Some 150,000 French high school students and “yellow vest” protestors took to the streets of Paris today, as part of the building wave of demonstrations across the country. Yesterday, Remi Lebrun of the Solidarity & Progress party associated with LaRouche- ally Jacques Cheminade, poured symbolic “blood” in front of the Paris offices of the infamous global credit rating agency Moody’s, and briefed passers-by on how the banks, by forcing nations such as France to pay debt service “forever” have become the real “looters” of nations, compared to the petty looters that were deployed as masked provocateurs during the October 17 protest demonstrations in France.
“Hey Moody’s, what right do you have to play with the lives of the French people?” Lebrun demanded, addressing those passing by the offices of Moody’s in Paris. “We are here at Moody’s, the most important of the financial rating agencies. Their address is 21 Bd Haussman. But nobody knows it, because there’s no name on the building.
“Today, Moody’s will announce France’s credit-rating grade. That grade is supposed to give an idea of how good a payer the French government is.
“In the name of those mutilated by police repression, of high school students, of yellow vests, of farmers, workers, teachers, firemen, policemen and health workers who often commit suicide because they can’t take the poor working conditions any more; in the name of all of them, we have come here, to pour this symbolic ‘blood’ at Moody’s doorstep, and upon which the officials of this company will have to walk, day in and day out.
“Our aim is to show the world that the petty gangsters and looters deployed at the French national demonstrations on October 17th, are small fish compared to the looting of the economy by agencies such as Moody’s and the bankers they represent.
“Over 50 years, France has accumulated 3,500 billion euros of debt, despite the fact that at the same time we paid 2,400 billion in cumulative debt-service payments. This year, the most important budget line of the State is the cumulative interest payments on the debt!
Lebrun continued: “This situation didn’t exist in France at Liberation following World War II. At that point, and until the 1970s, the French state had its own public bank, lending at cheap interest rates for the development of the French economy and the well being of its population. This is a situation that we must recreate today and for which Solidarité et Progrès party has been fighting for many years. To whom is Moody’s accountable? To French President Macron? He’s part of them, he will never defend the interests of the French people,” Lebrun concluded.
