FRANCE: 50 universities occupied/on strike, also schools; unions in solidarity!

by Dave - swp Tue Mar 14, 2006 21:20

eyewitness reports here

Inside the occupation movement: ‘Together we are recreating our university’
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id...=8486
French students in new rebellion
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id...=8483
Unity between workers and the young has put the Tory government onto the back foot
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id...=8484
This is the spirit of the 1960s
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id...=8485

by l. Tue Mar 14, 2006 22:47

Keep up to date with our English-language updates on the struggle, now online and updated 24 hours a day at http://libcom.org/blog

by Noel Hogan - Labour Tue Mar 14, 2006 23:01 noelhogan at hotmail dot com

Here's hoping that the actions of the students in France help jolt consciousness at home!

by NoNamr Wed Mar 15, 2006 18:09

Tuesday evening: massive riots all over France.

On the pics: Paris. 10.000 protesters in Paris... Police was attacked when using teargas

by Ahmed Wed Mar 15, 2006 19:57

France is a dump.
In what country in Europe is an employer penalised for firing people?
I mean you can't sack people in France no matter how shit they are at their job?
Sorbonne students who all get subsidsed by the State go on the rampage because GOD FORBID they should be made dip their toe in the free market.
It seem the unions can shut out foreigners while French workers get their pick of the jobs, they can work like slobs and not get fired!?
The middle class intellegentsia elite can live the cosy comfortable French "lifestyle" while the pure saps from les colonies who arrive wet shivering on the shores of Marseille have to bend and scrape live in the ghettos and after three generations of their family have lived on French soil - get kicked out.
Fuck the French - they can stick their Bagettes where the sun don't shine!

by Eoin Thu Mar 16, 2006 00:35

Ahmed, I'm in France right now. I'm up to my eyeballs in work, so I haven't had any time to participate in protests against the CPE and CNE (the CPE for small businesses).

The CPE/CNE isn't much worse than the standard CDI (permanent contract) for non-managers. I know, because I've just resigned from a CDI job, and I only had to give one months' notice. Likewise, my employer could have fired me with a little over a month's notice. A few empty envelopes sent by registered post (if even), a few weeks pass, and you're out. And that's with a "permanent" oh-my-god-the-French-are-all-commies contract (first year, non-manager). My point is just that a lot of the stuff you read in the FT and other English language media about how good the French workers have it is bullshit actually. And the CPE is even more bullshit! It's not even supported by the main employer's union.

I think it's wonderful that French students are standing up for their rights!

by young anarchist Thu Mar 16, 2006 00:59

www.libcom.org/blog/ Has great coverage of the situation in France

by Cian - SP (CWI) Thu Mar 16, 2006 01:04 ComradeCian at eircom dot net Limerick 085-7077919

Some good reading stuff can be got by going to:

http://grcio.org.free.fr/

and for all those like me who DON'T speak French, use:

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

to translate, simply by typing the wed address into the liitle space fo it, saying French to English and click translate and *insert correct spelling of voi-la*

Its very interesting stuff indeed! Heightened class struggle, trhis is what we have to look forward to! Attacks on our basic lives, and the thrill of struggle!

Cya,
Cian

by cynic Thu Mar 16, 2006 02:11

You're not going to get that with the SP, more like the thrill of denouncing struggles unless they're in another country.

by Eoin Thu Mar 16, 2006 09:58

Rezo.net is a French news aggregator site (click on "en anglais" for English). It's a one-stop-shop for stuff about the CPE and the like:

http://rezo.net/dossiers/precaires

by Cian - SP (CWI) Thu Mar 16, 2006 19:59

Mass protests sweep France
The massive 7 March demonstrations, when at least half a million protested, marked a turning point.

Alex Rouillard, Gauche Revolutionnaire (cwi France)

The violent repression of the Sorbonne occupation showed the government is frightened that the strikes will broaden. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin thinks we are idiots and has shown his contempt for young people and workers.

Soon the strikes will have affected all universities, they are gaining ground in secondary schools and more and more workers are saying 'why don't we strike as well?'

The CPE will allow young people to be sacked at any time in the first two years that they're taken on. Everyone understands that after young people, all workers will be subject to the same kind of contract. That's why a large majority of the population reject the CPE.

All the deep discontent which people have is coalescing around this issue. We've had enough of policies that serve the rich.

The situation is beginning to change because of the determination of the striking students. What is needed now is for everyone to come out on strike together. We have to hit the government and the capitalists where it will really make them tremble - in the economy. It's the workers that can do this by going on strike and halting production.

More and more people are thinking this way. The national student coordinating body, in a declaration adopted on 11 March stated: "We ask the trade unions to make 23 March a general strike day with a central demonstration in Paris".

The unions in Bouches du Rhone have also launched a common statement saying: "the next stage in the mobilisation must be a united appeal for a national general strike together with the youth".

Unfortunately, the national trade union leaders (notably the CGT and CFDT) refuse to clearly call for a general strike.

Hundreds of university and school students are available to participate in and organise the struggles. We need committees of mobilisation everywhere that allow real democratic control over the strikes by the people who are on strike themselves. Without such structures it will be the same people who take decisions between mass meetings and demonstrations.

The PS (Socialist Party) is trying to take advantage of the anger against the government in order to be re-elected in 2007. But it doesn't have a programme in the interests of workers and young people. The PCF (Communist Party) sounds more radical but will not break its ties with the PS because it wants to keep its MPs' seats in parliament.

Gauche Revolutionnaire believes that we need a real alternative, a new party to lead struggles and get rid of capitalism which is the root cause of insecurity, poverty and exploitation. Such a party can come out of these strikes. The mobilisation and strike committees, while building for the struggles, are beginning to raise demands that are against capitalism.

by communist Thu Mar 16, 2006 20:05

we need anarcho-communism, not a new party.