The Yellow Vests (YV) protest that broke out in France in the fall of 2018 is an unusual social movement. It lacks ties to organizations, parties, unions or associations. It started with an online petition to lower fuel prices but gradually extended to calls for social justice and direct democracy through online and legacy media. Despite a violent repertoire, the movement still enjoys widespread public support in opinion polls. Who are these supporters? What drives them?
Using data from a survey (ELIPSS) conducted just after the European Elections of 2019 and exploring various forms of support for the YV, this paper shows that their highest support comes from the working class (service+ production workers in Oesch’s classification): more than half identify themselves as “yellow vests” and 71% took an active part in the movement (self-reported). We also show, however, that some workers are more supportive than others. The main division line, in a context of labour market dualization (Emmenegger et al., 2012) opposing insiders and outsiders, is the degree of social insecurity or “precariousness”. As in the “poor people’s movements” analysed by Piven and Cloward (1978), and contrary to the “resource mobilization” approach, the most likely to support the YV s and to take part in their actions are the most disadvantaged. Gender and type of occupation draw secondary lines of cleavage.
