French Rebellion [Archive]

EnragÃ©

28th March 2006, 11:30

In reality what is needed is large orgs and coalitions that cross all these socio an political divides that are becoming problematic. These do not exist and there is no hope of this situation becoming revolutionary without a massive rebellion of the working class, this dose not apear to be in the cards...

What probably will happen is that sizeable chunks of the student, and hopefully also working class and suburban youth will be dissatisfied witht he respective selouts and non action form their leadership and look towards more radical organisations.

I agree.

Its perhaps best, unless things radicalise extremely this afternoon and evening, to see this unrest as laying the groundworks, building up the movement which has been described as dead for the past 20 years.

And then...in a couple of years...then you might see the real shit going down.

Its up to us, comrades all over europe, to lay these foundations, to recruit, to spread the message, to organize demo's

Also good to hear the CNT grew that much :)
How big are they know?

ComradeOm

28th March 2006, 11:43

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2006, 05:55 PM
There is always the spectre of liberal reform that could ruin the whole movement.
As far as I can see this entire affair is over liberal reforms.

Djehuti

28th March 2006, 16:10

Possibly 2.6 million demonstrated today. About 700 000 in Paris.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2101/2505/1600/paris060318.4.jpg

Over a million in Great Britain.

Karl Marx's Camel

28th March 2006, 18:43

Watching CNN. I see red flags with hammer and sickle in the protests...

Elly

28th March 2006, 18:52

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2006, 05:51 PM

It is not revolutionary yet but it could turn into that. Remember; the russian revolution started with the demand for "Bread and Peace", made by russian women/mothers.

Hi,

I don't think it is an appropriate comparison. Government can quite easily remove the CPE (which wasn't really the case of the war), and that will probably stop the movement. Ok, it is probable some people will continue and ask for more, but i don't think there will still be millions of people in the streets. I hope that a victory will really help for future movements, and remove the weight of all past defeats; and I hope that the youngs who are blocking their universities and self-organizing will be for some of them militants after that and that it can move the trade-unions' gravity points to the left; but I think that foreseeing a revolution in the next months is really, really optimistic (even if i'd like to be wrong :)). Now, in the next few years... who can tell ?

About the violence : i am in Marseille, which has see really few violence acts in the mobilisation, despite a really good number of people in the street (200,000 this morning), so i may not be the best one to talk about this, but I think there are quite exagerated by the media.

Ok, there have been some violence by youngs against policemen, and some degradations too, but they are really commited by a few number of people (well, it may change in the next few weeks if govenment dosen't remove this law and trade unions don't call a general strike, since students will maybe feel that violence is the only way to be heard). There was also some robbery and violence against demonstrators by delinquants profiting of a weak "service of order", but i think they are neither far right people nor the majority of "ghetto" people.

I don't think that, currently, violence is currently the central point of the mobilisation ; i'd say that the main questions in the days to come will rather be :

- will the government remove this law ?
- if they don't remove it, will the trade unions call to general strike ?
- if they do remove the law, will the mobilisation "ask for more" and demand the retreat of other pretty similar laws (CNE, "égalité des chances" law in its whole) or will it stop ?

Djehuti

28th March 2006, 18:56

Also check out the excellent "We Don’t Want Full Employment,
We Want Full Lives!" at http://www.bopsecrets.org/recent/jobless.htm

Djehuti

28th March 2006, 19:18

Stockholm, Sweden. 500 members of the invisible party demonstrated in solidarity with the french workers and against a law (identical to the CPE) proposed by the Swedish Center party.

Windows where smashed at banks, at the parliament, and at the Center partys appartments. Some police cars got smashed to.

We stand with you France!

redstar2000

28th March 2006, 19:49

I am inclined to agree with Elly...if the law is withdrawn, it will be an enormous boost to the morale of all the "most radical" versions of leftism in France.

When the next battle comes, people will remember "the power of the streets".

And that's got to help! :D

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif

encephalon

28th March 2006, 20:03

It wouldn't be an enormous boost for France alone, or even just Europe. Curious youths that stumble into far-left politics (for lack of a better way to describe it in so many words) are looking for such recent movements in wholly industrialized areas. Many of us might love some of the things that have been happening in South/Central America recently, but it's much easier for a white kid from the states to connect with France than it is to connect with, say, Bolivia. The culture chasm isn't nearly as far, and it shows that such things can and do happen in wholly industrialized nations on a massive scale.

That said, this isn't going to be a revolution (although it might be a spark). But if it succeeds, it will strengthen mobilisation against the establishment in industrialized countries quite a bit. It might not have the same degree of effect in the US, but eventually that strength should translate across the Atlantic, given today's global condition. The difficulty will be retaining the anti-capitalism aspect, however miniscule or large it might be.

EDIT: You know, on second thought, I'm not going to put a ton of faith into this, but I'm not going to wholly discount a revolutionary situation. The american revolutionaries, though bourgeoisie in nature, was sparked by British laws and initially demanded reform rather than revolution.

Janus

28th March 2006, 21:53

Mass job protests

Originally posted by BBC News
More than one million people are estimated to have joined demonstrations across France against the government's controversial youth employment laws.

Fighting broke out as protesters gathered in Paris, and missiles were hurled at police as they moved into the crowds to try to remove troublemakers.

Tear gas and water cannon were used to disperse the protesters, and by late evening just a small group remained.

A nationwide strike has also caused travel chaos throughout the country.

Arrest orders

The BBC's Jon Sopel in Paris said the protest had been initially mainly peaceful, but the mood had then deteriorated.

As the trouble erupted in the Place de la Republique in north-east Paris, our correspondent said his BBC crew had also come under attack, although he added the violence had remained "low-level".
The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby, also in the French capital, said that despite the trouble, the majority of protesters had been marching peacefully.

Extra riot police were deployed before the march, after a rally in Paris last week led to running battles.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told them to only get tough with those he called delinquents.

"My first instruction is that you protect the demonstrators, especially the youngest ones," he said.

"The second instruction is to arrest as many thugs, that means delinquents, as you can."

Mr Sarkozy himself appeared in the Place de la Republique on Tuesday evening, where he congratulated police for their work during hours of sporadic violence.

Correspondents reported a greater sense of calm there, albeit with hundreds of riot police in attendance.

And by 2130 GMT, the majority of protesters had left the square, with only a small hard core of demonstrators reported to be remaining.

Earlier the police used tear gas and water cannon to try to disperse the troublemakers.

Meanwhile workers and students in more than 100 other towns and cities were calling for the government to scrap the controversial employment contracts.

Police estimated that just over one million people had taken to the streets across the country.
By 1700 GMT, they had made almost 400 arrests - about 200 of those in Paris, the AFP news agency reported, adding that trouble had also occurred during protests in Rennes and Grenoble.

Unions said between 200,000 and 250,000 people turned out for a march in Marseille - many more than at the previous worker-student demonstrations on 18 March.

In the western city of Nantes, police put the figure at 42,000, more than double the 18 March turnout. Le Mans, Rouen and Tours also reported increased crowds.

"We are here for our children. We are very worried about what will happen to them," said Philippe Decrulle, a demonstrator in Paris.

"My son is 23, and he has no job. That is normal in France," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Strike bites

Meanwhile a nationwide strike closed large parts of France's transport networks.

As transport workers joined the strike, commuters were left battling with widespread disruption as large parts of the country's rail, bus and air networks came to a halt.

Airport authorities warned of delays and cancellations and urged passengers to check with their airlines.
Schools, post-offices, banks, government offices and unemployment bureaux are also experiencing serious disruption.

Protesters are bitterly opposed to the First Employment Contract (CPE), which allows employers to end job contracts for under-26s at any time during a two-year trial period without having to offer an explanation or give prior warning.

The government says it will encourage employers to hire young people but students fear it will erode job stability in a country where more than 20% of 18-to-25-year-olds are unemployed - more than twice the national average.

The BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris says these latest demonstrations are a real test of the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's resolve, and it is hard to see how he can break the stalemate.

To find a solution without losing face - or ground to his main rival for the presidency, Mr Sarkozy - is proving the biggest challenge of Mr de Villepin's political career, our correspondent adds.

Mr Sarkozy's ruling UMP parliamentary group on Tuesday backed his proposal that the government not rush to enforce the labour laws, instead leaving the door open for further negotiations.

Earlier on Tuesday Mr de Villepin told parliament he was open to talks on employment and possible changes to the contracts, but he did not say he would withdraw them.

which doctor

28th March 2006, 22:35

Was this strike a one day deal or will it continue?

rebelworker

28th March 2006, 22:48

The strike was set for a one day, mabey that will change but as i said before one day strikes are fairly common in France so dont expect anything too dramatic.

