France Braces For Mass Walk-Out

Source: BBC

A mass one-day strike by public and private sector workers in France is set to severely disrupt transport, hospital and education services.

Hundreds of thousands of workers are expected to take to the streets to demand more government action to protect their jobs and wages.

Three-quarters of French people and all the main trade unions back the strike, which was organised by eight unions.

Air France flights will be cancelled and train services will be disrupted.

The protestors are demonstrating against the worsening economic climate in France and at what they believe to be the government's poor handling of the crisis.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7857435.stm

I predict U.S. citizens doing that soon here.

We do, however, riot and burn things.

when we can have them severely disrupted instead??? :)

ed for sp

it's hospitals and nurses, it's teachers and servants, how will society function? How will it's infrastructure be maintained?

aaaaand a lotta other workers think the gov. is really letting them down.

I don't see why this is so strange - if you don't think the government is listening, you step it up a notch. That's what people have done time immemorial.

Yes it causes temporary disruption. Even protesting causes disruption.

In other words, I think while it is still a long way away from 'good', it is the best choice available. (or close enough)

puts people out of work, sends them into bankruptcy & sale of assets at a loss, steals pension, benefits, retirement, forces them to migrate, cut & understaff essential services -

but it only hurts when labor disrupts, not when capital does.

But, Huffpo reports internal GOP polling shows their attacks on the stimulus package gaining traction.. They apparently think getting an education for our kids or repairing our schools, museums, bridges less important than having their Walmart cash. That polls shows by 64-31 they'd rather have more tax rebates than infrastructure spending. Flying into dilapidated airports apparently has no impact on them.. Yes, they will eventually protest like the rest of the world, but only after they are all living in the streets. After 2 decades of trickle down economics and they want more. Why do we bother.

The trouble with massive strikes in America right now is that the economic situation is so terrible here that anyone going on strike would be immediately replaced with some other American desperate for a job, any job. Strikes just aren't going to heppen right now, because owners and employers would have an advantage.

the right to strike is in our constitution.

jobs despite the economic carnage now taking place are settling on their fat asses for another season of American Idol. The ones already out of a job are too busy looking for another or lining up their kids for a little murder/suicide action. Others are completely clueless to the situation. Still others are waiting for someone else to make the first move. Any way you cut it, Americans just aren't cut out for such a large-scale demonstration. Sheeple. Sheesh!

We americans have been known to follow France (at least half of us!)

It's just that they took it a bit further...with the guillotine and all.

They understand the power of the people. We do not.

It was snowing and I watched "SICKO" again -- and as MM pointed out,

we certainly have a lot to learn from the French -!

But, the French are pretty much all French---

The Italians pretty much all Italian --

And in America we are a huge mess of un-united people --

And, there seems to have been a large disconnect in American political activism

after Cointelpro -- after the killings at Kent State.

No leadership arises any longer -- they've kind of seen to that!

When liberals do rise, they are quickly eliminated.

comprising 8.1 percent of the total population.2

Approximately 60 percent of the people residing in France who are not French citizens live in
one of three metropolitan regions: Île-de-France; Rhône Alpes; and Provence Côte d’Azur. One
in eight residents in Île-de-France, also known as the Paris Region, is not a French citizen.

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/France_Elections050307.pdf

most immigrants to france are from algeria, morocco, tunisia, & africa.


http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1492527709

Italy: Immigrants '6.2% of population' new report finds


Rome, 30 Oct. (AKI) - The number of immigrants in Italy grew faster in 2006 than in any other European country to reach just under 3.7 million or 6.2 percent of the population, according to a new report by Catholic charities Caritas and Fondazione Migrantes.

The report - now in its 17th annual edition - said the total number of immigrants resident in Italy increased by 700,000 (21.6 percent) in 2006 to 3,690,000.

Most immigrants currently come from Romania (556,000), from Albania (381,000), from Morocco (387,000) and from Ukraine (195,000).

And here's a desperate pope pleading with the Italian government to make Italian women

have more children --- !!!

Pope to Italians: Have more babies
Thursday, November 14, 2002 Posted: 12:07 PM EST (1707 GMT)


Healing the divide: The pope is entering new territory

Is the pope right to urge Italians to have more babies?

