Strikes in France, London Foreshadow More Protests

[Joanne98]

by Angela Doland

PARIS - French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery Tuesday amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. Across the English Channel, London subway workers unhappy with staff cuts walked off the job.

The protests look like the prelude to a season of strikes in Europe, from Spain to the Czech Republic, as heavily indebted governments cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the European good life - a scaling-back process that has gained urgency with Greece's euro110 billion ($140 billion) bailout.

In France, where people poured into the streets in 220 cities, setting off flares and beating drums, a banner in the southern port city of Marseille called for Europe-wide solidarity: "Let's Refuse Austerity Plans!" The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France, while the CFDT union put the number at 2.5 million.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/09/07-6

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Moostache]

2. That USED to be American labor leading the charge.

Before it was gutted and all the jobs it represented were sent overseas that is...

There needs to be serious push back against the banksters and their illuminati-wanna-be benefactors in the world's super rich. The "plan", such that it is, of calling for global austerity measures that hurt EVERYONE IN THE WORLD EXCEPT THE FUCKING BANKSTERS needs to be shouted down and if necessary we need to all be ready to shut down the whole fucking system to drive the point home that this is not an acceptable outcome.

The people who made all these bad loans and shady financial deals are STILL not being held accountable for them and THAT is anything but "free market ideology" - its out and out theft. Fuck them. Fuck them in the ear. Then fuck them in the other ear. The answer is NOT austerity, its widespread and total DEFAULT. Global destruction of the existing banking structure. We are being sold a bill of goods that SOMEONE HAS TO PAY...well, my first, second, third AND fourth choice is "THE GUYS WHO STARTED AND PROPAGATED THE PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

NO AUSTERITY MEASURES UNTIL A FULL AND OPEN ACCOUNTING OF THE "DEBTS" IS MADE PUBLIC! (Period and end of discussion...don't want to play ball? Then kiss your precious "economy" and "profits" goodbye while the rest of us "unwashed masses" go to the goddamn mattresses!)

[luvspeas]

3. And look what happens anytime Obama tries to improve thngs for workers....

The right has a fit, and the left only complains about their pet issues. We need to support our President.

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. Hilarious goings-on, described here in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/07/protest-france

Don't those French police have tasers!

[reggie the dog]

5. the cfdt is a centrist union

the cgt says there were over 3 million of us in the street, i am unionized with the far left wing "sud education"

our benefits are not "costly", the problem is the the government lowed taxes on businesses and the rich so the state has less money, the easy fix is to tax the rich more again....there is going to be another strike here in france in about 2 weeks