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French Strikers Cut Fuel Pipeline to Paris
Refinery workers cut off a fuel pipeline to Paris today as protesters piled on pressure to derail French president Nicolas Sarkozy's unpopular pension reform.
French riot policemen uses a flash-ball to disperse high school students during a demonstration in Lyon today. (Photograph: Robert Pratta/Reuters) Police broke up blockades at fuel depots
in southern France but protesters blocked a terminal at Paris's Orly
airport and truckers were set to join the fray as momentum built for a
day of street rallies tomorrow.
A nationwide strike is planned on Tuesday, a day before the Senate is due to vote on a bill to make people work longer for their pensions.
The protests have become the biggest challenge facing the centre-right president, who is struggling with rock-bottom popularity ratings as he tries to appease financial markets by stemming a ballooning pension shortfall.
Turnout among striking rail workers dropped to 15 per cent today, from 40 per cent earlier in the week, but union leaders hope to galvanise the public for next week's action with the same force that saw a 1995 pension bill crushed by 24 days of protests. Next Tuesday's strike could hit various sectors.
"This movement is deeply anchored in the country," CGT union leader Bernard Thibault told LCI television.
"The government is betting on this movement deteriorating, even breaking down. I think we have the means to disappoint them."
France's main trucking union called on truck drivers to join next Tuesday's strike, though they may not be able to use their bosses' trucks to block roads.
The best chance Mr Sarkozy's opponents have of bringing down his pension bill is if strikes at oil refineries continue and start to threaten fuel supply, or if youths hit the streets en masse and set off violent scuffles.
A pipeline supplying fuel to the Paris region and its airports stopped operating today because of strikes at northern refineries, a source at the company operating the pipeline said, and motorists across France stocked up on petrol as depot blockades squeezed supply.
TV footage showed riot police using teargas to contain young protesters in the southern city of Lyon and in Paris police officers got orders to stop using flashball riot control pellets to quieten crowds after a secondary school student was badly injured on Thursday.
Students at hundreds of schools across France joined the protest movement in force from yessterday, shouting anti-Sarkozy slogans. Dozens have been arrested and today more were barred by riot police from nearing the prime minister's offices.
Polls show two-thirds of French people oppose Mr Sarkozy's plan to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60 and lift the age at which people can retire on a full pension to 67 from 65.
The government has been at loggerheads with unions for months over the issue and five rounds of strike action since the summer have badly disrupted public transport and air travel.
The strikes have had negligible impact on France's economy but have sparked worries among financial analysts about whether France will struggle to push through broader austerity measures necessary to bring down its deficit.
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44 Comments so far
Show AllIf only American's could wake up from their day dreaming of Sunday night football, SUVs and big buckets of KFC.
And do what, be paralyzed by union strikers who don't want to work more than 30 hrs a week, or past 60 years of age, and are asking for a govenment handout no matter what the effect on the economy?
It is better than working till 70 w/o a retirement, pension, social security, or Medicaid.
Unions and social programs are not the reason we are in the mess we are in.
If the billionaires and fascists who try to control everything are not periodically reminded of the power of the people, they will continue to squeeze and squeeze until the people are reduced to slaves. Would that be better for the economy?
So how is that 50 hour work week no vacations , and the retire at 65 doing for the US economy Horace? Do you really think a return to 1923 will cause the US economy to boom?
The USA is in bigger doo doo then any country in Europe. What is it, 45 million on Food Stamps and ever climbing rates of poverty.
Just run those printing presses and hand the money over to the bankers. Those folk living in tents dont need it.
GWNorth (strong and free and please stay that way),
Your assessment of US working conditions is entirely too optimistic.
50 hours would be a short work week for most lower income USAns. 60 hours is more typical. And Social Security retirement age is already 66.5 years for people my age (53), and 67 years for people born in 1960 and later. Most wage-earning USAns will never be able to retire. They will work until they die.
You don't suppose the increase in the minimum wage had anything to do with the unemployment numbers, do you?
What makes anyone think the U.S. is in worse shape than, e.g., the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain), or, for that matter, Scandavia -- remember, for example, that Lithuania, Russia, Finland, Ukraine, France, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Sweden and Canada all have higher suicide rates than the U.S. (albeit only one index of happiness or the lack thereof, but an important one). See http://fathersforlife.org/health/who_suicide_rates.htm.
Re poverty and the wisdom of the left wing, Sir Winston Churchill said:
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Minimum wage in the US is already much lower than any other country in the civilized, industrial world.