VATICAN CITY -- Pope John Paul II delivered a historic speech before the Italian parliament, urging Italians to have more children to reverse the nation's declining birth rate.
The pontiff also called on Italian authorities to show prisoners "a gesture of clemency" by reducing their sentences and repeated his call for the new European Union constitution to recognise Christianity's tradition on the continent.

Politicians, he said on Thursday, should adopt initiatives that "can make the task of having children and bringing them up less burdensome both socially and economically," The Associated Press reported.

The Polish-born pope called Italy's declining birth rate, one of the lowest in the world, "another grave threat that bears upon the future of this country, one which is already conditioning its life and its capacity for development."

It was the first time a pope has addressed the Italian parliament, bringing together church and state.

Regarding the turbulent history between the Roman Catholic Church and Italy, John Paul remarked: "We all know that this association has gone through widely different phases and circumstances, subject to the vicissitudes and contradictions of history," AP reported.
He added that Italy's very identity "would be most difficult to understand without reference to Christianity, its life-blood."

The Communications Ministry issued a commemorative postcard bearing images of the pope against the backdrop of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, and the Vatican was handing out special medals to lawmakers to mark the occasion.

Clemency request
The pontiff also referred to a topic widely debated in the Italian media -- whether he would ask for clemency for prisoners.

"A gesture of clemency toward prisoners through a reduction of their sentences would be clear evidence of a sensitivity which would encourage them in their own personal rehabilitation for the sake of a constructive reinsertion into society," the pope told parliament.
John Paul appealed to European leaders, who are drafting a new EU constitution, to recognise the role Christianity has played on the continent.

"There is a need to guard against a vision of the continent which would only take into account its economic and political aspects," and not its religious ones, the pope said.
The Rome daily La Repubblica said in an editorial this week that the visit "represents the symbolic surmounting of the breach of Porta Pia," a reference to

Italian forces seized a vast swathe of church-owned land, called the Papal States, in the mid-19th century and declared Rome -- home of the Vatican -- the capital of the unified country in 1870.

The new government guaranteed the pope independence within what is now Vatican City and offered to compensate the Church for the lost lands. But Pope Pius IX refused to recognise the government and called himself a "prisoner" of the Vatican.

The so-called "Roman Question" was resolved in 1929 when the Vatican and Italy signed a treaty that recognised both as sovereign entities and proclaimed Roman Catholicism Italy's state religion.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/11/14/pope.speech/

and I did get your point . . .

but it's kind of moot since French activism has existed LONG before these

immigrants entered the country ---

There may be a point in dividing a nation once you get to numbers like 18%....?

Certainly religious "values" -- in particularly "honor" issues and subservience

and outright oppression of females -- are creeping into areas where Muslims

have growing numbers and that would work to divide a nation.

the homogenous, "undivided" culture you imagine.

French unions can turn out their membership, even though it's not especially large, because they're funded from government & management, not because of some uniquely rebellious culture.

"The issue of trade union funding is a subject of debate in France. The topic is linked to the low level of funding raised through membership contributions. Comparative studies by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have shown that union density in France stands at below 9% - the lowest rate of all European countries.

Union membership dues alone are not sufficient to fund union operations. All unions have supplementary sources of income, either from companies or the government."

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2000/08/feature/fr0008187f.htm.


The unions can turn out the public for the same reason. They have the funds to organize quickly & efficiently.

And when the Italians took over the Vatican in 1864 or so "Equality for All" . . .

the Italians weren't Italian?


WE now spend at least half of our budget on the MIC. That is not what the public wants.

We can learn something from the French -- and I don't mean how to make "Freedom Fries" -- !!

Or maybe you're saying there wasn't a French Revolution ... ????

not because of some uniquely rebellious (French) culture.

And the French come out into the streets to protest still in ways that Americans do not.

Despite heavy pressure, they have managed to create and hold onto social programs -- so far.

We have not even managed to put a universal health care plan/Single Payer in place!

And we certainly do not have free college for all --

as if cultural homogenity explained why the French were doing walkouts & the US not.

You were mistaken. Europe, & every country in Europe, has been subject to invasion & migration throughout history, & ethnic, regional, linguistic, economic, religious etc. divisions have been the rule, not the exception.

Every country in Europe has had revolutions, sometimes more than one. So has the US, so has Japan, so has every country on earth - what's your point?