I guess it is possible that things could radicalise, and this is a big deal but people have to remeber that in the european context this isnt too out of the ordinary, defenitly not a revolutionary situation.

As for the CNT-F, I think they still number well under 10,000 but as i said before lets see what happens in the aftermath, they are bocoming big enought to be a real pole of attaraction for radicalising militants, even in the labour movement.

YSR

28th March 2006, 22:58

Originally posted by encephalon
It wouldn't be an enormous boost for France alone, or even just Europe. Curious youths that stumble into far-left politics (for lack of a better way to describe it in so many words) are looking for such recent movements in wholly industrialized areas. Many of us might love some of the things that have been happening in South/Central America recently, but it's much easier for a white kid from the states to connect with France than it is to connect with, say, Bolivia. The culture chasm isn't nearly as far, and it shows that such things can and do happen in wholly industrialized nations on a massive scale.

Bingo. That's what I'm really hoping comes out of this: a swift kick in the ass for the American radical movement. My generation is quickly becoming the generation of apathy and, if not apathy, than bourgeois optimism (if I hear one more anti-Bush but pro-capitalism teenager, I'm gonna spit). Finding some solidarity in the world may bring young liberals into the radical fold.

I've said this before, but I'm gonna keep saying it, I guess. I'm just so excited about the potential not only for the French but for us, too.

WUOrevolt

28th March 2006, 23:07

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2006, 06:28 PM
far right attacking anarchists but marching in bigger demos...

What does the far right have to do with the labor protests?

Psy

28th March 2006, 23:09

Originally posted by Young Stupid [email protected] 28 2006, 11:07 PM
Bingo. That's what I'm really hoping comes out of this: a swift kick in the ass for the American radical movement. My generation is quickly becoming the generation of apathy and, if not apathy, than bourgeois optimism (if I hear one more anti-Bush but pro-capitalism teenager, I'm gonna spit). Finding some solidarity in the world may bring young liberals into the radical fold.

I've said this before, but I'm gonna keep saying it, I guess. I'm just so excited about the potential not only for the French but for us, too.
I know what you mean, I've meet people that talk like the Democrats would end the war in Iraq and informing them of JFK&LBJ and Vietnam doesn't shake their belief that the Democrats are "progressive".

WUOrevolt

28th March 2006, 23:29

Originally posted by Psy+Mar 29 2006, 03:18 AM--> (Psy @ Mar 29 2006, 03:18 AM)
Young Stupid [email protected] 28 2006, 11:07 PM
Bingo. That's what I'm really hoping comes out of this: a swift kick in the ass for the American radical movement. My generation is quickly becoming the generation of apathy and, if not apathy, than bourgeois optimism (if I hear one more anti-Bush but pro-capitalism teenager, I'm gonna spit). Finding some solidarity in the world may bring young liberals into the radical fold.

I've said this before, but I'm gonna keep saying it, I guess. I'm just so excited about the potential not only for the French but for us, too.
I know what you mean, I've meet people that talk like the Democrats would end the war in Iraq and informing them of JFK&LBJ and Vietnam doesn't shake their belief that the Democrats are "progressive". [/b]
Yeah, Kerry had no intention of ending the war.

Dr. Rosenpenis

29th March 2006, 00:53

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2006, 12:55 PM
I agree, however it is in the beginning stages and it is only a glimps of things yet to come. There is always the spectre of liberal reform that could ruin the whole movement.
The movement kind of is liberal reform... but I do have some hope that it will culminate in more radical action or perhaps lead to more radical action over the next few years
All leftists in Europe should go to France and take to the streets

Commie Rat

29th March 2006, 08:25

Where is this reaction to the new workplace reforms in Aus?

The Feral Underclass

29th March 2006, 10:54

This thread in Libcom has a very interesting debate about what is happening in France, including comments from people actually involved in it.

http://libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8...der=asc&start=0 (http://libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8816&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)

Djehuti

29th March 2006, 14:57

Movie clips from the first solidarity demonstration in Stockholm. 500+ participants.

http://sweden.indymedia.org/m28video/demo1.mp4
http://sweden.indymedia.org/m28video/demo2.mp4
http://sweden.indymedia.org/m28video/demo3.mp4

Slogans includes:
"On the streets of France, this is just the beginning! On the streets of Sweden, this is just the beginning!"

"If you touch our LAS we will destroy Stureplan" (though it rimes in swedish)

(LAS is the law that the bourgeoisie want to abolish to make the labour market more insecure and "flexible". Stureplan is the centrum of the rich and wealthy).

The police did not stand a chanse. They blocked the road and called out mounted police but the demonstration did not even flinch, it just continued to move right through the chocked police. The dicipline and cohesion was great, we owned the streets and had no problem walking wherever we wanted to and smash whatever windows we wanted.

We could have been even more though (we will next time), but besides that everything went perfect.

Janus

29th March 2006, 17:23

French unions plan more protests

Originally posted by BBC News
French unions and student groups have called for fresh strikes and protests next week to keep up the pressure on the government over the youth job law.
Universities across the country have been disrupted for weeks by protests over the law, which makes it easier for employers to fire first-time workers.

Hundreds have been arrested in violent clashes with police amid generally peaceful protests.

PM Dominique de Villepin has refused to back down, saying the law creates jobs.

He has said he is waiting for the verdict of the French Constitutional Council, which on Thursday is expected to rule on an appeal against the First Employment Contract, or CPE as it is known.

If the council declares the law is compatible with the constitution, French President Jacques Chirac will have 15 days in which to pass the law or ask parliament to review it.

Rival moves

The alliance of trade unions and students, whose demonstrations attracted more than one million protesters on Tuesday, called for a repeat show of support on 4 April.
The unions have urged President Jacques Chirac to use his powers and block the controversial law.

Mr Chirac's office said the president would speak on the issue "in the coming days".

Mr de Villepin remains the man at the centre of this storm - determined to ride it out, but caught between forces that are proving impossible to control, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris.

On one side is the anger on the streets and the fear that this violence will set the suburbs alight again, she says, but pushing him the other way is his desire to be the strong man who reformed France - where all his predecessors failed.

France's interior minister and Mr de Villepin's main rival for the presidency next year, Nicolas Sarkozy, paid a surprise visit to the riot police on Tuesday in the Place de la Republique in north-east Paris where the trouble erupted.

But this visit was also a very public way to put distance between himself and Mr de Villepin, our correspondent says.

Job fears
Protesters are bitterly opposed to the CPE, which allows employers to end job contracts for workers under 26 at any time during a two-year trial period without having to offer an explanation or give prior warning.

Mr de Villepin has said he was open to talks on employment and possible changes to the contracts, but he did not say he would withdraw them.

The government says the law will encourage employers to hire young people, but students fear it will erode job stability in a country where more than 20% of 18-to-25-year-olds are unemployed - more than twice the national average.

state's fiend

29th March 2006, 18:07

Now watch these French "revolutionaries" settle for some watered-down reformist compromise. I would love to eat my words and see some alternative take place like a real revolution but these guys are awful.

Janus

30th March 2006, 17:17

France braces for new job ruling

Originally posted by BBC News
France is awaiting a ruling by its top constitutional body on the legality of a highly controversial youth employment law which has sparked weeks of protest.
Students and trade unions have called for another one-day strike next Tuesday in a drive to get the law scrapped.

If the Constitutional Council rules the law valid, it could be put into effect at once by President Jacques Chirac.

The president is expected to address the nation soon - possibly as early as Thursday evening, correspondents say.
Universities across the country have been disrupted for weeks by protests over the First Employment Contract (CPE), which would make it easier for employers to fire workers aged under 26.

Groups of up to 100 students continued small-scale demonstrations around the country on Thursday. Some occupied the tracks at Marseille and Rennes railway stations, stopping trains, while others blocked roads, causing traffic queues.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has refused to back down, saying the law would create much-needed jobs for youngsters.

More than 20% of French 18- to 25-year-olds are unemployed - more than twice the national average.
The alliance of trade unions and students, whose demonstrations attracted more than one million protesters on Tuesday, called for a repeat show of support on 4 April.

Mr de Villepin remains the man at the centre of this storm - determined to ride it out, but caught between forces that are proving impossible to control, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris.

On one side is the anger on the streets and the fear that this violence will set the suburbs alight again, she says.

CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL
Established in 1958
Led by former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing
Nine other appointed members serve nine years
Rules on constitutionality of laws and interpretation of constitution
Decides legality of elections
Decisions binding, no appeals
Council is not a Supreme Court

But pushing him the other way, she says, is his desire to be the strong man who reformed France - where all his predecessors failed.