Suicide rates are cultural (all the countries cited are far less religious) and have nothing to do with copmarative economics.
To see you capitalist libertarian dream world in action, just go down to central America. The average citizen has it real nice down there, don't they?
>>You don't suppose the increase in the minimum wage had anything to do with the unemployment numbers, do you?
Nope. Minimum wages are higher in Canada and Unemployment is lower. The Minimum wage in Saskatchewan is higher then in British Columbia and unemployemnt lower in Saskatchewan. So you really think having people work at 2 bucks an hour will get that US economy booming?
>>What makes anyone think the U.S. is in worse shape than, e.g., the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain), or, for that matter, Scandavia -- remember, for example, that Lithuania, Russia, Finland, Ukraine, France, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Sweden and Canada all have higher suicide rates than the U.S. (albeit only one index of happiness or the lack thereof, but an important one). See http://fathersforlife.org/health/who_suicide_rates.htm.
The US has higher debt. They are the largest debtor nation in the world. Those other countries are not reliant on a "reserve Currncy" in order to ensure their prosperity. The only reason the US economy is still functioning is that they can print up dollars at will. This has nothing to do with inherent strengths in the economy.
To your suicide rates. The Suicide rate in mexico is lower then the USA. the Suicide rathe in the Dominican Republic is lower then in the USA. Suicide rates have nothing to do with an economies strength. The Suicide rate in Alaska is higher then that in Alabama...
The Suicide rate in the US amongst white men is higher then black men. I am going to suggest such rates have nothing to do with economies and whether one has to work until 60 or 65.
Churchill said and did a lot of stupid things. He was a die-hard Tory imperialist all his life, but at least he had the sense, when he formed a "national" government for the war, to put Socialists and Liberals in charge of labor and other "social" government departments.
"You don't suppose the increase in the minimum wage had anything to do with the unemployment numbers, do you?"
There are numerous studies showing that states here, like Oregon, helped their economy by raising the minimum wage. Wages have stagnated or declined here for going on 40 years. What a radical, left wing idea, raising wages a little bit to increase demand and try to share a little more equitably the surplus we create, at a time when inequality in this country has exploded. That is so last century, ain't it? How do households get out of debt unless their wages increase? They can only cut spending so much, and when they do, when they cut spending to pay off debt, overall demand decreases any damn way. Less goods bought, less production, more lay offs. A debt write down is not in the cards though, the government and people like you have made that clear. When wealth inequality has exploded in recent decades, when wages haven't increased for workers here for forty years, when working people are near debt peonage because of them relying on debt and not increasing wages to get by, it makes total sense to blame a small increase in the minimum wage that has no chance to really even keep up with inflation for economic woes caused by decades long, reactionary, savage neo-liberal economics. I think that France is similar to all countries in the West, who have all gone to the right on economic policy. It did a U-turn and adopted neo-liberalism, and it did so, like Britain, originally thanks to pressure from international financial capital and the IMF. Britain dealt with that in the mid 70's and ended up with Thatcher. France elected the last real left Keynesian in Mitterrand in the early 80's. He was a socialist and did what he was elected to do. So he implemented a relatively radical program and was immediately attacked by financial capital. He had to stop his reforms (in part because of mistakes he also made), do a U turn. France started with Mitterrand and ended up with Sarkozy. We ended up with Reagan and the Bush's. Our "labor" based party, the Democrats, moved to the right on economic matters, just like Labor in Britain and the Socialists in France, and here we are.
"What makes anyone think the U.S. is in worse shape than, e.g., the PIGS"
Are you kidding? Those countries have already seen their economies destroyed by austerity. Latvia is gone, don't see how it is going to recover from the financial pillaging of that country. We have our austerity coming. Isn't that what you want Horace? Latvian wages have been frozen, government spending drastically cut, the economy has become increasingly financialized, it sure is a good "investment climate" they're trying to create. Isn't that what you are calling for?
"Re poverty and the wisdom of the left wing"
I challenge you to point to a period of austerity, of harsh, neo-liberal reactionary economics, where the real economy benefited. Marginal and corporate taxes have been cut, services handed over to private industry, trade and finance liberalized, there have been cuts in social spending, in recent decades. All of it a move away from anything you can call "socialism". The effects have been horrific. So please, lecture us, like you are in a position to.
