Social Pact for France?

by francaise - (((I believe the paltry number of readers who understand other languages justifies Tue Jan 10, 2006 13:34 ing issues of common concern in those languages)))

asks "where to now for the Left?" and overviews the supposed direction of France's Left, (termed extreme left) upto 2007.

Certainly those parties started the year of 2005 with optimism, defeating the EU constitution, and pushing the new DeVillepin government to promise many reforms which would test the extent of free market led capitalist economies to protect the poorest.

Then, the most marginalised started burning cars at 35% above average...

And strikes hit most of France's important industrial and service sectors including the very newspaper I'm linking to...

Oh! & Do not forget that France went into a state of emergency _which lasted till early January 2006_.

& at the end of the year, the promised reforms had not materialised, but the wishlish had expanded, with Chirac's New Year speech finally excepting that the Algerian War (in which he fought) proves yet to be the conflict that divides the children of the Republic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4580842.stm

And I imagine that the majority of those who "as usual" lost their jobs on the Black weekend referred to in the last comment are still living :-

day to day and
hand to mouth
So...
Why was €urope so good for us?
Weren't there other better ways to make some Irish rich?

by iosaf Fri Jul 29, 2005 14:58

but we've passed the half way point, and with continental Europe's holidays beginning today, it is timely to look at the unemployment figures.

And that's what the french are doing.

It really is quite curious, how the last working day of July, one knows for sure which socio-economic class one belongs to, if one lives in most of the 25 states of the EU, the mad rush for holliers begins this afternoon. More people will be killed in the next four days in road accidents leaving the cities of mainland europe than all the previous months put together. It almost approaches slaughter, but because there is no political motive, no divine intervention, no extreme weather... nothing more than a little warning from the local police appears on telly and radio to the effect of "please don't lose the head as you go on holidays". But the deaths and accidents of the first and last weekend of August equal the tally of the rest of the year. Indeed equal the tally of terrorism.

& so, political life stops.

For the month of august cities such as Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Athens, Lisbon all the hot places, are abandoned by the middle classes and anyone who has had sense to save a little, and only the local poor and tourists remain in the fetid sweating heat.

So, The Borloo plan to reduce unemployment in France has recorded a tiny increase in jobs. The main socialist opposition say the figures are adjusted and massaged, the unions are utterly sceptical. But no matter, the bosses are on holidays.

On monday, more workers will find they have not been paid their wages in Europe than at any other monthly pay date throughout the year. Every year companies on the verge of bankruptcy hold out to pay the June wages in July, and the go quietly pop when no-one is looking, when no unions or lawyers are available to fight the case or write the letters in the first week of August.

This weekend is thus the black weekend for workers in precarity all over the continent. As millions leave the cities, the poor are left behind, and many find they have not enough to feed their kids.

But the TV will show the accidents in the tunnels under the alps, as the italians averaging twenty million cars a year do their "damned-est" to get out first.

here's the link on France's unemployment :-
figures - percentages - statistics - seasonal adjustment - I'll be honest, mr DeV is no better than the last one. - a Rich man 's government.
If we could as a movement could mobilise the feelings of inequality which are most accutely felt this weekend, we'd make so much progress, but the oddity is, that this comment will be read by very few users of the site, for most of us -
"are on holidays".

forget the castle, and relax.

by remove ff Wed Jun 08, 2005 22:36

DeV in his words is calling for action over words.

plus demain.
(6,4)

by - Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:10

and tell them all about his new government's plan "in 100 days" to sort out France, and they'll vote for him or not.
He has promised his speech will be "concrete" rather than "lyric" and that "unemployment" is the priority.

pre prime ministerial speech coverage:-
http://bourse.lefigaro.fr/Actualite/Default.asp?Source=FI&NumArticle=51960
http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=302387

For his part the french "an ceann chomhairle" Jean-Louis Debré has asked that the new government offer "quick, effective action regarding work and employment, for we don't have time to wait".
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-25111221@7-40,0.html

This speech will see the *unelected* politician famed for the rhetoric, and lyricism, and jolly good references be expected to say "results" things without there actually being "results". Odd isn't it? Anyway the UDF have decided not to take part in the vote ("of confidence") which will follow the speech.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-659512@51-639952,0.html
The UDF are a small right party who were formed to follow Valerie Giscard d'Estaing and are the junior coalition partner to the chirac/deV regime. They are euro-federalist and described as "being for anyone on the right who isnt far right or for chirac". (i swear they put it in the water)

by i Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:54

Mr DeV let us not forget is a right wing politician, and one who has never been directly elected by the french voters. He has sat down to talk about unemployment, social security, precarity, and security with the Trade Unions who are left wing.

He is willing to use all the instruments of the right wing to sort out the problem. Mais Oui, but are they enough? Indications are of the availalility of no less than 15 billion euros in the deficit, ah! the defecit, hmmmm, robbing peter to get paul through to the end of the month, ¿is that the way of saint precaire?
Or perhaps France could copy little Denmark where the rightwing provided "precarity security" social security points? Mais Oui, but comparing little countries like Eire to big countries like the UK for such things is fine at the table of petit fours but in the real world???

The cursèd capitalists gave us 8.8% €U average of unemployment with an unknown % in precarity in 2004, a complete 0.8% worse than 2003. The % for France itself was 10.2% in April.

As you'd expect the left wing daily, Libération has devoted many pages to this baptism.

http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302093
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302094
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302095
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302096
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302097
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302098
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302099
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302100
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302101
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=302102

And just so you don't stay in french class today in the wonderful daily (sold by Sarte in the 60s bought lock stock and barrel by Rothschild in 2004) here's humanité
http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2005-06-06/2005-06-06-807968

French workers, have many things workers in Eire don't have - identity - security - history - class conscienceness. The workers of France are for many continental observers and peers and others in solidarity those who have lost the most practical results of their enshrined rights under the neo-liberal cursèd capitalist €U project.
Coz their benefits didn't match those of other countries where workers were held in less regard. This table therefore, of Mr DeV and the unions, is about more than fiddling with % and figures, it is about the future of workers in the €U, it is about opening the clauses we rejected in the draft constitution, and squeezing in our little words, our little "droits".
It is about a limit to work hours.
It is about accesibility of children to their parents.
it is about more than a mere minimum wage, it is about a living social wage.
it is about pensions, in the factory on the farm in the your local burger bar.

It is about precarity.