Labor Demonstration Turns Violent in Paris

[norml]

Labor Demonstration Turns Violent in Paris
From Associated Press
March 18, 2006


Paris Clashes
(Thomas Coex / AFP / Getty Images)
March 18, 2006



Car Fire
(Pascal Pavani / AFP / Getty Images)
March 18, 2006


PARIS -- Thousands of students and workers marched in cities across France today in what appeared to be the biggest show of anger yet at a jobs plan that threatens to weaken the government. At least one car was overturned and set on fire in the capital.

For the second time in three days, students -- this time joined by unions and employees -- used marches to press conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to withdraw the measure, which could take effect next month. Strikes already have paralyzed 16 universities.

Two unions claimed that 400,000 people took part in the Paris protest. Police gave no immediate estimate.

President Jacques Chirac has pushed Villepin to act "as quickly as possible."

Student union leader Bruno Julliard said: "If by (tonight), the government doesn't withdraw this contract, we'll continue."


snip


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-031806paris_wr,0,3656521.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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More than a million protest against labour law in France



Violence has flared on the streets of Paris following peaceful demonstrations against the government's new labour law.

Nationwide rallies against the controversial legislation drew more than a million people to the streets of France's major cities.

The demonstrations were closely watched by police following clashes at similar events earlier this week.

The protests had been peaceful during the day with marching students backed by unions. They have threatened to call a nationwide strike if the government does not withdraw the CPE or 'First Job Contract' which allows employers to easily hire and fire people under the age of 26.


snip


http://euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&article=349645&lng=1

[uppityperson]

1. BBC news article, link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4819052.stm
Thanks for the link to EuroNews. Do you recommend them for fair coverage? Thanks.

[gizmo1979]

2. I wish we could get our people

that fired up.We have trouble getting our guys out to vote.

[Terran1212]

3. 2% of their total population is protesting!

That is HUGE

[gizmo1979]

4. How many Americans would that be?

In comparison.What is there 200 million in the US so about 2 million people.

[Terran1212]

5. 2.8 million Americans

[gizmo1979]

6. All marching on DC.

How great would that be?We need one great leader to motivate the masses.Where is he or she?

[doc03]

7. What in the hell is wrong with Americans, we have virtually

no labor laws in this country unless you are one of the lucky few that still have a Union job. We stand by and let the Republican Congress impeach a President with a 67% approval rating. While we stand by and let a President with a 30% approval rating shred the Constitution and do nothing. Feingold introduces a bill to censure the asshole and the gutless Democrats leave him swinging in the breeze. Just what the fuck does it take to wake America up???? Americans like to make jokes about the French, while we are the joke!!!!!

[norml]

8. Doh!

[lanlady]

9. The French social contract is unraveling

The CPE is intended to reduce the high unemployment (over 20%) among young people in France. Employers don't want to hire the young because it's too risky. A similar law was passed in Spain (or so I've heard) and has met with success. What everyone in France is afraid to confront is that the generous protections French workers have enjoyed since the end of the de Gaulle era aren't viable anymore. French factories are relocating to China, but here you have young people protesting en masse when the government tries to make it easier to employ them. Talk about a disconnect...

[rman]

10. "make it easier to employ them"? on the contrary;

"...CPE or 'First Job Contract' which allows employers to easily hire and fire people under the age of 26."

Hiring right now is not a problem, unless "easily hire" means lower wages - which would indeed make it 'easier' for corporations to hire people, but is to the disadvantage of workers.
What's left is "easily fire".

The root of the problem is obviously the outsourcing, which benefits only the owners and investors of big transnational corporations.

The disconnect is between the corporate controlled government and the people who's interests the government is supposed to represent.

[Solo_in_MD]

11. Concur

Few people outside of France understand the near absolute protection given to French workers. Its destroying what little competitiveness they had. Factories, jobs, and more importantly tax base are moving out of the country. Way to late they are going to learn that a glorious history and nationalism can not feed the hungry.

[Laughing Mirror]

12. The fundamental rule is: You don't take away rights people have fought for

and not expect people to fight to keep them, even if they "aren't viable anymore."

Well then you MAKE those rights viable, dammit!!

[bemildred]

13. Competition is always the excuse, and it is always bullshit.

Self-serving bullshit. "Compete with whom?" is the question. Do you want to compete with labor from the second and third world? Your day will come if this is not stopped. The multi-nationals are not doing this because they give a shit about the poor in the developing nations, it's the old divide and rule game. And those nations in the 2nd and 3rd world that are doing well at caring for and developing their people are the ones that ignore all the globaloney bullshit and look to the their own domestic interests and independence from outside domination.

[struggle4progress]

14. France's Villepin vows not to back down as unions threaten strike

03.19.2006, 06:24 PM

PARIS (AFX) - Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin vowed not to back down on his contested youth jobs plan, the day after violent protests and as union leaders threatened to call a general strike. <snip>

Meanwhile union and student leaders had given Villepin an ultimatum of Monday afternoon to withdraw the CPE, which on Saturday brought out hundreds of thousands of opponents to the streets of Paris and other cities in at times violent demonstrations.

The march through the French capital ended in several hours of evening confrontations between riot police and masked gangs, who hurled projectiles, set cars alight and smashed shop windows and telephone booths.

Police fired tear gas and made baton charges to disperse demonstrators at the Place de la Nation in the east of the city, and later in the Latin Quarter used water cannon to break up protesters trying to pull down a metal barrier blocking access to the Sorbonne university. <snip>

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/03/19/afx2605573.html

[struggle4progress]

15. A million march against labour reform

From Charles Bremner in Paris

TENS of thousands of middle-class parents turned out to march alongside their student children at the weekend in protests that left the French Government facing the threat of a general strike.

After a million people took to the streets and riot police skirmished with youths in Paris and other cities, Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister, was handed an ultimatum from union and student leaders who have been heading the opposition to a new youth labour contract known as the CPE. “We give them two days to see if they understand the message that we have sent,” René Jouan, of the CFDT union , said.

The more hardline CGT union said that it might call a general strike if M de Villepin failed to suspend the CPE, or first job contract. <snip>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2094614,00.html