France hit by new wave of nationwide protests (somewhere between one to three mil strikers)

Source: AP

PARIS (AP) - More than 1 million people marched in cities and towns around France on Thursday in an impressive call for President Nicolas Sarkozy to do more to overcome the economic crisis, but lukewarm strikes failed to paralyze the country.

In the biggest showing, at least 85,000 people marched through Paris, police said. The Interior Ministry said that 1.2 million protesters turned out for some 200 protest marches around the country. Union officials put that figure at 3 million and said that 350,000 marched through the capital.

The day of action was aimed at forcing the government to open new talks on policies to fight the spreading crisis, with unions saying that action so far is far from sufficient.

. . .

Thursday's strikes, or those in January, have failed to ignite serious social protests, as massive strikes did in the mid-1990s.

Jean Batis, a music producer, said, «It's always the same game. They give a little bit, we strike, they give a little bit, we strike.


Read more: http://www.pr-inside.com/france-hit-by-new-wave-of-r1128400.htm

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AP is spinning the strike as lukewarm. Many articles talking about ports being closed, half the trains not running, schools are closed; but AP insists the strike is lukewarm.

Sarkozy's response to the strikers-- go away we are using all our money to help the banksters:

http://www.topnews.in/roundup-huge-crowds-protest-sarkozys-economic-policies-2141948

On the first national labour action of the year, on January 29, 2.5 million people had demonstrated against the government.

Those protests had impressed Sarkozy, who shortly thereafter announced aid in the form of tax relief and other measures for low-income families worth 2.6 billion euros (3.4 billion dollars).

There will be no such response this time, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said, noting that because of its bail-out packages for the French banking and car manufacture sectors the government could not afford to incur any more debt.

Short of pre-empting American Idol for a SOU address, I can't imagine a single thing that would motivate us.

Then again, we are brainwashed to be a bit shocked at the concept of a strike, let alone speaking against authority.

Booooooo, we suck

The voters voting against corporate interests.

Obama may be more corporate than many of us would like him to be, but the election was based on populist against establishment and voters came out in droves to register their populist vote.

That's a heck of a lot better than we're doing.

:dem:

-Laelth