Honestly, if you were a capitalist sympathizer, would it make sense to adopt policies that will 100% radicalize working people? Does it make any logical sense to ignore the history of the policies you favor in practice? Do you WANT to help create a true left alternative that really would fight for socialism? Do you want to create an environment that would make that possible? A large percentage of people in the US, for example, are in favor of single payer health care. Yet, both major parties and the media are nearly 100% against (few are fighting for it). Almost every dominant institution is against the idea, yet it holds sway with a large percentage of people. The strength is in the idea itself. Please back policies that will radicalize people, changing them from passive onlookers to participants in the fight out of necessity. Make my job easier.
There is an interesting and rather funny animation on YouTube of a talk by David Harvey about the current global economic situation called the "Crisis of Capitalism", which among other things makes a couple of the same points which Wilber1 makes in his post.
Here is the YouTube link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0&fs=1&hl=en_US
I recommend it.
>"The USA is in bigger doo doo then [sic] any country in Europe."
Tell that to Greece and Ireland. They (and their panicked bondholders) apparently haven't heard the news.
A 30 hours work week and retirement at 60 would save this economy (well, it would be a tiny step in the right direction).
What do you intend to do with all the unemployed young people who are waiting for us codgers to die in order to get jobs? If we each worked fewer hours, there would be more openings for other to fill. Of course, there is always the employer of last resort: The US Military.
"And do what, be paralyzed by union strikers who don't want to work more than 30 hrs a week, or past 60 years of age, and are asking for a govenment handout no matter what the effect on the economy?"
If you removed "union strikers" and put bankers, or financial parasites (people who create "wealth" on a computer screen that is nothing but debt) you'd be far more accurate. THEY have gotten government handouts. The debt they created on their computers screens, in off shore tax and regulation free environments, they created their "wealth" and the governments in the West, the ones you seem to like, are refusing to let that magical wonder the "free market" work. If we let the "free market" work the debt that these crooks own would decrease in value, most of these financial fat cats would lose their ass, many big banks would become insolvent and the market would clear with the smartest and strongest investors left standing. They'd buy up all the other firms that failed (if there was any value left) for pennies on the dollar and they'd be our new kings. If we did that however and didn't allow the government to step in and directly lend (without middle men, it would be able to do it at a much lower cost) we'd be in trouble. No, the governments in the West that are doing the "correct" economic policies are saying to the banks "we won't let the value of the debt you own go down in value, we won't let the financial inflation you've created stop the fictitious wealth creation, and if we have to sacrifice the real economy and workers' livelihoods to do so, so be it".
It's one thing to point out the differences in living standards between the developed and developing worlds and to have a moral argument in favor of a transfer of wealth in some way. That could be done equitably, with the richest amongst us (those that have monopolized the surplus we have created for decades now) paying the most, which could also lessen the growing wealth inequality in countries like ours. We would also have to prioritize basic needs before luxuries. That would be difficult though in a country like ours, with no social movements, unions and the like to help guide that, and would require radically changing how we run our economy. People on the right aren't obviously arguing that. They basically hate to see working people fighting to more equitably share with capitalists the surplus created BY working people and don't want workers elsewhere getting any funny ideas. That is what this is about. Neo-liberals have taken us in the West back about 100 years and they want to take us back further. ANY gain working people have fought for and achieved is on the chopping block now.
Like I said in my other post, "enlightened capitalists" know when they've gone too far. They realize that they are pissing off too many people, destroying too many economies, for this to go on much longer. People have to have a stake in the system, if they don't they won't work to save it or might even work to replace it. You cannot ask the majority of people in developed and developing countries to perpetuate a system that doesn't benefit them. Enlightened capitalists see this and are trying to change the system to widen the benefits a little, at least to fend off calls for even more radical change in the future. Most every other capitalist is greedy and short sighted and will not hesitate, if given the chance, to perpetuate the system at the barrel of a gun.
History is full of moments where people, countries, movements, arrived at a fork in the road, where there was no middle ground. When the Nazi's arrived you either submitted or joined the resistance, there was no other option. We are at that fork in road and it is thanks to the economic right wing, who have won over the elites' even in the "labor" based parties. I see no way to move forward in a way that would benefit working people without radically changing the economy, not radically changing the economy is going to piss of too many people to perpetuate the system, yet the elites are too cut off from working people and alternate ideas to radically change the system. It seems that the only thing that will is collapse, we will be forced to change, and that could be chaotic, irrational and scary in the US.
A government handout is not when money goes to the taxpayers who fund the government and produce the real wealth, but when it goes to the banksters who are vampires sucking the blood from the country and producing nothing.