Protesters are bitterly opposed to the CPE, which allows employers to end job contracts for workers under 26 at any time during a two-year trial period.

Mr de Villepin has said he is open to talks on employment and possible changes to the contracts, but has not said he will withdraw them.

The government says the law will encourage employers to hire young people, but students fear it will erode job stability.

Janus

30th March 2006, 17:33

French job law declared constitutional by the Consitutional Council.

Originally posted by BBC News
France's top constitutional body has ruled that a highly controversial youth employment law which has sparked weeks of protest is legal.
The Constitutional Council ruling means the law could be put into effect at once by President Jacques Chirac.

The president is expected to address the nation soon - possibly as early as Thursday evening, correspondents say.

Students and trade unions have called for another one-day strike next Tuesday in a drive to get the law scrapped.
Universities across the country have been disrupted for weeks by protests over the First Employment Contract (CPE), which would make it easier for employers to fire workers aged under 26.

Groups of up to 100 students continued small-scale demonstrations around the country on Thursday. Some occupied the tracks at Marseille and Rennes railway stations, stopping trains, while others blocked roads, causing traffic queues.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has refused to back down, saying the law would create much-needed jobs for youngsters.

More than 20% of French 18- to 25-year-olds are unemployed - more than twice the national average.

Competing forces

The alliance of trade unions and students, whose demonstrations attracted more than one million protesters on Tuesday, called for a repeat show of support on 4 April.
Mr de Villepin remains the man at the centre of this storm - determined to ride it out, but caught between forces that are proving impossible to control, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris.

On one side is the anger on the streets and the fear that this violence will set the suburbs alight again, she says.

But pushing him the other way, she says, is his desire to be the strong man who reformed France - where all his predecessors failed.

Protesters are bitterly opposed to the CPE, which allows employers to end job contracts for workers under 26 at any time during a two-year trial period.

Mr de Villepin has said he is open to talks on employment and possible changes to the contracts, but has not said he will withdraw them.

The government says the law will encourage employers to hire young people, but students fear it will erode job stability.

EnragÃ©

30th March 2006, 17:41

Originally posted by state's [email protected] 29 2006, 06:16 PM
Now watch these French "revolutionaries" settle for some watered-down reformist compromise. I would love to eat my words and see some alternative take place like a real revolution but these guys are awful.
dont be so negative

and they're not awful

if anything they just havent realised yet more is necessary than the withdrawal of the law, that more is neccesary than demo's to stop a government, that in the end power should be for all. They're in that process of realising that now, and as the growing numbers of CNT-F show, some already realised it.

Psy

30th March 2006, 17:50

Originally posted by [email protected] 30 2006, 05:50 PM
dont be so negative

and they're not awful

if anything they just havent realised yet more is necessary than the withdrawal of the law, that more is neccesary than demo's to stop a government, that in the end power should be for all. They're in that process of realising that now, and as the growing numbers of CNT-F show, some already realised it.
They should have learded from May 1968.

bolshevik butcher

30th March 2006, 18:01

You're all missing that the cnt in france isnt in control of this rebellion. The key people for socialsits are influential miltiants in both the student organisations and the workers unions.

EnragÃ©

30th March 2006, 18:01

who are these "they" you are talking about?

most of the students involved then sold out, became the new powerful

some remained true to thier ideals and im sure those have learned.

which doctor

31st March 2006, 00:00

THE RASPAIL APPEAL

To the students, the unemployed, the more or less casual workers, of France and
Navarre, to all those who are struggling these days against the CPE, and maybe
much more than that…

Since we can more and more precisely foresee the time when the Earth will be
entirely consumed by our way of life; Since scientists are reduced to promises
of colonising others planets to consume…

We, stable or casual workers and students, from the Paris region or elsewhere,
occupying the CEMI (1) on the 4th floor of the EHESS (2) on this first day of
spring, want to have a reflection on what could be a sustainable and desirable
life in a finite world.

It seems impossible to us to raise the issue of the precariousness of work and
money income without raising that of the precariousness of global human
survival. In these times of very advanced ecological disaster, we think that no
political position and no demand not taking into account that economic
development and growth is a dead-end can have any value.

We are both fantastically utopian and radically pragmatic, much more pragmatic
in fact than all the “credible” managers of capitalism and social movements
(UNEF rhyming with MEDEF…).

We want to destroy the worship of wealth and job creators, restored with the help of the left in the 80s. No talk of exploitation and casualisation has any sense and usefulness if it refrains itself from criticising these “benefactors of the community” the way they deserve.

We also want to put an end the anti-CPE movement taboo: the prospect of full employment, which underlies most demands and claims, is neither realistic nor desirable.
Human labour, in the Western world, has been massively cut down by machines and computers for many decades. It has indeed never been anything else than a commodity for the capital, but there has been a change in that in the current stage of technological “progress” money accumulation requires less humans to be exploited than before. It has to be kept in mind that capitalism can no longer generate enough jobs for all. And it has to be admitted that in addition to that, the jobs it still struggles to create are more and more meaningless and disconnected from our fundamental needs.

In this system, material production is delocalised to “developing” countries, where the ecological disaster is thus concentrated (although we are not so far behind…), while at home, in our supposedly immaterial services economy, menial jobs are flourishing: slaves to robotic rates, “personal services” domestics (see the recent Borloo plan) (3), soldiers of business management.

This movement will only be strong and have a future if a lucid criticism of modern labour can get through and if it can definitely be acknowledged that there will be no exit from the crisis. Far from letting it wear us down, we want to view this as a chance. We think that a consistent social movement should aim at helping the economy collapse. There is no outside to current world, no hope of escaping from it. We thus have to patiently build living spaces within where we can support our lives without the help of the industrial machinery, places freed from it where new human relationships can emerge. In
parallel, the dismantling of whole useless or harmful sections of the existing production apparatus has to be undertaken. Of course all this requires, in both our speeches and practices, a determined rejection of the state and its representatives, as they are almost always obstacles to our plans for autonomy.

Let us not demand a stable job for everyone any more! (event though we all occasionally look for work or money)

Let the crisis get worse!

Let life prevail!

The CEMI occupiers (at the EHESS, on Raspail Blvd in Paris), constituted in a
Committee for World Deindustrialisation (4), between the dawn of March 21st
2006 and the middle of the following night.

EnragÃ©

31st March 2006, 00:04

deindustrialisation?
are they primitivists?

still a well written, somewhat inspiring piece

Severian

31st March 2006, 10:04

Originally posted by [email protected] 28 2006, 01:01 PM
Ok, there have been some violence by youngs against policemen, and some degradations too, but they are really commited by a few number of people (well, it may change in the next few weeks if govenment dosen't remove this law and trade unions don't call a general strike, since students will maybe feel that violence is the only way to be heard). There was also some robbery and violence against demonstrators by delinquants profiting of a weak "service of order", but i think they are neither far right people nor the majority of "ghetto" people.
Thanks for that report.

It's normal for the big-business media to exagerate the extent of violence; their sensationalist slogan is "If it bleeds, it leads."

But I gotta wonder what it means if some youth from the ghetto are attacking these protests; even if it's small, it seemss a significant and puzzling symptom.

A tentative theory: the immediate demand here benefits those who have jobs or reasonably expect to be able to get them.

For many in the suburbs - especially if they're not white - that may not seem all that likely. They may have nothing to lose from this temporary-employment law, and some may hope they have something to gain, as the government promises.

(Heck, anything which intensifies the exploitation of workers and raises profits...will improve the "competitiveness" of French business and keep more capital and employment in the country. If you're willing to work dirt cheap enough, you can always have employment. One reason the fight has to be international.)

I gotta wonder if these attacks are analogous to something which used to routinely happen in the U.S.: Black workers scabbing on strikes by the all-white craft unions.

That was a historic punishment for the failure of those unions to fight against racist discrimination; in fact they reinforced it.

Similarly, have the unions and student organizations in France fought against the pervasive racist discrimination by the employers there? For example, by demanding affirmative action, the only enforceable way of banning job discrimination? If so, I haven't heard about it.

Thanks to affirmative action in the U.S., Black workers are now thoroughly integrated into the industrial working class; with only a partial exception in some of the most privileged skilled trades. It's improbable that any strike now would see scabbing along black-white lines....there are sometimes issues with Latino or other immigrant workers, who are the new group of workers excluded from the better jobs.

Affirmative action works and helps overcome divisions in the working class.

rkn

31st March 2006, 13:52

You peeps may be interested in this interview with Florence Lefresne...

