France’s retail federation says about 1,500 businesses were hit by looting after the 17 October marches, while the commerce minister puts the number at no fewer than 3,000. In Milan, police detained 271 people and arrested 32 over the same weekend, and Confcommercio put the damage to city-centre shops at about €1 million.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked prefects on Monday to impose partial curfews in Paris, Lyon, Lille and other areas.
Old Slogan Had a Theory
Esproprio proletario, also called spesa proletaria, was coined by Italy’s extra-parliamentary left in the 1970s for taking goods from shops for political reasons.
The theory was that workers were reclaiming what they produced but could not afford in the market, and its targets were generally supermarkets and other large businesses. One of the first big actions came on 19 November 1974, when militants from the magazine Rosso and Milan’s Autonomia Operaia raided two supermarkets, in Quarto Oggiaro and Via Padova.
The practice peaked in the 1977 movement, alongside autoriduzione, the organised refusal to pay full prices for bills and services. Italian law treated it as ordinary theft, robbery or looting, and the Red Brigades later used the phrase for a 1984 armed robbery in Rome. It was illegal and sometimes criminal, but it came with a stated theory and a stated enemy: the big retailer.
Milan Claims the Phrase
A newly formed movement, the Movimento 17 ottobre, posted a video of youths giving stolen clothes to a homeless man, captioned “Esproprio proletario a Milano”. Milano Post reported that it plans weekly Saturday protests aimed at toppling the government. Influencer Raffaele Giuliani, 23, shared the same clip with the phrase, DIRE reported.
The Milan looting had a prologue, Avvenire reported: on 3 October, between 1,000 and 2,000 teenagers gathered in Vicenza after am TikToker promised free clothes. A similar crowd had formed outside a Modena supermarket on 22 September. One hoodie handed to one homeless man does not turn hundreds of thefts into redistribution.
France’s Bill Hit Small Shops
Looters hit a Celine boutique on Avenue Montaigne, Louis Vuitton, Apple and Decathlon on 17 October, and Carrefour expects repair costs above €10 million. Paris targets also included Franprix, Monoprix, wine shops, bars and vape shops, Forbes reported.
French press reports describe a wrecked hair salon on Boulevard de Magenta and a phone-shop owner injured by masked men with crowbars and a battering ram.
The government promised a support fund and partial unemployment for staff, France 24 reported, and Carrefour’s chief executive warned that some badly damaged stores face long closures. Forbes noted that big names will recover while family shops may not. A chain can reopen a damaged branch, but a hairdresser or phone shop can lose its only premises and its owner’s income. That is the opposite of the old target, the big retailer.
The Loot Is Not Bread
Cost-of-living anger is real, and authorities counted about 550,000 marchers across France on 17 October. But the shops named in the reports sold branded goods: Apple and Louis Vuitton, a Celine boutique and a card shop in Lille. The 1970s practice mostly targeted supermarkets, while these reports mostly name luxury and technology shops.
Social media explains part of this, since the Milan calls spread through Instagram and TikTok, Avvenire reported, and one call promised free clothes. Motives also mix: some looters may feel excluded, others may want a phone, and organised thieves may use a protest as cover. Those motives can sit in the same street, so one slogan cannot cover them all.
The Politics Are Harder to Find
The 1970s practice chose big retailers, rested on a theory about workers and wages, and was argued in public.
Today’s cases hit whatever is open: an Apple store, a Carrefour franchise, a hair salon. About 1,200 people were arrested across France and 150 police were hurt, CNN reported, and President Macron vowed to hold accountable those who “sought to bring down the Republic”.
Cost-of-living anger is political, and about 550,000 people marched over it. Looting that empties a phone shop does not make the same argument. A 1970s slogan cannot turn a smashed hair salon into a blow against capital.
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