Riot police seal off Paris streets as protests escalate

[struggle4progress]

<snip> Mr de Villepin is now embattled on all fronts over his controversial "first employment contract", known as the CPE. Mr Sarkozy has distanced himself this week, suggesting there should be a six-month trial period for the law, which would make it easier for employers to sack workers under 26. The government says such flexibility will encourage companies to hire young people and slash unemployment. The daily Le Parisien yesterday quoted an unnamed political source close to the president, Jacques Chirac, saying that if the controversy did not subside Mr de Villepin could be sacked.

Trade unions yesterday agreed they would meet Mr de Villepin for talks but it was unlikely they would call off a strike planned for next Tuesday. With transport and air workers already pledging support, the strike was being dubbed Black Tuesday by one French paper. <snip>

A university student who had been at the protest and watched the violence erupt said: "It was both students and young people. But the police have arrested a hell of a lot of people who had nothing to do with it. They are fascists."

A town planning student, Viviane Macé, said: "Bands of young guys have been running past the protesters with baseball bats all afternoon. It is a small minority of people but I can totally understand what is going through their minds. They feel as desperate as we do and they have got no other way to express themselves. They feel violence is the only action to take. I think some people might not even know what the CPE is. It says a lot about our society that people feel the need to express themselves with bats and metal bars." <snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1738662,00.html

[Democrats_win]

1. Violence is bad, but otherwise the protestors are right.

Do they want their economy to fail just as America's is failing? In America you waste your youth working for nothing and when you're 40, they don't want you. In America corporations are so addicted to cheap young labor that they'll leave faster than the speed of light if they can save twenty cents.

Fight for fair pay! Don't listen to the corporate whores, you'll regret it.

[skooooo]

2. Boy I think you're absolutely right.

Pay you nothing when you're young, then run you off when you're 40 or so.