We have spoken to the economist and European labour trends specialist Florence Lefresne about the CPE. In our interview, Lefresne, of the Institute of Economic and Social Research questions the widely reported one in four youth unemployment figures that have been used repeatedly as a justification for the CPE. Outside of France, the figure has been used when portraying France as a nation with chronic youth unemployment, desperately in need of labour market reform.

http://libcom.org/blog/interview-with-florence-lefresne/

Btw, incase anyone doest know http://libcom.org/blog has the latest english languages updates on what is happening in france.

rebelworker

31st March 2006, 18:26

Here's a statement from the CNT-F. I agree that they are not leading the rebellion, but neither are the Larger unions(the CNT is a workers union)be they student or worker.

Militants of all stripes are leading this and it is good to see that organisations like the CNT, which has a revolutionary platform, even thought it is a union and not a revolutionary org., is growning.

Remember next door in Spain you have the CNT and CGT, both anarcho syndiacalist identical to the CNT-F, which have a combined membership of over 100,000 and the CGT received over 2million votes in the last round of workplace elections(in spain they have a minority union system where you dont have to be a memebr of a union to be represented by them, also you can have multiple unions representing workers in one workplace, this means unions are much smaller).

If things keep up we can hope for the growth of revolutionary unions in southern and western Europe.

en) France: CNT statement - Three million reasons to go on! [fr]
Date Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:10:04 +0200

Three million demonstrators on Tuesday 28th March! And it was a weekday... so that's three
million on strike! Both public-sector and private-sector employees realised how important
it was to strike, in order to achieve the greatest number possible on the streets to
express their total rejection of the CPE, and indeed of precarious labour in general.
But Monsieur de Villepin remains inflexible. It is not a question any more of
believing that he is acting deaf. How can he be deaf with this tidal wave of
voices? So what is Monsieur de Villepin actually saying?
That strikes are illegitimate and outmoded... That he cares little about the
size of the popular protest. That whatever the number of the strikers, they
will be always a negligible quantity.

In fact, he is taking the risk to state that the only thing that counts is the
passing of a law by a handful of parliamentarians, who, as is well known, have
no intention of stopping the process of precarization, obsessed by their desire
to reinforce capitalist exploitation. And this contempt is evident in the only
concrete answer they have given young people: hundreds of arrests, hundreds of
cases of police custody, prison sentences and police violence. We denounce all
of it.

So, what of the three million strikers of March 28 after this record
mobilization in the strike?

To let the prime minister and all governments know that the legitimacy of the
workers is not just rhetoric! That the means of production are in our hands.
That trains, schools, food, buildings, books, and everything that makes these
ministers' days, is not the result of a mouse click but the fruit of the labour
of millions of workers. It seems that the prime minister, from the dizzy
heights of his ivory tower, has forgotten this.

It is up to us to remind him - by bringing the country to a halt!

No-one else does our work for us, so let no-one else make our decisions for us!

The CNT calls on all workers, on the unemployed, on precarious workers and
"sans-papiers" to join with the university and high-school students and
participate in the general assemblies, so that sector by sector we can build
the strike from the grassroots.

For the cancellation of the "law of equal opportunity", for the cancellation of
the CPE and CNE, general strike!

Paris, 29th March 2006

Confédération Nationale du Travail
Bureau Confédéral
Secrétariat médias
[email protected]

http://www.cnt-f.org

rebelworker

31st March 2006, 18:32

To WUOrevolt:

Segments of the far right participate in anticapitalist/anti EU demonstrations in france, as they do in quebec where i live.

Rebemeber Facism has is foundations in anti state/capitalist populist movemnts.
In the early days in germany the Marxists and facists would often find themselves side by side on a baricade at a strike. this was rare but it happened.

This is were these new "third way" groups are going and why they are so popular in some places(like russia). They take leftist imagery and slogans to recruit people into an essentially facist org.

Here we usually phisically confront them to get them out, thus the Anarchist/facist clashes in france.

Janus

2nd April 2006, 22:47

Trade unions and students reject Chirac compromise.

Originally posted by BBC News
Trade unions and students have condemned a decision by French President Jacques Chirac to sign into law a controversial youth labour bill.
Union chiefs say they will press ahead with a general strike next week after Mr Chirac vowed to enact a modified version of the legislation.

Protesters took to the streets in Paris after Mr Chirac spoke on TV, but there were no reports of serious violence.

The law makes it easier for employers to hire and fire people under 26.

President jeered

In his address to the nation on Friday, Mr Chirac said the bill would become law, but promised to make some changes.
He pledged to shorten from two years to one the period in which youths under 26 could be fired - and said employers would need a reason for the dismissal.

Trade unions said Mr Chirac's plan was unacceptable, and crowds gathered in Paris booed and jeered his speech.

It seems that Mr Chirac's attempt to please everyone has ended up pleasing no-one, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris.

It leaves his government looking weak and indecisive, exactly what his Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had wanted to avoid, she says.

And it will upset those who want real reform to France's economy, while doing little to quell the anger on the streets, our correspondent adds.

'Time to defuse'

Mr Chirac said he had decided to sign the law because it had been voted through parliament and opened new employment opportunities.
But he said he understood the anxieties expressed by many young people across France.

"It is time to defuse the situation," he said.

Mr Chirac has also told employers not to put the law into practice yet, as he wants to hold more talks with business leaders and trades unionists.

Following the president's speech, hundreds of students took to the streets of Paris shouting slogans against Mr Chirac.

French news agency AFP said some shop windows were smashed and bins were upturned, but it said there were no reports of serious violence.
Union leaders said they would go ahead with another one-day strike next Tuesday.

"We don't want to negotiate. We don't want it at all," Bruno Julliard, head of the largest students' union, told French TV.

"The president had the chance to give a clear answer, which he didn't do."

The opposition Socialists said Mr Chirac had failed to calm the atmosphere and there was now "much to fear".

"There will be more demonstrations," leader Francois Hollande said.

'Political son'

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has championed the law, despite its deep unpopularity.

FRENCH STUDENT PROTESTS
2005: Conservative education minister withdraws key elements of school reform after pupils and teachers protest
1995: Protests over pension reforms push conservative PM Alain Juppe from office two years later
1994: Conservative PM Edouard Balladur abandons law cutting wages for young people in job training in face of month of protests
1986: Conservative government shelves plan to implement university reform in face of mass protest
May 1968: Uprisings help undermine legitimacy of President Charles de Gaulle, who stands down following year

Q&A: Labour law row

His government insists it will help tackle high levels of youth unemployment - currently running at more than 20%.

Youth unemployment and lack of opportunities were widely blamed for last year's riots in France poorest communities.

The government says the new law will help jobless youngsters in those areas, where youth unemployment can reach 40%.

But students say the law will erode stability in the jobs market.

Mr de Villepin had urged the president to back the law, apparently making it clear he felt so strongly that he could resign if the president backed down.

Mr Chirac is loath to lose Mr de Villepin as prime minister - he remains his political son and chosen heir for the presidency, our correspondent says.

Students, unions and left-wing political parties have staged a three-week campaign of strikes and demonstrations against the law, known as CPE, with some protests turning violent.

Janus

2nd April 2006, 23:17

Unions Plan Protests As Chirac Signs Bill

Originally posted by AP Press
President Jacques Chirac signed a contested measure to promote jobs for youths into law on Sunday even though he has said it would be replaced by a modified version to defuse a crisis that has led to violent demonstrations.

However, unions hoped that another round of strikes and demonstrations set for Tuesday would provide a still more powerful push to get the measure — in any form — withdrawn.

The head of the CFDT union predicted the struggle would be drawn out and would not lose momentum when spring vacations start next week.

The governing party's leader in the lower house, Bernard Accoyer, said starting Tuesday he would ask for meetings with unions to open a dialogue with critics, as Chirac asked, before a new bill is written. Previous efforts at dialogue have failed.

The contested measure, known as the First Job Contract, appeared in the "Official Journal" Sunday where all new laws are recorded. The measure is meant to cut a 22 percent unemployment rate among youths that reaches 50 percent in some poor, heavily immigrant neighborhoods. It offers an incentive for employers to hire those under 26 by enabling them to fire those workers within the first two years without saying why.

Chirac, in a television address Friday night, said he wanted a softer, revised law with two key modifications. Those changes would reduce the trial period for new young hires from two years to one. And in case of a firing, it would require employers to say why the employee was let go.

The modified version would replace the unpopular law, which Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has vigorously defended. Villepin cited the national statistics agency as saying it would create up to 80,000 new jobs at zero cost to the state.

