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French Strike Shows Resistance to Austerity
The French are again leading the resistance to globalization. For this, they deserve our applause, not derision.
They’ve been down this road before. Back in 1995, when another rightwing president, Jacques Chirac, tried to convince them of the inevitability of suffering as part of the free-market process, they put their foot down.
“After a quarter of a century of an ideological swing to the right, here was a movement mocking the blackmail: there is no alternative,” Daniel Singer, longtime Europe correspondent for The Nation, commented. “Its message, frightening for the preachers of the establishment, was plain: if this is the future you are offering to us and to our children, then the hell with your future!”
They’re back at it, fighting the same battle again, this time pitted against another arrogant conservative leader, Nicolas Sarkozy. In response to his proposal to up the retirement age, French unions brought Paris to a halt on Tuesday.
In doing so, they have followed the lead of their counterparts in other countries such as Greece, where massive demonstrations have greeted austerity measures in response to the economic crisis. l
Some in the U.S. media have been scorning the Europeans. Both NPR and the New York Times have spotlighted the relatively low retirement age in France, and the inconvenience caused due to the strike.
But the global crisis that has brought all of us to this stage has been caused by oversmart whiz kids in the financial sector, not the average worker pining for a decent retirement. The wrong people are being made to suffer.
The derision of the American media for “spoiled” Europeans has a long history. In his enlightening defense of the continental model, “Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age,” Steven Hill has a number of such examples.
“The truth is, just as the American media misreported Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, the housing bubble, and an imminent economic meltdown, the crystal ball gazers in the U.S. media have a terrible track record when it comes to Europe,” he writes. “As a result of this substitution of national myth for reality, news traveling across the Atlantic has failed to keep up with actual conditions on the ground.”
And the same fate as Europe is possibly upon us. President Obama has appointed a “bipartisan” commission to examine possible cuts in Social Security and Medicare. The fact that one of the co-chairs is former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, a known scoffer of the social safety net, is no comfort. Plus, the Republicans have been busy scapegoating public employees for their supposedly generous retirement packages. Again, the wrong segment of the population is under attack.
“The reason that millions of people are suffering is a combination of Wall Street greed and incredible economic mismanagement,” writes economist Dean Baker. “If people want to be angry at someone, the multi-million dollar bonuses going to hotshot traders at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan might be a better target than a retired school teacher’s $3,000-a-month pension.”
We all need to recognize who’s actually at fault for our misfortune.
- Posted in
50 Comments so far
Show AllUSAan's often vote against their own economic interest, often because of social wedge issues.
While posting is often derided as counter or non productive, it does serve to educate and as we much too often see, correct some awfully unsound articles.
We all could use a tweaking of our belief systems.
Say you are walking through your woodlot and you see what once was a tree, but now is mostly a rotten, corrupt log on the ground being eaten by fungi and insects and turned halfway into mulch, this is the Democratic Party.
You also have a Pernicious plant like the privet bush growing in your woodlet, this is the Republican Party.
You need to plant something to counteract the unchecked spread of the Pernicious Privet.
Now which do you do?
Do you attempt to revive and replant the corrupt and rotten log or
Do you plant new little baby seedlings that will some day be strong enough to overpower the Pernicious Privet?
Posting is valuable, glenn, because its the only place left for the unbrainwashed and uncorrupted to cut through hyperbole and at least catch a glimpse of the facts.
Your woodlot analogy is right on (although I would proibably add nettles, poison ivy, chiggers and coral snakes to represent the media creating difficulty for us to even find our way through the woodlot).
Actually, the value of posting here is that it is an opportunity to break through our own brainwashing and corruption - by "we" I mean those following politics, reading and writing and analyzing, mostly college-educated and professionals and middle management, or sympathetic to that crowd. Whatever brainwashing Republican voting people or Fox news watchers have received, it pales in comparison to that of the educated and successful people, liberals and progressives or whatever. We are first and foremost indoctrinated to support and promote the social norms and conventions, the "meritocracy," "democracy," and all of the current social arrangements and assumptions. To then claim to be a "progressive" is to merely decorate that enormous and monstrous reactionary edifice with a few nice-looking trimmings, some feel good nothingness.