You must remember one thing when it comes to following the advice of cons like Horace. Don't. Listen to what they say and do the exact opposite. That is the only thing they are good for.
YOU CONS BROKE EVERYTHING AND GOT EVERYTHING WRONG.
You have earned yourself the right to sit down and shut up. You have been a complete disaster for every economy you have foisted your toxic raygunomics / friedmanomics / trickle down BS upon.
There is no need for a long explanation or a deep debate with cons about financial matters. Their ideas have been proven beyond all doubt to kill economies.
If you think any of the comforts and advantages you enjoy came without someone(s) (and, yes, unions probably above all) having fought for them, you're dreaming. The French people aren't sitting around with their mouths open for handouts, they're fighting for what they've established, collectively, as a bottom-line reasonable standard of living based upon their labor. Hats off. If Americans had that much commitment and gumption - to say nothing of awareness that the government IS us precisely to the extent we own it and hold it accountable - we might see some very encouraging changes.
Apologies for double posting.
One thing we do know -- the French people will NOT give up the fight!
Vive la France!
Gotta love those feisty French! This is exactly what is needed in the U.S.-- a massive public revolt. And we have so much more reason to do so. Imagine the revolt in France if they did away with their single-payer health care, or their 6 weeks of vacation, things that are now laughable pipe dreams in the U.S.
Now I understand why the French are made such a mockery of in the U.S.
Yes. They actually have and practise democracy there!
Unless you happen not to be native, Roman Catholic French (e.g., Muslim or Jewish).
Oh how this puts a smile on my face!!
Go Team Working Class!
Put Sarkozy and his kind in a 90 percent no-deduction tax bracket.
The proceeds could then be used to increase French pensions.
And whoever coined the phrase "pension reform" which implies an improvement when the proposed changes would be the first step in destroying viable pensions ?
And Sarkozy is to the left of Obama!
surely he was. after the 2008 meltdown, he said "i didn't sign up for this sort of banking." or something to that effect.
but i'm afraid he's warmed his way up to the global fascism by now.
i wish i were there...
RE: French Strikers Cut Fuel Pipeline to Paris
Now we're talkin'! When I tell people that we need to move beyond the D's and R's, beyond 3rd parties, beyond electoral politics, beyond "working within the system" - I get blank stares. What French workers are doing, THIS, is exactly what is needed here in the US!
In the U.S. the citizens fear the government. In France, the government fears its citizens. This is how democracy should work.
I hear they also cut the fresh water lines, but nobody will notice until bath time someday next month.
Yeah. Those stinky, goat-cheese-breath surrender monkeys!
You know, when I was in France, I noticed fewer cases of poor hygiene than I do anywhere I go in the US.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26603.htm
Listen to this radio program. It helps explain why EUROPE (In this case Germany specificly) is far better off then the USA economically and why the SOCIAL spending programs made it so.
This drive to austerity (cuts in Social spoending) is the wrong fix.
Germany has less debt then the USA. It runs a trade surplus. It has less poverty. It has lower unemployment> the countries faring the worst are the ones that most closely followed the US model.
This includes Portugal Ireland, Spain and Greece. These 4 countries based thier economic model on BUBBLES just as the USA did.
Right around 40 minutes in they make this point.
GERMANY makes money off of China. The US can not sell stuff to China NOT because they are not competitive with China but because the USA can NOT COMPETE with HIGH wage Unionized GERMANY.
I suggest this of particular importance to people like Mightmite and Horace who seem to have no clue as to what is really going on and continue to rely on "jingoism and slogans"
This also helps to confirm a lot of what Jennifer has been mentioning. Well worth a listen.
They touch on a LOT of topics.
GWNorth, That's a very good post. Thanks. We are well-advised to adopt a model that works for the common good, and Germany is providing that model.
GwNorth: Thanks for the link to the radio interview with Thomas Geoghegan about his new book Were You Born On The Wrong Continent?
Excellent!
I was reminded of Steven Hill's recent book, Europe's Promise.
I have had the opportunity to spend some time in Europe, and it's a different world. I also agree with the author that the left, here in the U.S., is NOT as sophisticated as the left in Europe and Scandinavia. Their governments, and their citizens, years ago, following World War II, made very different decisions about the kind of society they wanted to inhabit. While here in the U.S., our government was, literally, chasing down and destroying anyone who could be, even slightly, recognized as a Communist or a socialist.
