The ‘Gilets Jaunes’ protests ongoing in Paris are symptomatic of working class discontent — not only in France and with the Élysée Palace but with governments and states across the West.

But for the emerging movement in France to succeed it must establish a political direction. The manifesto commitment of Jen-Luc Melenchon — to mount a constituent assembly upon a ‘Fifth French Republic’ — is the direction it hopefully travels.

This, too, is where we should aim towards in Ireland.

The core objective for a movement as this, here, must be to restore the sovereignty and unity of the Irish Republic. For ourselves, the battle with capitalism unfolding on the Champs Élysées lies there — in establishing anew that Republic.

The French, too, should do likewise, by bringing forward the assembly proposed by Melenchon at the last election — giving, thus, power to the people to determine their affairs and their destiny.

We are dealing, in the now, with a rigged system — one designed by the already powerful to preserve their position over that of working people. We need, then, to design a new system and that is what a constituent assembly can give onto.

In the times of flux before us, born of Brexit and new demographic realities, we must ensure that when we arrive at a nationalist majority — triggering thus political change — that we move not to a revision of the standing order but instead to a new beginning.

Asserting Irish sovereignty and independence will be key in that event; building a movement capable of doing so the necessary precursor and the task now to hand — a popular extra-constitutional movement that upholds the Republican object.

People in France, likewise, must have a clear programme and a clear idea as to what and where they intend, if their discontent is not to be hijacked in the event it succeeds toward change.