Never mind what the majority is thinking, or what we are constantly told they are thinking. Politics is always a matter of several small factions competing for the attention of the public. We are enormously important, and every bit as big and as powerful as the right wingers are, as the neo-liberal idiots controlling the Democratic party are. The problem is not with the general public, it is with us. The right wing can steer the public because we on the Left are missing in action, whining and wringing our hands and comparing belly button lint between one enlightened person and another with all of the yammer about how we feel, and what we believe, and what we are doing with our personal lifestyle, and how we are going to cast our one individual vote in this or that election, with all of our esoteric "plans" to fix the system and get it to "work," which usually take the form of those idiotic numbered lists - "10 things you can do to save the planet" - that liberals and progressives are so in love with (as though the solution to the political crisis were merely on the level of seriousness as making out a grocery list or something.)
The working class is decapitated, because those who could be speaking and writing on behalf of the working class are thoroughly neutered, bought off and compromised, in the service of the ruling class. We are house slaves, working for master and betraying the field hands - blaming them for the mess, calling them ignorant and stupid! - in exchange for living in master's house, and eating master's food, and wearing master's clothes, and pleasing master in all things. Has there every been a more co-opted, compromised and impotent group of intellectuals in history?
Working for or contributing to the Sierra Club and other liberal organizations - who received massive funding from BP and then were strangely silent during the Gulf catastrophe - is living in master's house. Defending and apologizing for the Democratic party is living in master's house. Talking about voting for a gentrified third party as the solution to the dire crisis we face is living in master's house. Worrying about the tea party and Palin and whatever is living in master's house. Denigrating the blue collar people in the working class - they watch TV, they shop at WalMart, they vote Republican, they are "low information voters," they don't eat organic - is living in master's house. Seeing politics as being all about partisan elections and parties and candidates is living in master's house. Playing "if I were King of the realm" and coming up with pseudo-intellectual technocratic "plans" and "solutions" to impose on society and thereby get this corrupted and deadly system to where it is back "working" again is living in master's house. "Speaking truth to power" is living in master's house. Lecturing others about "making the right choices" is living in master's house. Talking about being "realistic" and "practical" is living in master's house.
It is a cruel joke and it is morally depraved to continue to tell the field hands that if only they made the "right choices," or got an education, or voted a certain way that they too could live in master's house. It is a lie, it is the big fat liberal and progressive delusion. We need to get out of master's house, stop defending master, stop accepting master's miserly bribes, and humbly place our verbal and intellectual skills into the service of the advancement and liberation of the working class - our class, our people.
The field hands going on strike and shutting the mother down is what created the middle class, what enabled any of us to attain the education and skills we have, enabled us to sit around and muse about politics in the first place. We betray that legacy every day with our words and actions. THAT is the brainwashing, the lethargy, the complacency, the cowardice, the self-absorption, and the corruption that we need to break through, and if that is not what we are trying to do here then we are squandering the opportunity that this discussion represents.
Well done.
Not bad, the problem is the working class is brainwashed from childhood that if they just work hard and keep quiet all the rewards will come to them. They also mostly belive that someday they might get the chance to be fatcats and don't want to pay taxs when they get to the top.
Not to mention, the lazyness of the standard sheeple who'd rather stay home and watch TV.
>^^<
Very few believe that someday they might get the chance to be fatcats.
Only a small part of the working class need be and is brainwashed - the more educated ones. Believing that all of the people except the intellectuals and educated are brainwashed is a product of the brainwashing. That leads progressives and liberals to blame the working class people for the mess, and so decapitates the ruling class. Thinking that most people want to become fatcats and that this explains anything is another product of the brainwashing.
Agreed, posting is valuable and productive.
I often learn and understand more not from the actual article but from posters providing opinion, perspective, and expanded associated detail.
Very good Glen..Posting is critical as an educational tool in that it teaches us how to express ourselves politically...Many of us have very good ideas but lack the right words (skill) to express ourselves....We learn from each other....
Yes. Posting helps people better express themselves politically. In politics, that is the whole ballgame, it is how politics happen, it drives everything else. Only people who do not want change claim that writing and talking are useless and a waste of time. "The pen is mightier than the sword."
"Only people who do not want change claim that writing and talking are useless and a waste of time. "The pen is mightier than the sword."
I agree 100%...Keep writing..Please...