With the financial influence of the Koch brothers -- David Koch's name is now on the NYC Ballet and Opera Company building here in NYC -- I am reminded that his father was one of the founders of The John Birch Society. In 1962, The Chad Mitchell Trio performed a song live, The John Birch Society, with words and music by Michael Martin Brown, and the recording actually cracked the Top 100 in that year, and is still one of their most requested songs when they perform. If you've never paid attention to the words, here is the YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG6taS9R1KM
I'm NOT hopeful, but I wish I could be, about the author's suggestions -- 10 things the Democrats Can Do. I equate Democrats and Republicans as two sides of the same coin, so to speak, and consistently, I vote 3rd Party.
Check out Wolin's "inverted totalitarianism". One of it's main characteristics is that politics is subservient to economics. The oppressive ruling force does not come from the political -class. It comes from the upper-class.
You had better realize that the for the most part the rich are your enemy. Whats good for them is bad for you.
WE ARE NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
And the rich are a tiny minority.
The global elite pulling the strings of global governments will not give up their power. They are psychopaths who want to control the world and everyone in it.
Interesting how no G7 government is placing austerity programs on the corporate/financial CEOs who were responsible for taking down the global economy. Nope! In fact, they're getting ready to take $Billions more in bonuses this year because governments have allowed them to use "creative accounting" on their balance sheets. Meanwhile, central banksters are talking about more Quantitative Easing (printing money out thin air) for future taxpayers to absorb while the financial elite continue to build their global (get-rich) pyrimid scheme.
The problem here is that this reform may be necessary, but we don't trust our politicians and governments anymore. Right or left wings alternatively have made such a human disaster over the past 30 years. They have told us so many lies... How can we be sure now that this reform is good for us or not ?
And I believe this feeling is shared by most human beings around the world whatever the country, whatever the reform, whatever the decision (9/11, Irak war, bank system...)
"Right or left wings alternatively have made such a human disaster over the past 30 years." -- koba
Left wing in the U.S.? I had NO idea that the left in the U.S. has had any influence at all in this country for the past 30 years, or more.
Yet another battle in the global class war.
The ruling elite once again test the waters on
how much more they can rape and pilfer the people.
The Greeks get it. The French get it.
The ruling elite are organized at the top we must organize within our ranks as well.
That is the ruling elites greatest fear is for all of us to break through there conservative, liberal, puppet show and organize against them. Realize that the ruling elite corporate global elite are the main enemy of the people, all of humanity and mother earths well being.
These terrorist laws were not created for terrorsits, these laws are being tested and are being made ready for the mass uprising that the Ruling elite know is coming. How do they know this? They are the ones controlling the supply. The economy, the food, the energy, once all these are in total chaos and shortage, the the big black boot of a total corporate fascist state will be stomping to your door. There will be no more trials only military tribunals. The injustice and unconstitutional actions will not be behind close doors and in the dark of the night as is going on now. This injustice will be as public as a 4th of July parade and anyone dare speak against it will be disappeared.
Get in the streets or get ready for far worse. Soon.
About a year or so ago, a poll asked Europeans where they would most want to live. The No. 1 and No. 2 countries were France and Germany. The United States was way down the list.
Maybe it's because they get long vacations and don't work like dogs but are prosperous, have socialized medicine and strong labor unions. Plus, these actions show the elite who's boss. The level of solidarity there is truly amazing.
Contrast that with the situation here in the United States, where some left opinion (Robert Parry, Norman Solomon) are still arguing for backing the Democratic Party, which gets its marching orders and cash from plutocrats and corporations. Elected Dems even act contrary to what remains of the unions here and they still get campaign contributions from labor.
When people ask you to compromise and vote lesser evil, remember how things go in Europe. You don't have to compromise, despite our fucked up electoral system. The number one goal should be to gain power via a third party and open the political system. Voting Dem/Repug is voting for electoral clampdown, ensuring zero change. Proportional representation is another thing going for Europe that is missing here.
-TIA
In the French Revolution of 1789, the government was bankrupt and the nobles (elite) lived in obnoxious luxury when the people were starving. The French people asked, "Can we afford the rich?" and said, "NO". So they removed 40,000 of them in a country of 25 million people, They confiscated the wealth and restored the treasury. Worked like a charm.
Today, with the huge disparity between rich and poor, with 18 trillion in national debt the taxpayer must pay, it is an fortuitous coincidence that the top .5% has 18 trillion in holdings. UMM..