[IP] French protests
Begin forwarded message:
From: Steven Hertzberg <stevenstevensteven@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: April 4, 2006 11:24:57 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: French protests
I'm carefully watching international news as French protests escalate
and
turn violent, involving 1 to 3 million, with Sunday being the worst
so far.
Below is a summary cross sectional view of some of what I'm seeing in
the
media. I'd appreciate the thoughts of other IPers who are closer and
perhaps better versed in this issue.
The political institutional response seems to be similar to that of
French
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who said: "these are just
hoodlums, who
come to break and pillage."
http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/04/04/paris-060404.html
However, Chirac does appear to be willing to amend the legislation,
but it
is not yet clear how far he will go.
The global media mostly mimics the thoughts of David Rennie of the Irish
Independent in his piece "French protests more reaction than
revolution,"
where he states that "Students' futile attempts to turn back the
clock to
some golden age of influence is no more than militant nostalgia."
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?
ca=27&si=1589838&issue_i
d=13864
On the otherhand, Jerry White of the World Socialist web site states
in his
piece, "US media reacts to French protests with hatred and fear,"
that "all
of the commentaries suggest the protests are illegitimate. They
declare that
France's labor laws and social protections are outmoded and must be
"reformed" if corporations are to thrive and create jobs."
Jerry goes on to say that "The arguments that society simply cannot
afford
to provide for the basic needs of working people are becoming
increasingly
threadbare, not only for French workers but for their American
counterparts
as well. Despite their efforts to reassure themselves about popular
support
for the profit system, the reality is that there are growing numbers of
workers and youth in America who realize that the real problem is that
society cannot afford to allow a tiny minority of the population to
monopolize the wealth created by working people. Despite the insistent
claims over the years about the death of the class struggle and the
working
class, the explosive events in France, as they so often have done
throughout
history, are a sign of what is coming throughout the world, and
within the
US itself."
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/pres-a01.shtml
________________________________
Steven Hertzberg
http://www.hertzberg.org
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