Chirac said he signed the contested law out of respect for French institutions, noting that it had been passed by parliament and approved by the Constitutional Council. However, in a rare twist, he asked that the law not be applied.

Opposition politicians criticized that maneuver as "surrealistic" and "undemocratic."

Chirac's double-barreled approach — keeping the law alive, at least in theory — was a face-saving measure for Villepin. But asking for a second bill was seen as a rebuff. A decision announced Saturday to turn the writing of that bill over to lawmakers — removing it from Villepin's hands — was viewed as a further insult.

The move to place the new bill in the hands of parliament put Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy — Villepin's party rival — at center-stage in pulling the country out of the crisis. Sarkozy had said the law should be suspended. The ambitious minister hopes to be a presidential candidate in 2007 elections for the governing Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, which he heads.

Villepin, in an interview with the weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, said he did not feel disavowed by Chirac, who is thought to have wanted him as his successor in the presidency.

"There is misunderstanding and incomprehension about the direction of my action. I profoundly regret it," he told the paper.

Asked if he had made mistakes, he replied, "Of course, in all political action there is some error." But, he added, "the main error, the only one that would have been unforgivable, would have been to do nothing against the mass unemployment in our country."

CFDT union chief Francois Chereque told France Inter radio Sunday that Sarkozy had contacted him and other union members a day earlier.

The mobilization against the law must continue, he said.

"The object of (Tuesday's) demonstration is repealing" the law, he said. "There needs to be a lot of us, and we must go for the long haul since the parliamentary debate will take time."

Just how long the movement lasts "depends on the sense of responsibility of lawmakers," he added.

state's fiend

3rd April 2006, 19:35

Chirac is not afraid. Didn't he sign the bill in defiance of the huge opposition. There will not be any capitulation of the government until many people take to the streets and cause violence. I don't mean isolated acts of terrorism. I mean several thousand people---- in the midst of the million man march----- fucking up some cops and causing destruction.

EnragÃ©

3rd April 2006, 21:27

maybe they'll storm the Assemblée Nationale

that'd be cool

Janus

3rd April 2006, 21:58

French students hint at law talks

Originally posted by BBC News
A French student leader has hinted at talks with the government over a controversial new labour law, as protesters prepare for more action.
Unions and student groups are hoping to attract one million people to protests against the CPE contracts on Tuesday.

Bruno Julliard, of student union Unef, said he would accept an invitation to talks, if employers did not use the contracts in the meantime.

The law making it easy to hire and fire young people came into force on Sunday.

'Edge of victory'

President Jacques Chirac, who signed it in, said he wanted a new law halving the probationary period and requiring employers to justify redundancies.

The government has asked employers not to take advantage of provisions that allow them to fire people under 26 without explanation during their first two years at work.
French newspapers say Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has taken over from his arch-rival, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in the search for a solution to avert further, often violent, protests.

Universities and colleges have been disrupted for weeks by blockades and occupations. Street protests organised by the students and unions have attracted thousands of mainly peaceful protesters in towns and cities across the country.

Violence has often flared when troublemakers have clashed with police.

Student leader Bruno Julliard told France Inter radio: "We will answer yes to the invitation (to talks) as long as there is a guarantee that no CPE contract will be signed in the coming days."

But he added: "We are on the edge of victory."

Lack of options

In a televised speech on Friday, Mr Chirac pledged to shorten from two years to one the period in which young people under 26 could be fired - and said employers would need a reason for the dismissal.

Trade unions said Mr Chirac's plan was unacceptable.

Prime Minister de Villepin championed the law, despite its deep unpopularity.

His government insists it will help tackle high levels of youth unemployment - currently running at more than 20%.

Youth unemployment and lack of opportunities were widely blamed for last year's riots in France poorest communities.

The government says the new law will help jobless youngsters in those areas, where youth unemployment can reach 40%. But students say the law will erode stability in the jobs market.

which doctor

4th April 2006, 02:30

There is an unlimited strike set for tommorrow?.

What exactly is an unlimited strike?

Mujer Libre

4th April 2006, 13:16

Originally posted by Fist of [email protected] 4 2006, 01:39 AM
There is an unlimited strike set for tommorrow?.

What exactly is an unlimited strike?
I'd assume it's a strike that keeps going until the strikers demands are met.

Severian

4th April 2006, 18:18

A strike that doesn't have a set end date, anyway.

Strikes in France are typically brief, in part because there are no strike funds or strike pay.

That's part of why they tend to spread very widely, very quickly; strikers know they have to call out as many workplaces and industries as possible, cause as much disruption as they can - quickly.

atlanticche

4th April 2006, 19:36

*sigh*
why cant they just put all this protesting effort into the new smoking laws in the UK

Syndicalista

4th April 2006, 20:07

Hopefully the demonstrators will gain more followers who are actuall socialists wich are prepared to go further then just peacefully demonstrating. Be they anarchists, Anachro-Syndicalists, Maoists or communists, it does not matter.

Let's spend the easter in a productive manner and travel to france together!

Janus

4th April 2006, 22:20

Hundreds of thousands have taken part in the latest protests across France.

Originally posted by BBC News
Unions and student groups were hoping to repeat last week's rallies, when more than one million people marched nationwide against the legislation.

There were some scuffles between protestors and police in Paris, which saw violence during previous rallies.

The law making it easy to hire and fire young people came into force on Sunday.

But the government has asked French employers not to apply it until amendments are made.

Tuesday saw Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin insist that the new law was necessary to tackle high youth unemployment.

"The government will not give up," he said. "It will not associate itself with those in the country who want to remain stagnant."

Nationwide

More than 200 rallies were planned for Tuesday - the fifth day of protests across France in two months.
A spokesman for trade union CGT said that 3.1 million people had turned out nationwide, but police put the figure at just over one million.

Large demonstrations have been taking place in regional centres such as Marseille in the south, and Bordeaux and Nantes in the west.

Organisers said the main rally in Paris, which started on Tuesday afternoon, attracted some 700,000 demonstrators, while the police said the figure was 84,000.

Scuffles broke out towards the end of the rally, with some protesters throwing rocks and bottles at riot police in the Place d'Italie in the south.

Police said nine people were slightly injured in the mostly peaceful march.

Transport is being affected nationwide, although the impact appears weaker than a similar strike a week ago:

Civil aviation authorities report some delays at French airports and some internal flights are cancelled

Two-thirds of high-speed inter-city rail links are operating normally

The Paris metro is operating almost normally and so are buses

Some schools have also closed in response to the unions' call for a general strike.

Truce in sight?

Bernard Thibault, head of trade union CGT, said the action was aimed at getting the law withdrawn as it was now legally in force.
President Jacques Chirac's conservative party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), has signalled further possible climbdowns on the measure.

"We'll be ready as of tomorrow [Wednesday] to receive the unions, to listen to them. There won't be any limits to the talks," UMP parliamentary chief Bernard Accoyer said.

On Friday, President Chirac pledged to shorten from two years to one the period in which young people could be fired, and said employers would need to give a reason for dismissal.

But trade unions say the proposed amendments are unacceptable.

Political rivalry

French newspapers say Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has effectively taken over from Mr de Villepin in the search for a solution.

The two men are tipped as rivals as right-wing candidates to succeed President Chirac in the 2007 presidential election.

Mr de Villepin's poll ratings for his handling of the economy have slumped to the lowest level since he took office nearly a year ago, in a survey released on Tuesday.

Mr de Villepin's government says the law will help tackle high levels of youth unemployment - currently running at more than 20%.

Janus

4th April 2006, 23:32

Police, Jobs Law Protesters Clash in Paris

Originally posted by AP Press
Rioting youths swarmed across a downtown Paris plaza, ripping up street signs and park benches and hurling stones and chunks of pavement at police at the end of the largest of massive but mostly peaceful protests Tuesday across France against a new jobs law.

Riot police fired tear gas and rubber pellets and made repeated charges into the crowds of several hundred youths at Place d'Italie on the Left Bank, carrying away those they arrested.

The clashes came as more than 1 million people poured into the streets across the country, including 84,000 in Paris, according to police. Union organizers put the figure in the capital at 700,000 — and 3 million nationwide.

But the violence in Paris was less intense than at previous marches against the law, and the country was less affected by an accompanying national strike. As before, the Paris violence appeared to involve youths from tougher suburbs and extremists from both the far right and far left.

"It is giving them too much credit to ascribe an ideology to them. These are just hoodlums, who come to break and pillage. I'm not sure there is an ideology behind all this," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Groups of these youths attacked bystanders, news photographers and protesters, kicking and punching some. They used metal bars to break up chunks of pavement that they hurled at helmeted riot officers, who advanced behind raised shields to sweep the square clear.