In what sense do you believe culturally homogenous "Italians" were fighting the pope in 1864 when "Italy" hadn't even existed as a state until 1861?

I made a very simple point: France (& italy) isn't a cultural monolith anymore than the US, & never has been.

http://www.lexilogos.com/france_carte_dialectes.htm

I didn't disagree to be disagreeable. By deciding the difference is "homogenous culture," you've effectively conceded the battle.

But the difference isn't culture.

You started out saying France & Italy were "just French" & "just Italian,"

Your comments are exaggeration for the sake of inane argument . . .

Meanwhile,

You were mistaken. Europe, & every country in Europe, has been subject to invasion & migration throughout history, & ethnic, regional, linguistic, economic, religious etc. divisions have been the rule, not the exception.

let me point out to you from your own post . . .

most immigrants to france are from algeria, morocco, tunisia, & africa.

You do not call the immigrants "French." You make quite clear they are NOT French.

And, in the case of Italians, you do the same . . .

Most immigrants currently come from Romania (556,000), from Albania (381,000), from Morocco (387,000) and from Ukraine (195,000).

You do not call them "Italians" and you make quite clear that they are NOT Italian.


Papal States
752 – 1870

The Papal States, State(s) of the Church or Pontifical States (Italian: Stato Ecclesiastico, Stato della Chiesa, Stati della Chiesa or Stati Pontificii) were one of the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (after which the Papal States, in less territorially extensive form, continued to exist until 1870).

The Papal States comprised territories under direct rule of the papacy, and at its height it covered most of the modern Italian regions of Romagna, Marche, Umbria and Lazio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_states


Obviously, when one thinks of a homogenous society, one would point to France and Italy

long before one would suggest America. Unless one is obsessed with with nonsense.


--------------------------------------
Original post by D&P . .

I was thinking about this the other day . ..
It was snowing and I watched "SICKO" again -- and as MM pointed out,

we certainly have a lot to learn from the French -!

But, the French are pretty much all French---

The Italians pretty much all Italian --

And in America we are a huge mess of un-united people --

And, there seems to have been a large disconnect in American political activism

after Cointelpro -- after the killings at Kent State.

No leadership arises any longer -- they've kind of seen to that!

When liberals do rise, they are quickly eliminated.

If you weren't trying to say the French turn out to protest more than americans because they're more homogenous, i don't know what you were trying to say.

"You make quite clear they are NOT French."

They're French, but not "French" (i.e. not stereotypical beret-wearing white 'french,' i.e. not homogenous in the way you implied.)

Immigrants to France live in France. 40% of current immigrants are citizens. And behind them are the second & third generation children of immigrants, no longer counted as immigrants. Immigration to France isn't a new phenomenon, & ethnicity is just one of many points of possible division.

It's not homogenous. I lived there. In some ways the US is much more homogenous.

Saying americans (unlike french) don't protest because they're not homogenous = saying homogeneity is required for protest. It's not.

Saying the protests are the expression of some uniquely french cultural unity is romanticism. They're an expression of institutional relationships that could be dissolved tomorrow, should certain parties choose that fight.

Just like the US "protest culture" of the 60s was dissolved, just like the "protesting" french mostly didn't protest the nazis.

Misanalysis of the environment = no answers, false answers, mistaken strategy.

"No leadership arises anymore....they've seen to that..."

So now it's not homogeneity that's the problem, but state repression?

I visit discussion boards to discuss & to argue. Argument is a means to share information & test & develop ideas. I expect to be disagreed with. You're not obliged to respond if you don't enjoy argument. I don't take it personally, & I try not to make it personal.

Exactly what I was saying in a conversational way ... that we are NOT as united as people

in France and Italy possibly because there are many more differences between the people in

America than in those countries. For instance, we had a Civil War which still divides the

nation with racism and hatred.

And, again, there is a difference between debate and nonsensical argument for the sake of

being argumentive.

As I said, only someone obsessed would continue on pushing your arguments.

And, in order to avoid any further waste of my time ...

you're on ignore.

Instead you reply, argue, then tell me you're putting me on ignore. (Not necessary to make an announcement to do it, you know)

Hey, the situation that's offended you so terribly could have been avoided if you'd just said "oops, i mispoke" when linked to information showing you 8% of the French population is foreign-born.

