Strikes in France, London Foreshadow More Protests

[Panaconda]

Strikes in France, London Foreshadow More Protests

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.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQrpHSj04kAyLv7ViNf4wUEbx2cwD9I38T2O0

[northoftheborder]

1. Europeans put us to shame...

....in their ferocity showing how important their hard-won rights are to their way of life. We just whine, mainly.

[L0oniX]

2. Been saying it. The only real change comes by force from mass protests.

Howard Zinn said the same.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. And I have said many a times that the only thing

that will get into the air is a NATIONAL STRIKE.

It won't happen, but a girl can dream.

Yes, marches are so yesterday and easy to ignore... but a bring to a screeching halt, national strike... no, not in the first day... but three days in... you betcha.

[leftstreet]

4. K&R

[femrap]

5. K and R

I am proud of my fellow European workers who stand strong against exploitation.

Most Americans are fat and lazy.....oh and willfully ignorant.

[blindpig]

6. We got some catching up to do.

k&r

[readmoreoften]

7. I heard over the summer that a pan-European wave of general strikes was in the works.

I hope this is the beginning and I hope it goes as well as plans. As the sticker goes THIS IS A BIG FUCKING DEAL.

[laughingliberal]

8. The people of France protest a plan to jack retirement age from 60 to 62 & we sit by while the CFC

'debates' jacking ours from 67 to 70.

What must it be like to live in a civilized nation where the citizens stand for something and count for something?

[starroute]

9. I despise the language used in these stories

"cherished but costly"

"good life"

"scaling-back"

There's always the built-in assumption that these things are expensive luxuries that can be modestly curbed without any real pain.

Sometimes I really hate the media for their abuse of language.

[Hannah Bell]

10. yep.