Youths also smashed store windows, bus shelters and clashed with police in Rennes, in northwest France. Store fronts, cars and telephone boxes also were damaged in Lille in the northeast.

Police said they took 383 people into custody in Paris, where 18 people also suffered slight injuries, and another 243 elsewhere in France. The violence marred another day of demonstrations against the jobs law, which would make it easier to fire young workers.

There were 268 marches nationwide, according to police. It was the second Tuesday running that unions and student groups had mobilized so many protesters, maintaining intense pressure on President Jacques Chirac's government to withdraw the measure.

Strikers again shut down the Eiffel Tower, where tourists stood bewildered before the closed gates. Parisian commuters flattened themselves onto subway trains limited by the strike. Garbage bins in some Paris neighborhoods stood overflowing and uncollected by striking sanitation workers.

Still, the renewed nationwide work stoppages lost a little steam compared to a week earlier.

This time mail was delivered, more planes and trains were running, fewer teachers stayed off the job and there were fewer disruptions to daily life. The government said fewer high schools and colleges were closed or suffering disruptions.

Paris police stepped up their efforts to thwart troublemakers, deploying 4,000 officers Tuesday. Armed riot officers pulled over train travelers disembarking from the suburbs before the protest, searching their bags and checking identities. The Paris march snaked from the Place de la Republique and crossed the Seine River to finish at Place d'Italie on the Left Bank.

Students backed by unions have spearheaded ever-larger marches for two months against the jobs law. Chirac signed it anyway Sunday, saying it will help France keep up with the global economy.

He offered modifications, but students and unions rejected them, saying they want the law withdrawn, not softened.

"We are really close to getting the government to give in," said Marc Dago, a high school geology teacher at the Paris march. "If we give in now, the government is going to carry out much more harmful and far-reaching reforms that will affect all workers, not just the young."

In a sign that the impasse might be easing, major unions agreed to talks Wednesday with members of Chirac's party charged with drawing up the president's proposed modifications to the jobs law, although the labor leaders also said they would hold firm on their demand that the jobs law be withdrawn.

"The priority is to come out of the current crisis," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in parliament Tuesday.

Villepin championed the disputed "first job contract" to stem chronic youth unemployment rates, which run at 22 percent and as high as 50 percent among youths in some depressed, heavily immigrant neighborhoods hit by weeks of riots last fall.

He maintains the measure would encourage hiring by giving employers greater flexibility, allowing them to fire workers under 26 if things don't work out in their first two years on a job.

But critics say the law threatens France's hallmark labor protections, and the crisis has severely damaged Villepin's political reputation.

Chirac stepped in Friday to order two major modifications — reducing a trial period of two years to one year and forcing employers to explain any firings — in hopes of defusing the crisis. In so doing, he dealt a blow to Villepin, his one-time top aide and apparent choice as successor in elections next year.

Chirac signed the original measure into law this weekend, as promised, but also effectively suspended it with an order that it not be applied. The 73-year-old president's legal sleight of hand kept the law alive while a new version is in the works.

which doctor

4th April 2006, 23:42

This is not good news:

Cops have new tactics since last week demonstration a lot of them - divided in groups of ten to fifty - are wearing civilian clothes and unions or parties badges - like demonstrators - and they charge by surprise in the flanks of rioters. So next struggle will be for the release of tens that have been caught today…

EnragÃ©

5th April 2006, 22:40

Originally posted by Fist of [email protected] 4 2006, 10:51 PM
This is not good news:

Cops have new tactics since last week demonstration a lot of them - divided in groups of ten to fifty - are wearing civilian clothes and unions or parties badges - like demonstrators - and they charge by surprise in the flanks of rioters. So next struggle will be for the release of tens that have been caught today…
I saw that happening live on tv...

it was extremely effective :(

divide and conquer in its purest form

Monty Cantsin

5th April 2006, 22:54

Janus

5th April 2006, 23:15

Can anyone think of a good way to counter that?
That definitely presents a thorny problem. However, without riot gear they can be neutralized if the response is quick and effective by the demonstrators (I suppose that the demonstrators will have to hit them before they form into lines). I'm sure that this technique will lose its surprise and effectiveness in a short bit. But I haven't seen what the cops do so my analysis or method probably isn't effective.

Anyways, here's the latest news coming from France.

Originally posted by BBC News
French trade unions have set a deadline of mid-April for the government to withdraw a controversial youth labour law designed to tackle unemployment.
Otherwise, the unions said, they were ready to organise a "new day of action" along with student groups.

Union leaders began a meeting with governing party officials on Wednesday to press their demands.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France on Tuesday in the latest of a series of rallies.

Critics say the First Employment Contract (CPE) law makes it easier for employers to dismiss young workers. They also say it undermines traditional job protection.

The government argues the law is needed to reduce high youth unemployment.

Concessions

Protesters have given President Jacques Chirac until the start of parliament's spring recess on the Easter weekend to withdraw the controversial law creating the CPE or face more strikes and protests.

A joint statement for protesting groups said they were "ready, unless there is a rapid decision to withdraw the CPE, to decide on a new day of action".
The head of the main CGT union, Bernard Thibault, said he would not give up until the law was repealed.

Millions of people have taken to the streets across the country in a series of protests against the law, which came into force on Sunday.

The government has made a number of concessions, including asking French employers not to use the contract until amendments are made.

On Friday, President Chirac pledged to shorten the period in which young people could be fired from two years to one and said employers would need to give a reason for dismissal.

Trade unions say the proposed amendments are unacceptable.

But Laurence Parisot, head of the Medef employers group, said on Tuesday that the protests were posing a threat to the economy.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the ruling centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), is chairing Wednesday's talks.

The party has already signalled further possible climb-down's.

"We'll be ready as of [Wednesday] to receive the unions, to listen to them. There won't be any limits to the talks," UMP parliamentary chief Bernard Accoyer said.

bcbm

6th April 2006, 02:27

Originally posted by Monty Cantsin+Apr 5 2006, 04:03 PM--> (Monty Cantsin @ Apr 5 2006, 04:03 PM)
Fist of [email protected] 4 2006, 10:51 PM
This is not good news:

Cops have new tactics since last week demonstration a lot of them - divided in groups of ten to fifty - are wearing civilian clothes and unions or parties badges - like demonstrators - and they charge by surprise in the flanks of rioters. So next struggle will be for the release of tens that have been caught today…
Can anyone think of a good way to counter that? [/b]
Sure. If they're going to dress up like protestors, the protestors should simply start dressing up like cops.

Fuzzy_Louster

6th April 2006, 04:03

Sure. If they're going to dress up like protestors, the protestors should simply start dressing up like cops.

Yeah, that would work, because I am pretty sure french police would rather just give up instead of sorting out that mess.

dusk

6th April 2006, 13:47

I'm dissapointed that civilians beat the shit out of eachother.
Let them organize better.
And be one fist to punch their regime.

Janus

6th April 2006, 17:45

Students in France are blocking roads and railroads.

Originally posted by AP
Students protesting a new labor law put more pressure on France's embattled government Thursday by blocking roads, trains and a convoy of parts heading to the factory that builds the world's largest airliner.
About 100 students blocked a highway used by trucks carrying Airbus A380 parts to the factory outside Toulouse, in southwest France. The pre-dawn protest was calm but prevented the delivery for about two and a half hours, police said.

Students who participated in massive nationwide street demonstrations that drew between 1 million and 3 million protesters Tuesday were using wildcat disruptions around the country Thursday as they tried to force the government to repeal a law that will make it easier to hire and fire young people.

Demonstrators burst onto tracks at two Paris train stations, and police in riot gear pushed them back. Protesters also slowed traffic around Paris' Orly airport, forcing some harried travelers to drag their luggage on foot.

Many universities have been disrupted or shut for weeks. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin — whose standing has been badly damaged by the standoff — appealed for an end to protests Thursday.

"The immediate priority, as we all know, is restoring calm. It is time to get out of the crisis and rediscover the serenity and unity of the whole country," he said.

Villepin also tried to quash speculation about whether he would resign, insisting he would carry what he called his battle against chronic unemployment "through to the end."

Unions and ruling party lawmakers were in talks about the job law for a second day Thursday. Unions stressed that they would not drop their demand that parliament scrap the law. An ultimatum issued Wednesday demanded the government repeal the law by April 15 or face more mayhem.

Villepin championed the law to stem youth unemployment rates that average 22 percent and reach as high as 50 percent in some depressed, heavily immigrant suburbs hit by weeks of riots last year. Unions are angry that Villepin pushed it through quickly, without consulting them.