France had participated in the American Revolution . . . which gave inspiration and

debt which both played roles in their own revolution . . .

In addition to the economic and social difficulties, the ancient régime was undermined intellectually by the apostles of the Enlightenment. Voltaire attacked the church and absolutism; Denis Diderot and the Encyclopédie advocated social utility and attacked tradition; the baron de Montesquieu made English constitutionalism fashionable; and the marquis de Condorcet preached his faith in progress. Most direct in his influence on Revolutionary thought was J. J. Rousseau, especially through his dogma of popular sovereignty. Economic reform, advocated by the physiocrats and attempted (1774–76) by A. R. J. Turgot, was thwarted by the unwillingness of privileged groups to sacrifice any privileges and by the king's failure to support strong measures.

The direct cause of the Revolution was the chaotic state of government finance. Director general of finances Jacques Necker vainly sought to restore public confidence. French participation in the American Revolution had increased the huge debt, and Necker's successor, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, called an Assembly of Notables (1787), hoping to avert bankruptcy by inducing the privileged classes to share in the financial burden. They refused in an effort to protect economic privileges.

and . . .

The French Revolution (c. 1789–1799) was a period of political and social upheaval in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Enlightenment principles of nationalism, citizenship, and inalienable rights.

http://www.answers.com/topic/french-revolution



We seem to still be waiting for the Enlightenment in our country . . .

And the reality that so many attempts by the GOP to mandate "English Only" makes clear that

we are also a nation of many LANGUAGES now. Every day, in almost every situation, I can

hear Russian and Italian, Spanish and Chinese.

Much of that is not new in America ---


PS:

Linguistically, France was a patchwork. In 1792, perhaps 50% of the French population did not speak or understand French. The southern half of the country continued to speak one of the Occitan languages (such as Provençal) and other inhabitants spoke Breton, Catalan, Basque, Dutch (West Flemish), Franco-provençal, Alsatian and Corsican. In the north of France, regional dialects of the various langues d'oïl continued to be spoken in rural communities. France would only become a linguistically unified country by the end of the 19th century, and in particular through the educational policies of Jules Ferry during the French Third Republic. From an illiteracy rate of 33% among peasants in 1870, by 1914 almost all French could read and understand the national language, although 50% continued to understand or speak a regional language of France (in today's France, only an estimated 10% still understand a regional language).

http://www.answers.com/topic/france-in-the-nineteenth-century#Language

That this is true does not preclude that the people of France could understand the ideas

and concepts of The Enlightenment.

At the time the Bible was written, only 3% of the population could read -- and those were

mainly clergy.

Ergo, there was no such unified French identity as you imagine at the time of the Revolution.

Since you don't like argument, you might try acknowledging other people's points instead of ignoring & talking around them.

those countries. New immigrants or not, the country has a history that goes back to medieval times and earlier - there is a sense of community surrounding that. And the countries are smaller than the U.S.

The US is young. And still more diverse, even if you count that other countries have immigration. The US is almost entirely immigrants and their descendants.

only about 25 percent of French people have only French ancestors. Aside from the 8 to 10 percent of the country that is immigrants (me included in that) there are millions of others (75 percent, inculding my daughter ) who have roots in Spain, Italy, Germany ,Belgium, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, the USA etc. Look at the French national soccer team and you get an idea of how much immigration we have.

The Native American occupied this land before us and we killed them all ---

they have FEW living descendants --

Mexicans occupied much of this land before us -- before we stole their land --

and they are simply moving back in ... though slowly.

Even the African enslaved here has a longer history of occupying this land than

most "Americans" do --

have Puerto Rican roots and are a mix of spanish, native, and african roots, mixed with more european roots in my nephew. I am not ethnically French but I have nationality, much like I was in the USA. The difference here is that about one in four people only have French "ethnicity" in their blood so to speak.

does any of it have to do with the OP? There's a simple reason why their people rise up and ours don't; in France the government is afraid of the people. In America the people are afraid of their government.

Same with most major cities in Europe. There are clashes with Muslims and other minority groups there all the time.

The sheeple here pride themselves on their not knowing abut big tough things like economic measures.

In France, the government & business-funded unions & the parties orgs routinely organize demos; that's why they have demos.

