held the march to complain that Macron is making too many anti-union reforms, demanding that Macron abandon incremental privatization and modernization of France’s light rail system.
But the March got only a few blocks before it was taken over by 1,200 black-clad protesters wearing face masks and bearing weapons.
Paris burns as rioters attack buildings, torch vehicles and loot McDonald’s as the city sees some of the worst May Day madness https://t.co/ngynlN8VeR pic.twitter.com/QAWgMONv9c
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) May 1, 2018
Anti-capitalist protesters torched a McDonald’s restaurant and clashed with police in Paris on the fringes of a May Day rally in Paris https://t.co/NiMqg3cj0q pic.twitter.com/EcdO0dOhzL
— AFP news agency (@AFP) May 1, 2018
Paris police arrest nearly 200 protestors who disrupted peaceful May Day demonstrations https://t.co/SLcJHZ7TPZ pic.twitter.com/LvW34LXbOo
— The Hill (@thehill) May 2, 2018
Parisian officials told local media that the destruction marks the single worst day of protests since the late 1960s.
Of the 200 arrested, around 100 remain in custody.