"I wanted to go quickly, it's true, simply because I want results," Villepin said Thursday.

The law is designed to untangle France's rigid labor market and reduce youth joblessness by making it easier for companies to fire workers under age 26.

Villepin had argued that giving companies that right would spur hiring, giving youths vital experience that could help them get more permanent contracts later. Opponents fear it is the beginning of a chipping away of France's cherished labor protections.

Most French workers hold a permanent contract and can plan to hold their jobs until retirement. Employers who want to fire a worker must give three months' notice to most employees, pay fines to the state and provide up to three years' severance pay.

Janus

6th April 2006, 18:13

The French prime minister doesn't seem to want to compromise.

Originally posted by BBC News
French PM Dominique de Villepin has said he will battle on to the end to solve youth unemployment, and urged protesting students to resume studying.
He told his monthly press conference that it was time to "end the crisis" over his controversial youth jobs law.

Millions have demonstrated over the past few weeks against the law.

The unions have given the government until Easter weekend to withdraw the law or face a repeat of the recent general strikes.

Rejecting rumours that he was ready to resign in face of the protests, Mr de Villepin said the new law was a tool to bring down unemployment.

Mr de Villepin said that in underprivileged areas up to 50% of young people were jobless. The national rate of youth unemployment is more than 20%.
"The president of the republic has entrusted me with a mission and I shall conduct this mission to its conclusion," he said.

"It is time to put this crisis behind us, to restore calm and unity to the country," he said. "The immediate priority... is naturally to calm things down."

Looking tanned and remarkably relaxed, Mr de Villepin laughed off suggestions that he was thinking of resigning over the current crisis, says the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris.

However, he avoided giving any direct answer on whether the controversial youth jobs law that sparked weeks of demonstrations would be withdrawn entirely, as the trade unions have demanded, she adds.

Blockades

France has been ablaze with speculation over the prime minister's future after he was effectively sidelined on this issue by his ambitious cabinet rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, our correspondent says.

As head of the governing UMP party, Mr Sarkozy is helping to lead the negotiations with the trade unions.

Some students and school pupils are continuing to blockade universities, as well as disrupting railway stations by staging sit-ins on the tracks.

Mr de Villepin called on them to get back to their studies while unions and the government hammer out a solution to the crisis.

Unions and students oppose the First Employment Contract (CPE) law which allows firms to sack youngsters without explanation during the first two years.

Janus

6th April 2006, 21:27

This man won't resign either. This doesn't hold well for those wanting a peaceful solution.

Originally posted by AP
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin refused to say whether the measure would be repealed.

Villepin spoke more clearly about his own destiny, brushing off growing speculation that he would resign.

President Jacques Chirac "gave me a mission, and this mission, I will lead it to the end," Villepin told a news conference. "All the rest is pure speculation and fantasy."

Calling for calm, he said he was listening to the voices of discontent over his reform aimed at denting sky-high joblessness among youth by making it easier for employers to hire and fire younger workers. Lawmakers from the governing Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, met for a second day with unions and students in search of a way out. Protesters are demanding the measure be withdrawn.

"The immediate priority, as we all know, is restoring calm," Villepin said. "It is time to get out of the crisis."

The job law has inspired disruptive protests at hundreds of universities and high schools and spurred massive demonstrations and violence by some protesters.

The law originally provided for a two-year trial period during which employers could fire youths under 26 without cause, a measure meant to spur hiring. Protesters say it would make young employees disposable.

Stepping up wildcat disruptions, students set up a pre-dawn blockade Thursday that halted a convoy of parts for the Airbus A380 jumbo jet, the world's largest airliner and the crown jewel of European aviation.

Students paralyzed all train traffic at the Gare du Nord station in Paris for nearly two hours, blocking trains to and from London, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Some 200 police in riot gear moved the protesters out, allowing thousands of passengers packed into the station to start their travels.

Protesters earlier occupied the tracks of another Paris station, the Gare de l'Est, for an hour. In the eastern city of Strasbourg, several hundred students blocked the Pont de l'Europe bridge that links France and Germany.

There was some violence during the evacuation of some 450 students blocking rails at a train station in the southwest city of Toulouse, and four protesters and a police officer were hospitalized, officials of the local prefecture said. The officer had been hit with a stone. The Sud railway workers union denounced the force used by police as "totally out of proportion."

"This is very irritating, but I can understand it," said John Ring, a 40-year-old French businessman at the Gare du Nord who was trying to get to The Hague, Netherlands. "What I can't understand is how the government would allow the situation to get to this point."

Villepin relentlessly defended the job proposal for weeks until Chirac signed the controversial measure into law last weekend but ordered the talks with labor and student groups.

Villepin refused to prejudge the outcome of negotiations, appearing to back down from his previous, inflexible stance.

"I am pragmatic. In this time of dialogue it is important to be open," he said. "I am listening."

But the prime minister insisted that the 23 percent youth unemployment rate, which climbs above 50 percent in depressed, heavily immigrant neighborhoods, is at the heart of many French problems, including riots last fall.

"It is my responsibility, as head of the government, not to allow such a situation go unanswered," he said. "Our country today needs action."

Djehuti

6th April 2006, 22:51

On the 11th there will be a new major strike in France. In several swedish cities we are planning solidarity and class struggle actions and demonstrations the 11th.

I hope we are not alone in this. Are you planning something in your city?

bcbm

6th April 2006, 23:52

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 09:12 PM

Sure. If they're going to dress up like protestors, the protestors should simply start dressing up like cops.

Yeah, that would work, because I am pretty sure french police would rather just give up instead of sorting out that mess.
There have been past instances of people dressing up like cops and, well, "acting the part" quite well. The end result was the real police shooting rubber bullets and tear gas, clubbing and arresting each other.

which doctor

7th April 2006, 00:14

Originally posted by [email protected] 6 2006, 05:00 PM
On the 11th there will be a new major strike in France. In several swedish cities we are planning solidarity and class struggle actions and demonstrations the 11th.

I hope we are not alone in this. Are you planning something in your city?
All the strikes seem to be on tuesdays. Anyone know why that is?

piet11111

7th April 2006, 00:38

Originally posted by Fist of Blood+Apr 6 2006, 11:23 PM--> (Fist of Blood @ Apr 6 2006, 11:23 PM)
[email protected] 6 2006, 05:00 PM
On the 11th there will be a new major strike in France. In several swedish cities we are planning solidarity and class struggle actions and demonstrations the 11th.

I hope we are not alone in this. Are you planning something in your city?
All the strikes seem to be on tuesdays. Anyone know why that is? [/b]
the weekend hangovers are over so they feel good enough to fight ?

i so want to be there but im in big debt so i dont have the means to get there (or to get a decend riot suit)
and my french is not so good (actually the little knowledge of french i had was lost during the time the beer was well stocked)

also how big is the union influence over the students now ?
if this has to be something revolutionary the unions must be kept out of it as much as possible (and the unions must never be able to claim the victory after all of this)today unions are just another part of capitalist government.

Commie Rat

7th April 2006, 01:41

Lets see some Aus comrades do the same on our new workplace argeements!

Janus

7th April 2006, 19:18

I think that a resolution may be in sight.

Originally posted by AFP
France's ruling party wrapped up three days of talks with unions over a divisive youth jobs reform, as business leaders called for a rapid end to the crisis to avoid harming the economy.

Unions and student groups -- in a position of strength after two months of demonstrations that have drawn millions on to the streets -- have threatened more mass protests unless the measure is abrogated by the end of next week.

The main UNEF student union pressed on with its campaign against the First Employment Contract (CPE), which makes it easier to fire under-26 year-olds, announcing a new day of nationwide action on Tuesday.

President Jacques Chirac has already effectively suspended the contested measure, asking the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) to draw up a new law after consulting leaders of the protest movement.

Commentators said President Jacques Chirac's government appeared to have all but given up on the youth contract, but was looking for a way to repeal it without losing face.

"How to come up with a measure that looks, tastes and acts like an abrogation, but is not called an abrogation?" summed up an editorial in the left-wing Liberation newspaper.

UMP lawmakers Friday held the last of three days of meetings with unions and student groups, as well as the MEDEF employers' association and the CGPME small business federation.

Following the talks, the UMP's leader in parliament, Bernard Accoyer, told a press conference that a new law would be drawn up on the basis of the discussion -- perhaps as early as Monday, according to his office.

MEDEF head Laurence Parisot warned Friday that the protest movement -- in which students have targeted transport and industrial sites -- risked harming the French economy.

"We must do everything to quickly end this crisis, which is costing our country dearly," she told France 2 television.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's authority has been badly undermined by the labour conflict, and his chances as a presidential candidate all but destroyed, although on Thursday he ruled out resigning over the crisis.

