France
France: More workers join strikes
Hundreds of thousands of health workers, civil servants, printers postal workers and air traffic controllers yesterday joined transport and energy strikes over pensions and pay.
Thousands joined street protests in Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg, Marseille, Grenoble, Lyon and other cities.
The 24 hour strike left many schools closed, hospitals providing a reduced service and newsagents without newspapers.
The BBC reported that the French capital's two airports and Marseille airport in the south suffered delays and cancellations.
France: not as inefficient as post-Thatcher Britain
As is often the case when large-scale strikes break out, those deeply professional people in the mainstream press have been sitting on the fence as neutral reporters of the news.
The Times has managed a doozy today:
Quote:
The civil service strike, led by leftwing unions, is a warning shot by the forces of conservative resistance to Mr Sarkozy's attempts to ease the burden of regulation and subsidies that choke the French economy...Mr Sarkozy's plans to slim down the country's mammoth civil service.
France: immigrants demonstrate against repression
Demonstrations and protests against police tactics and government policies are becoming more frequent.
With the openly anti-immigration policies of the government immigrants have found themselves targetted by police. This is part of a worrying racist trend in contemporary French politics.
France: organisation amongst the homeless
The treatment of the homeless, especially those who are immigrants the attitude of the French government, as does the resitance organised against it.
A familiar sight to many Parisians are the rows of people living in tents along the banks of the canal St Martin. They are homeless, mostly immigrants, mostly illegal. The tents are supplied by les enfants de Don Quichotte, an organisation that battles for the rights of homeless people.
France: transport strikes enter second week
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The transport strikes that have crippled France enter their second week today with negotiations scheduled for tomorrow.
The number of strikers seems to have stabilised at a relatively low figure of around 20% for the RATP (Paris transport) and 25% for the SNCF (rail), however this number does not reflect the effect upon services. General assemblies of rail workers cotinue to vote to continue strike action by massive majorities even thogh the number of strikers is lower.
France: Schoolchildren join student and teacher strikes
Across the country secondary school students are voting to join strikes in support of university students and the wider struggle.
Tomorrow many of France's teachers will go on strike as part of a wider civil service action. Some universities have seen staff vote on further solidarity action with students.
France: Student strikes and blockades to continue
Today will be an important day for the student movement with Police and university authorities ending most occupations before the weekend.
Today will be a return to struggle, or in some cases a beginning. The first blockade of Paris VIII began today at 7am. Many universities will be holding AGs this week to decide whether to continue the movement, which up until now has continued to grow.
France: Transport strikes are still going strong
The strikes, which seemed to be tailing off, appear to be affecting more services as workers renew strike action ahead of negotiations on Wednesday.
The six unions involved in the strike (CGT, FO, CFTC, Unsa, CFE-CGC and SUD after the CFDT withdrawal on Friday) called on workers' assemblies to vote to continue strike action.
France: transport strike holds as CFDT union withdraws
Although the CFDT union advised its members to vote at AGs to return to work from Friday, the strike appears to be at least holding at a similar level.
The CFDT leadership argued that as the strike was visibly weakening each day it was better to return to the negotiating table, the government demanding an end to strikes as a condition of negotiations. The number of official strikers on Friday fell to 23% on the metro and 32% on the SNCF.
Behind the unrest in France, 2007
Jef Costello examines the reasons behind the recent wave of strikes and university occupations in France.
The keyword in current French politics is reform. Both presidential candidates claimed that France needs to modernise to be able to complete on a global level. Surveys showed that most voters identified both Royal and Sarkozy as 'candidats de la rupture' meaning that they represented a break, a break from the traditions of working class militancy and France's revolutionary and socialist past.
