Fascist "attack" on anti-CPE strikers in France

...or maybe not.

How much violence did they use?

Mind if I ask how you managed to see the confrontation in the article?

And how did your friends "attack" the blockades?

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm just asking for clarification, but are you or any of your friends supporters or members, or linked to the Front Nationale in any way?

I really don't think this is accurate. Obviously Villepin didn't write the legislation himself. Nor did he come up with it himself, it would have been written by a some form of committee (in ireland they are called oireachtas committees), which, due to the lack of conviction and information held by public representatives, would have been dominated by a handful of economists.

Even more than this as Keynes said “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

You can't simply say 'well at least he's doing something'. You need to ask is he doing the right thing? And the answer depends on who you are asking and what they value.

Will the CPE decrease the level of youth unemployment, probably in the short term yes. But it will also result in an decrease in the standard of living for french workers. Because the benefits of being employed will decrease relative to being unemployed. And in the long run no. It reduces the power of workers relative to employers, however after a peroid employers demand further sacrifices. Sacrifices that workers will be unable to resist giving due the their situation of decreased power.

Unemployment exists because full employment is impossible under capitalism. Capitalism requires scarcity and therefore artifically produces it. In the jobs market all though there are jobs to be done*, by not hiring workers Capital restricts the supply of jobs which leads to them being able to demand more from those who are looking for a job. The response to this restriction should be that workers undermine the power of capital by forcing capital into crisis whereby it has to adapt to a changed power relationship by increasing employment.

The CPE offers the opposite solution, it increasses the power of capital to demand higher profits, lower wages, longer hours, cheaper working conditions, greater power. This only furthers the disempowerment of workers and enables Capital to manipulate the labour/jobs market more freely.

Of course the only real solution to the problem of unemployment and the inability of workers to provide for themselves is for workers to expropriate the means of production from Capital and then run them to satisfy their own needs, wants and desires.

*Consider the absurdity of an unemployed builder unable to pay for his accomdation.

good summary georgestapleton!

The point is the CPE cannot be reformed in favour of the working-people since its very existence is designed to relax labour laws in favour of employers -that is, against the employees. There can therefore be no dialogue, no negotiations concerning something so unashamedly against the interests of young workers. Concessions will occur only where there's a collapse in resistence, i.e. when the students (etc.) are forced to give up. At this rate, however, Villepin will have to resign - but he's not important, actually.

What do you mean?

Well the French welfare state is infamously large, partially due to the strong union movement. Which is why it's weird that the government would pass such a stringent anti-worker law instead of dismantling part of the welfare state. It seems somewhat contradictory. Maybe Villepin et al were reluctant to touch the welfare state due to the outcry it would cause, without realising that it wasn't the welfare state itself the French are keen to defend but the (relatively) strong bargaining chip of the workers.

To be honest though, I find it improbable that young French are solely disenchanted with the CPE. This is merely a flashpoint that allowed longstanding resentment to surface. I've seen a lot of banners talk of "PRECARITE" (well, there's an accent on the second E but you know what I mean), which I hope will serve as a kick up the ass to the frankly embarassing British anti-"precarity" movement.