We had big anti-war demos before Iraq because someone with $$ ORGANIZED them; a larger % of the population turned out than in the Vietnam era, though you wouldn't have known it from the TV coverage.

Seattle '99 was ORGANIZED, & some of the funding came from foundations, & some of the organizing from unions. It wasn't some spontaneous uprising, there was more than a year of planning behind it, & when the funding went down, so did similar demos elsewhere. Most mass movements don't just "happen," they're led, & usually by people in the background with money, for reasons of their own.

In general, people don't just spontaneously walk outside & start protests unless things get very bad. It's silly to call people "sheeple" when there's nothing for them to plug into. If you yourself aren't out organizing your neighborhood, why would you expect others to be?

The people I come into contact with most definitely are *not* just happily sitting on fat asses & watching american idol; they're trying to figure out how not to go under, & what to believe.

Yup.

people. We have it the other way around here.

going back to the mid-1960's which would include Nixon/Humphrey, IMO --

Two journalists investigated this -- both lever machines and the large computers

brought in for MSM to report vote tallies -- and also, of course, the electronic voting machines.

http://www.constitution.org/vote/votescam__.htm

I don't think Americans are as stupid as these elections have made us look!

stood up for their rights. I was looking for some ambient text to support this historical review of French laborical attitudes. But nonetheless, some of you may remember when french truck drivers were ticked about wages or some other important issue. I have somewhat of a vivid memory of this because I was working in a television station at the time. The drivers apparently got nowhere with whoever it was they were negotiating with, so what did they do? They shut down Paris. Yes they did. For the entire duration of their protest, they parked trucks all over the friggin place. On the side of the street. In the middle of the street. everywhere you looked, trucks blocked every intersection in Paris--for about a week or two if memory serves me correct. It was amazing. They completely shut down a good portion of the city to protest their "pissed-offness" in public. Now you ask, what happened? Well, after about a week or so of having their trucks parked all over the city blocking traffic and creating a commuting nightmare, those in charge of the drivers conceded and gave them what they wanted. Strike ended, and everyone went home happy.

Moral of this story: I guess we take a page out their playbook at some point in time. Although, I'm not sure when that is to occur. Perhaps I should ask a question for those of us to ponder: when are we going to stop acting like a damn punching bag on labor, health-care, or constitutional matters and standup to these corporate buttheads? Thats what I thought.

:fistbump:

and I remember it ---

but remember when the controllers threatened to strike here -- or did they actually

walk out? And then Reagan FIRED them all!!!

What would have happened in France after that, I ask?

In America, the right wing propaganda was so heavy that Americans were actually left

to believe that the controllers were wrong!!! Even though the controllers were striking

on safety issues for the public, as I recall it!!!

So almost everything in America has been heavily propagandized by the right --

even to the outrageous levels of "Swiftboating" and "Terri Schaivo" -- !!!

And consider what they did to Howard Dean! Ted Kennedy on a "no fly list" -- hmmmm...

must mean liberals are terrorists. Very few authors have commented on this propaganda --

Prof. Mark Crispin Miller being one of the first and only, IMO.

And like Hitler/Nazi propaganda, it sadly works very well!! Especially when corporate-

media is also replaying it 24/7 --

We also have police these days who look more like military or Gestapo --

and they've been mistreating protesters/dissenters for decades now.

More and more brutal every day!

But, anything is possible -- and I hope that we can all get together and turn this

situation around!

from working again in their profession.

Broke the strike right quick, it did.

The Reagan recession was engineered for similar reasons: to discipline labor.

And, sadly, the public were against the controllers . . .

though I think they figured it out later on --

Think it was a couple of years and then the ban was eliminated all together.

"On August 5, following their refusal, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order,<3><4> and banned them from federal service for three years (which was later rescinded by the President). They were replaced initially with nonparticipating controllers, supervisors, staff personnel, some nonrated personnel, and in some cases by controllers transferred temporarily from other facilities. Some military controllers were also used until replacements could be trained. The union was decertified on October 22, 1981.<2>"

"Ron Taylor was fired by President Reagan 23 years ago. He's still trying to get his job back.

Taylor, 57, of Stuart, Fla., was one of more than 11,000 air-traffic controllers fired by Reagan after they went on strike for higher wages and fewer hours on the stress-filled job. In 1993, President Clinton ended the "ban for life" Reagan had imposed on former members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association, but Taylor and thousands of others weren't rehired.