Humiliatingly for Villepin, responsibility for negotiating a way out of the crisis has been handed to his powerful rival, UMP chief and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Commentators say that many supporters of Sarkozy in the UMP are angry at Villepin's handling of the reform and feel little attachment to the CPE.

On Friday, former minister Roselyne Bachelot -- a Sarkozy ally and senior UMP official -- became the latest party figure to call openly for the CPE to be scrapped.

Conceived as a tool against youth unemployment, which runs at 22 percent in France, the CPE is a contract for under 26-year-olds that can be terminated by the employer without explanation during a two-year trial period.

It provoked a massive backlash, with Villepin accused of trampling on hard-won labour rights, and a sometimes violent protest movement in which more than 3,500 people have been arrested.

Students continued to stage wildcat protests on Friday to keep up the pressure on the government, blocking roads and public transport in Paris and several cities including Nantes in the west and Bordeaux in the southwest.

In Paris, nine people were slightly injured when a driver -- apparently intentionally -- rammed into a group of student protestors on the Boulevard Saint Michel.

In Le Havre in the north, around 400 students occupied the offices of a UMP deputy before heading to the courtroom and city hall to press their demands.

Student leaders called for large-scale protests to resume on Tuesday, saying they were determined the movement would not fizzle out with academic holidays -- which start Friday in a third of the country.

There have been mounting calls for work to resume at disrupted schools and universities to let students prepare for end-of-year exams.

Djehuti

8th April 2006, 20:12

"Nous Sommes Tous Des Casseurs"
Youth Revolt in France, March 1994
http://geocities.com/cordobakaf/casseurs.html

You will probably understand the current movement better after reading these texts.

Janus

10th April 2006, 22:25

Chirac has bowed to pressure and replaced the law

Originally posted by AP
President Jacques Chirac on Monday scrapped a controversial part of a youth labor law that triggered massive protests and strikes, bowing to intense pressure from students and unions and dealing a blow to his loyal premier in a bid to end the crisis.

Unions celebrated what they called "a great victory," and also were deciding whether to keep up the protests. The top two student union UNEF and FIDL said they would press on with demonstrations Tuesday across France.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who devised the law, had faced down protesters for weeks, insisting that its most divisive provision — a so-called "first job contract" — was necessary to reduce high unemployment rates among French youths by making it easier for companies to hire and fire young workers.

But acting on advice from Villepin, his longtime protege, Chirac "decided to replace" the provision with one aimed at "youths in difficulty," the president's office said.

Top lawmakers from Chirac's ruling conservative party presented a new plan to parliament Monday. The proposal emerged after legislative talks last week with unions and student groups to find ways to end the crisis.

A somber Villepin, in a TV appearance, said his original legislation was designed to curb "despair of many youths" and strike a "better balance ... between more flexibility for the employer and more security for workers."

"This was not understood by everyone, I'm sorry to say," Villepin said.

The crisis has discredited Chirac and devastated Villepin and his presidential ambitions — and thrown into question the government's ability to push through painful reforms to help France compete in the global economy. The new measures increase the government's role in the workplace instead of decreasing them, as Villepin had sought.

Students and other opponents had feared the previous measure would erode coveted job security — and some unions trumpeted the retreat by Chirac and his prime minister.

The labor law "is dead and buried," said Jean-Claude Mailly of the Workers Force union. "The goal has been achieved."

Alain Olive, secretary-general of the UNSA union, said, "After more than two weeks of intense mobilization, the 12 syndicated groups of workers, university and high school students have won a great victory."

UNEF leader Bruno Julliard told AP Television News that the students "want to see how we can take advantage of this power struggle that is now in our favor to garner new victories."

The new four-point plan sent to parliament would bolster existing job contracts, rather than enact new ones. The government would offer more state support for companies that hire young workers.

Other provisions would increase internships in areas where jobs are relatively plentiful — such as in restaurants, hotels and nursing — or guide jobseekers in their careers.

Some 160,000 youths would be affected by the new measures this year, at a cost of some $180 million to the state.

The "first job contract" would have allowed employers to fire workers aged under 26 at any time during a two-year trial period without giving a reason.

Chirac enacted the law earlier this month, but immediately suspended it to give ruling conservative lawmakers a chance to meet with unions and look for a way out of the turmoil.

Villepin drew up the labor legislation as part of his response to last fall's rioting in France's impoverished suburbs, where many immigrants and their French-born children live. The unemployment rate for youths under 26 is a staggering 22 percent nationwide, but soars to nearly 50 percent in some of those troubled areas.

The plan sparked weeks of protests and strikes that shut down dozens of universities, prompted clashes between youths and police, and tangled road, train and air travel.

At least five demonstrations since early March drew more than 100,000 people, culminating in two that each brought at least 1 million to the streets across France in the past two weeks. Many ended in violence as youths threw stones, bottles and other projectiles at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas and swinging batons.

Unions had been threatening more demonstrations and walkouts just hours before the announcement from Chirac — and some students appeared unwilling to abandon their protest right away.

"We must go forward carefully," said Lise Prunier, an 18-year-old biology student at the University of Paris-Jussieu. "For the moment, our movement will continue."

Villepin, widely seen as a potential candidate for next year's presidential elections, has suffered heavy blows to his popularity over the crisis.

A new poll showed that 85 percent of French people think the crisis has also weakened the 73-year-old Chirac, in power for 11 years. The poll was conducted by the CSA polling agency last week among 1,005 respondents and gave no margin of error.

which doctor

11th April 2006, 03:34

Anti-CPE resistance continues!

Originally posted by libcom
The withdrawal of the CPE was announced today. This is a victory for the protesters, however the government still has the ability to strongarm similar legislation through and has not withdrawn the other parts of the “loi sur l’egalite des chances” of which the CPE was only a part. The alliance of unions that opposed the CPE has called for a continuation of the struggle as have many of the protesting groups. The CPE was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but the reaction may well see all similar legislation withdrawn.

At an AG attended by roughly 3000 students Nantes University has voted to continue the blockade until 19th April. A demonstration was called for tonight and a further demonstration and probable blockade of the station was also called for.

Students at the Saint Charles College of Marseille University voted on Monday to continue the strike and the blockade, they have also called for a demonstration on tuesday morning in the old port area.

Students at the University in Aix-en-Provence voted to continue the blockade and have called an action tomorrow morning, in solidarity with workers.

T. R. President of the Independent, Democratic Federation of Schoolchildren, himself a pupil in Vitrolles (Bouches-du-Rhoe) has also called for students to continue their protests and maintain the struggle.

At Lille I university the blockade will continue until the end of the week, after an AG today.

At the IUT B in Tourcoing a continuation of the blockade has been agreed until tomorrow morning.

Paris VIII university has been closed by its President, not in solidarity but to deny the students a place to hold meetings. This decision was taken without consulting university staff. Students have called for the reopening of the university, to provide a space for AGs to be held, and for the resignation of the president Pierre Lunel, he was apparently last seen in Taiwan, obviously events closer to home are not as important to M. Lunel.

Rouen University has almost unanimously, at an AG attended by over 1200 students, to continue the blockade. Describing the withdrawal as a “step back” by the government, but not as “satisfactory”. A demonstration for tuesday morning was agreed on, as was the blockading of the major roads in the town.

Montpellier: Montpellier III has voted at an AG to continue the blockade. The president has attempted to gain control of the process by calling for a vote by secret ballot on the 13th April, the students have responded that they vote in this manner already. There are rumours that Montpellier II has lifted its blockade, these are unconfirmed.

A demonstration was called this evening at 8pm in front of the Bastille by Parisian students, calling for the resignations of Chirac, Sarkozy and Villepin.

Toulouse: Students at Toulouse Mirail university have reacted “sceptically” to the withdrawal of the CPE and have voted to continue both the blockade and the Strike until next thursday. Teaching staff have supported this move and have voted to continue their own strike action until tuesday. They have called for students from the Toulouse to join a mass demonstration. A programme of action for this week has been published. http://toulouse.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=4929
students at Toulouse Rangeuil: AG are held every day and have so far voted for the maintenance of blockades, by large majorities. a programme of action has ben published for this week. http://toulouse.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=4936
Paul Sabatier university voted to continue the strike and the blockade, and students have voted to extend the struggle to economic targets like Airbus. Students have also recognise the support of the teaching staff who have alsom voted to strike.

Toulouse: 1000 Students at St Sernin have voted to blockade the school on tuesday. The blockade had been lifted at the AG on Friday after two weeks. The students have called on other students to blockade their schools.