US media blackout on French protests

[funeralcrasher]

From thomhartmann.com:

"Despite the huge turn-out for the street marches - police estimated the national total to be 1,500,000, and unions double that - the Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, may take some comfort from yesterday's events." - CommonDreams.org













Vivent Les Francais!!!! a

Over a million French protest law

Truthout.org

French Police Try to Disperse Protesters
The Associated Press

Tuesday 28 March 2006

Paris - Nationwide strikes disrupted airline, train and bus service, closed the Eiffel Tower and sent hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets across France on Tuesday as unions joined in solidarity with students angered by a new labor law.

Police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse some demonstrators, who threw stones, bottles and traffic cones at police.

As public pressure mounted amid the largest demonstrations yet against the controversial youth employment contract, cracks appeared within the conservative government.

In a clear break with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that the measure be suspended to allow talks with unions.

Tuesday's strikes represented the first time that the unions had ordered walkouts in support of the student protests of the labor law, which would make it easier for companies to fire young workers.

Organizers estimated that 3 million people joined marches across the country - claiming 700,000 in Paris alone. Police estimates were far lower.

Some of the marchers in Paris skirmished with each other, as union members armed with truncheons charged several dozen youths who tried to break into a lingerie store. Other demonstrators threw stones, traffic cones and other projectiles at riot police, who surged repeatedly into the crowds to make arrests.

Helmeted police fired tear gas and water cannons. One youth was seen beating a man to get a camera, and the window of a cell phone store was smashed. Some demonstrators hid their faces with balaclavas and scarves.

"We need a little violence," said Florent Souillot, 21, a literature student at the Sorbonne University, closed for weeks by strikes.

But the deployment of 4,000 officers and increased patrols at train and subway stations appeared to prevent a resurgence of the more intense violence that marred previous demonstrations.

Protests elsewhere drew 31,000 in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, 28,000 in the southern port city of Marseille, 26,000 in the Alpine city of Grenoble, 17,000 in Lyon and more than 120,000 in nearly a dozen other cities and towns, according to police estimates. Organizers' figures were far higher.

"We have to defend the rights that were won by our ancestors and which the current government is trying to take away," said Maxime Ourly, a literature student who joined tens of thousands protesting on Paris' Left Bank.

Students and labor unions say the law will erode France's cherished workplace protections. Set to take effect next month, it would let companies fire employees younger than 26 without reason in the first two years on the job.

Even with huge marches under way, Villepin held firm. He told parliament that he was open to talks on employment and possible changes to the law but did not say that he would withdraw it.

"Only in action will we convince all of the French that tomorrow can be better than today," he said, loudly heckled by opposition politicians.

Villepin says the greater flexibility will encourage companies to hire young workers, who face a 22 percent unemployment rate - the highest in Western Europe. But as protests have grown, his government - and chances of running for the presidency next year - have appeared increasingly fragile.

Sarkozy, who is also seeking to be the conservative camp's presidential candidate, told a meeting of lawmakers from the ruling UMP party that the law should not go into force as long as talks to resolve the crisis are still possible, his aides said.

Villepin's sputtering effort at reform underscores the dilemma facing European countries that have job protection and social safety nets under threat by competition from fast-rising Asian economies with cheaper labor and fewer workplace protections.

Protesters in Paris said they wanted to defend the status quo.

"We are here for our children. We are very worried about what will happen to them," said Philippe Decrulle, an Air France flight attendant. "My son is 23, and he has no job. That is normal in France."

Marchers ranged across all age groups, from students with "Non" painted on their faces to older union stalwarts. The Paris march got under way under light rain and a festive atmosphere, with red union flags and balloons and stands selling sausages.

But there were isolated skirmishes between police and youths at the end. Police were under orders to arrest as many troublemakers as possible and said they had taken 105 people into custody in Paris by late Tuesday afternoon.

The State Department advised Americans in France to avoid areas where crowds were expected to gather and to exercise caution, particularly at night.

The strike slowed train, plane, subway and bus service across the country to a fraction of normal levels.

Some elementary and high schools closed as teachers walked off the job. Protesting students have also closed or disrupted classes at dozens of France's 84 public universities.

The strike also shut down the Eiffel Tower, according to employees at the Paris landmark.

National newspapers were not on sale at newsstands, and radio and television broadcasts were limited. About a third of public school teachers and other education workers also were on strike.

France's top five labor union federations rejected Villepin's invitation to meet Wednesday for talks, insisting that he shelve the law first.

President Jacques Chirac canceled a trip to the northern port city of Le Havre, his office said.

Comments

[12xu.livejournal.com]

I saw rumblings of it on Fark.com, and an article in CNN.com, but it didin't cover it nearly as well as the above article did. People were more interested in the resumed search of Cute Missing White 'Murrican Girl in Aruba. (sarcasm mode:on)

[pkbarbiedoll.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the major outlets don't show pro-labor/anti-corporation demonstrations because it might give the rest of us ideas... For instance, it may cause people to think twice about the reasons the II's are protesting, and why our corporatist government is so eager to grant them all of the amnesty worker slave status brings.

I'd love to see all 11 million illegals hike their asses back south and demonstrate against Fox, since he's why they are here to begin with.

[12xu.livejournal.com]

Ya know, I think we could have all the ideas in the world and still not do something about it. It's sad, but true. I see more apathy than anger.

If Dubya and Co cut off all the cable TV, you'd have a revolution. Take away our freedoms one by one, and nobody will even speak up, so long as you can show that it won't affect the normalcy of lives at the present. (did that make sense?)

Nobody gives a flying fuck about the future, they're too busy trying to make their present as comfortable as possible.

Where are the idealists these days? The hippies are all either dead, jaded, or have become what they were morally opposed to. The punks are still around, and vocal, but in dwindling numbers. It's almost as if they decided that they couldn't change the world after all, and gave up/gave in.

Where's the group that stands up and says "No More!" in my generation?** Slacker Generation, indeed. Nothing will change so long as we can still have our Starbucks in the morning.


**I'd like to apologise for my generation as a whole about the entire grunge thing. It was crap ;)

[c-death.livejournal.com]

i have little sympothy. they work 35 hour a week MAX and get 5 weeks a vacation a year.

my husband works for a small company that was started by three French men and I asked him what their take on it was...

they said if the US had labor laws like France, they would have never been able to start this company.