"When they talk about Reagan as compassionate, I just don't know what they are talking about," says Taylor, president of PATCO, which continues legal action to get members' jobs back.

"Reagan banned us for life," Taylor says. "Even murderers are eligible for parole. We thought we, as labor, had a friend in the White House."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-06-10-taylor-vignette_x.htm

"Ban for life" is in quotation marks for a reason. It was not an actual ban for life, but since no one chose to rehire them, it had that effect.

& the ban stayed in place until clinton lifted it.

preferably one not in quotation marks :).

"Years went by, and the ban of all striking air traffic controllers continued. It was only when President Bill Clinton removed the strike ban that the air traffic controllers were allowed to go back to work. Even though the air traffic controllers are officially allowed to work at airports again, many feel that they are still being black listed."

http://library.temple.edu/collections/urbana/patco-543b.jsp;jsessionid=13082B5B1EF948EF2BE30150939DB306?bhjs=0

more where that came from:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=patco+ban+for+life+clinton

Wonder where wikipedia gets the 3 year thing.

*any* federally-funded position for 3 years, i.e. they couldn't even deliver mail.

the reagan admin came to power to discipline labor, backed by most of the ruling class. that's why reagan's presidency was so "teflon," despite the crap he pulled & not-so-great poll numbers.

You need to so ridicule and shame all this dumbing-down, stirring-up, mind-controlling, sheeple-herding sinister corporate wacko-controlled media that nobody would want to have anything anymore to do with it. Make it so uncool compared to what's cool. So make real cool alternatives.

The grip of Stalinist and post-Stalinist rule in Soviet times was undone as much by scepticism and ridicule of the utopian State media (especially among Orwell's 'Proles') as by means of samizdat (underground publishing and communications - especially among party-members and 'intelligencia').

Internet TV I guess will be an important part of americanised grassroots cool in the near future. Will it be colonised and dominated by corporations, or by the People?

about its screwed up logic ---

Usually plays on prejudices --

You are right --- but it is difficult at times to form counter-argument to this --

It was a long time before "partial birth abortion" became "Partial-truth abortion" ---

capturing the lie of that propaganda.

We do need to laugh at them more ---

I think the internet has been vastly helpful in letting people understand that we are

pretty much all thinking the same way about what is happening in the nation ---

and that helps a lot, IMO.

it is our constitutional right.

Taft–Hartley Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Effects of the...|Entertainment...|Opposition to the...|See also
The Labor–Management Relations Act, informally the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law greatly restricting the activities and power of labor unions. The Act, still effective, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. and...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act - 56k - Cached

Taft-Hartley Act: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article
... Taft-Hartley Act prohibited jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity ... A right-to-work law prevents unions from negotiating contracts requiring ...www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Taft-Hartley_Act - Cached

now feel that they have done something IRL simply by posting. Posting, to a degree, has replaced taking action.

Obama would be impeached as a Communist if he proposed giving all Americans even a third
of the benefits that all French citizens enjoy purely for the fact that they are French.

Their ex-guru, Stalinist Georges Marchais, lived in a villa that was more of a palace,
and resembled the Napoleon of Animal Farm more than the one from Corsica. For some reason,
no one on the French left seemed to have a big problem with that. This is not a unique
phenomenon, of course. Look at all the Televangelists in America getting their sheeple to
send their last dollars so that the Televangelists can wear silk and live in mansions
while promising their starving flock a better life, once the present one is done with.
The present up-and-coming figure of the French left is playing it smarter, though. He's
a self-avowed Trotsky fan who has charisma, TV charm and is a 34 year old postal worker
who lives in a place commeasurate with the salary of a 34 year old postal worker.

The ones most affected by the walkout will be the ordinary Joes (OK, Renés) who will have to
try and brave 6 hours of horrible traffic to get to work instead of 60 minutes on the RER or
the Métro. I've seen it a dozen times before, and the guys who work in our Paris office have
small motorcycles in their garages for just such occasions. They work, too, and we pay the
French government payroll taxes of 55% on top of their gross salary for the privilege.

The strikers may well have legitimate grievances, but they have a very aggressive, even aggravating
way of going about showing it, and usually leave a bitter taste behind that sours much of the
sympathy other workers might have had for them.

I'd take the 3/4 figure of French people backing the action with a grain of salt. There hasn't
been an issue that 3/4 of the French have agreed on since the invention of red wine.

or go on strike and come to the protest. The average Cyril benefits more from the stikes than they are hurt. Today we protested against cuts to the education, healh care, retirement, and the rest of the public "état providence" . Average people benefit a lot from this system, so do their kids, that is why 75% of French people supported the strike today, they want their kids to have the same welfare state they grew up with.

French strike hits Paris airports
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Chris Gray

... One-third of flights out of Paris’s second airport, Orly, were cancelled, while services at the main Charles de Gaulle airport were running with delays averaging about an hour and a half ...

http://www.ttglive.com/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=61139&CMPI_SHARED_articleId=2015329&CMPI_SHARED_ImageArticleId=2015329&CMPI_SHARED_articleIdRelated=2015329&CMPI_SHARED_ToolsArticleId=2015329&CMPI_SHARED_CommentArticleId=2015329

By Francois de Beaupuy and Helene Fouquet

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- ... In what is turning into the largest such action since President Nicolas Sarkozy was elected in May 2007, the unions are demanding that the government do more to counter rising unemployment and falling purchasing power as France enters its first recession in 16 years. The eight unions represent the bulk of France’s 1.9 million-strong unionized workforce.

“The government needs to change its methods,” Jean- Claude Mailly, general secretary of the Force Ouvriere union, said today in an interview on Canal Plus television. “There are real worries about purchasing power. All unions are united on the need to take action.”

Roads around Paris were packed with cars in the early hours of the morning as commuters sought to get an early start to avoid traffic jams. Fewer train lines were in service and as many as 30 percent of flights in and out of the French capital were cancelled. Unions plan 200 demonstrations and protest marches in cities across the country later today.

Employees of companies including Electricite de France SA and French units of International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are among those participating in the strike. Public schools are expecting as many as 70 percent of their employees to strike, with unions for teachers, doctors and other civil servants asking for “urgent measures for employment and wages” and a further boost to the economy ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3Qvwg7GtDr0&refer=home

Action is first general strike in an industrialised nation since the start of the global economic turmoil
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Thursday 29 January 2009 10.20 GMT

... It is the first wide-ranging general strike since Sarkozy took office and a rare show of unity from France's main unions. Train drivers, airport staff, teachers, postal workers and tax inspectors joined private-sector employees including bank clerks, car workers, ski-lift operators, supermarket check-out staff and even employees from the company that operates France's stock exchange.

With lawyers and journalists from state TV and radio also walking out, the various groups are protesting for job protection and better wages and against a raft of Sarkozy's reforms, ranging from justice to hospital and school reforms, and changes to the running of state TV.

Car workers downed tools over the crisis hitting the French auto industry. The arts world joined the ranks as north Paris's cutting-edge new arts centre, Le 104, staged its own strike.

"We need to sound a cry of anger," said François Chereque, head of the moderate CFDT union ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/29/france-general-strike-global-recession

By David Jolly
Published: January 28, 2009

... "Everybody knows we are living through a worldwide crisis of the like that hasn't been seen for 70 years," Bernard Thibault, head of one of the biggest French unions, the CGT, was quoted as saying Wednesday in the daily Le Parisien newspaper. Wage earners had nothing to do with the creation of the crisis, he said, and "we can't accept that workers are the only ones to suffer the consequences."

The strike is expected to bring chaos to the national transportation network, as airport, train, bus and rail station workers walk off the job. Many workers in the Paris area, especially those commuting from the suburbs, will find it difficult to reach their offices and job sites, with as few as one in five of the normal number of trains running on some lines. The capital's two airports, Charles de Gaulle-Roissy and Orly, will reduce flights. Air France was planning to maintain its full long-haul schedule, while canceling some flights on other routes.

Workers at the state-affiliated utility Électricité de France and the gas company GDF Suez are expected to walk out, as are some employees of banks and big international companies. In Paris, a new law aimed at guaranteeing a minimum level of public services is being contested by the Socialist mayor, and many parents have been told that their children's schools will be closed in defiance of the government.

"The unions are concentrated in the public sector, and they have had a hard time mobilizing private-sector support," said Guy Groux, a specialist on the union movement at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris. "But the economic crisis is bringing them together. And there is strong public support this time" ...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/28/europe/france.php

By Emma-Jane Kirby
BBC News, Paris

Last summer, President Nicolas Sarkozy boasted that these days when there is a strike in France, nobody notices.

But this time, with three-quarters of French people and all the main unions backing the walk-out, the strike will hit hard ...

Many are angry that the banks were given a multi-billion euro bail-out while floundering industries and businesses were offered far less help ...

There is a general feeling here of injustice, that the ordinary man on the street is paying for the greed of those in the financial sector ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7857814.stm

I noticed that someone posted that France had only 8% union???

If I read that correctly . . .

And, I think that's an important lesspn for Americans because we're down from

decades ago 33%/? union -- now below 10% I believe.

At any rate, we should understand that we don't have to share union memberships

in order to understand the need to support labor and workers rights.

I've long had doubts of the wisdom of bringing large numbers to DC on Saturdays when

no government officials are in their offices --- !!!

It's expensive and I think has outlived its usefulness -- though I'm not positive.

against global capitalism, rampant consumerism, bank bail-outs, poor housing, expensive food, profit margins and pretty much everything else that is wrong in the world.

The "supermarket picnic" will go on for as long as it can - before the security guards throw the activists out or the police arrive. Shoppers will be invited to join in, either bringing what they want from the shelves or just taking something lifted lightly from among the crisps, sweets or quality fruit already on the tables.

"L'Appel et la Pioche" have struck four times so far and have no intention of stopping what they claim is a highly effective new way of protesting.

"Everyone is bored of demonstrations. And handing out tracts at 6am at a market is neither effective nor fun," said Leïla Chaïbi, 26, the leader of the group. "This is fun, festive, non-threatening and attracts the media. It's the perfect way of getting our message across."

do not forget that train strikes are visible to commuters, but the freight not moving is a good part of the strike too.........hé oh Sarko, casse toi, pauvre con!

I wonder if my bf participated.

a town of 35000 people. I even saw a French person wearing an Obama hat. They think that the USA has a humanist for a president again and think that the USA can once again lead the world this time down a green path. There were over a million people in the street in France today, perhaps even 2 or 3 but I still don't have any figures. At any rate people are not protesting to save their jobs and for wages alone, people in the public sector are protesting agianst hiring freezes and cuts to funding of public services.

courageous enough to demonstrate like the French.

Have you considered moving back to the land of your ancestors? If it was your grandparents that left French territory you can move back pretty easily. My wife is French, that is how I got to live here and got French nationality. Vive la république et vive la France!

Source: The Guardian

"Black Thursday" is the first general strike since the French president's election in 2007. All the leading unions have joined forces to protest that the government's stimulus plans should focus less on companies and more on workers' job-protection and purchasing power.

The protests reflect a mood of social unrest that has been building for months."

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/27/strikes-protest-france-unions

Too bad the majority of the US populace are sniveling cowards under the spell of hate radio.

Worker Riots in Greece all this week. Riots in Iceland. UK getting very touchy.

Rush Limbaugh and the lame-stream-media throwing gasoline on the fire of recession. There will come a point where Americans become FED UP!

Michael Moore had an interesting take on that -- he thought it had something

to do with Americans seeing themselves as potential millionaires.


If I remember correctly, some part of the transportation system -- subway, LIRR,

buses . . whatever . . went on strike long ago and I remember how pissed people who

had to get to work were about it! They had no inkling of what it was really all about!

yep, rags to riches is the American dream for many. Here in France we dream of having a good social system in place.

foreign posters here at DU --- glad you're here.

It helps to see America from another country's perspective.

While I'm not going to say that Americans are very smart about what's been happening

in our nation, I do think that we have been greatly undermined by stolen elections

which probably went on long before the very noisy one of 2000.

We seem to have a harder time identifying propaganda/corruption than most!

I lived in the USA for 24 years and France for 6 years and I have double nationality. I like posting on blogs in the 2 countries

The people of the city pitched in to transport people to their jobs, etc. in support of the strike. This whole business about "paralysis" forgets that ultimately, its the people who make a society, not the fucking systems of the bosses.

I combined your thread into this one (enveloping it like the blob, so to speak) because there was already one large thread on the France strikes. Thanks.

TH