Our 'bipartisan' commission should spend 90+% of its time on Medicare. While our recent health insurance legislation has made some small improvements, much more will need to be done and the sooner the work starts, the better. Of course most of us CDers understand that SS is not a problem, with only minor tweaks needed at some point.
The catfood commissionshould be spending 90% of its time paring war spending and 10% on the impacts Obamacare will have in increasing medicare and other medical costs while delivering less health care.
Obamacare also further entrenches the employer-sponsored medical insurance model that prevents US workers from striking since most US workers lose their insurance when they strike.
VIVE LA FRANCE!!!!!!
I SECOND THAT!
Right on, Eagle Bill!
If only the American working-class would come together....
Again: the Magic Seven Words: "Take to the streets, withhold your labor." Until we get back what has and is being taken from us and given to the international bankers and greedy corporatists.
Before cheering on the French, consider their strikes are in response to, "a quarter of a century of an ideological swing to the right." If the French are so unhappy with reduction of their benefits, WHY DO THEY KEEP ELECTING CONSERVATIVES?! Unlike the schizophrenic French, we in the U.S. are sane. Whether electing a Republican or a Democrat, we are electing a conservative. The French, on the other hand, have a choice.
Writing to you from here in Capbreton, France:
In the last presidential election, the socialist candidate narrowly lost to the neocon Sarkozy -- and for the FIRST TIME, electronic voting machines (from the same manufacturer as those used in the USA) were used in some cities (introduced by the Chirac government).
"Problems" enountered with these voting machines were quite similar to those encountered in the USA elections of 2000 and 2004...on a smaller scale.
Sarko and his gang of pimps, like their bushthug buddies, carry water for the Carlyle Group, where his half-brother is one of the directors. Enough said.
Sarko is toast -- and by the Spring France will explode in major civil strife. "The little people" are sick of picking up the bill for Sarko's rich banking buddies and the rest of their ilk.
BTW, the french are not schizophrenic. And we know more about real revolution than you yank sissies could ever imagine....
"And we know more about real revolution than you yank sissies could ever imagine...."
Canard
I would not use the word sissies..lol..but I will concede that France certainly made the success of our little (sissy) revolution possible.....Thanks for the Navy...lol
""Problems" encountered with these voting machines were quite similar to those encountered in the USA elections of 2000 and 2004...on a smaller scale."
What have folks got against good old fashioned paper ballots...
France was 100% paper ballots until 2007. Hopefully, due to complaints about the machines we will once again use only paper ballots in 2012.
Thanks for acknowledging that the Cornwallis surrender at Yorktown was directly accomplished thanks to the French navy...it isnt't until American students reach university-level studies that they finally began to learn such little-known facts about their history, LOL.
Born and raised in Chicago, naturalized French since 1967, lucky me.
canard....the french go to the streets at the threat of retirement being raised to 62....amerikans are threatened with 70, and hardly a peep...looks like sissy to me aussi....
i too was born and raised in chicago...please send for me.........
by FedEx or DHL, LOL ?? Ah, if I win the Euromillions Lotto I will send for everyone!! Meanwhile, am off to the high pyrenees for a hike -- it sure beats Chicago !!
Hand-counted paper ballots is the way to go.
Besides the French Navy and the Cornwallis surrender, most Americans still don't know which country played the greatest role at heavy costs in defeating the Nazi war machine in WW2. Too many John Wayne (and Van Johnson) movies, I guess.
You are living in a beautiful part of the world..
I once played a round at Hossegor..Beautiful Golf course....
"Born and raised in Chicago, naturalized French since 1967, lucky me."
Who in their right mind would not love to live in the South of France....I wish you well.
Thomas Gilbert....
Dante, Quelle Coincidence!! I live in Capbreton, biking distance to Hossegor. Not a golfer though.
The south-west region (Aquitaine) is even better than the south: Endless forests, endless beaches, not far from the Pyrénees -- and French Basque Country right next door.
True, I thank the Good Lord daily for the privilege of living in this corner of the world. And I pray each day for my fellow-americans. I fear the suffering has only just begun....
"Born and raised in Chicago, naturalized French since 1967, lucky me."
I was born, raised, and educated in Canada. (Montreal, Quebec..) My home is currently (and has been for many years) in the State of Georgia.
Delete..Double post
canardtahiti: Thank you for your informative post. I loved Paris and my short stay in France almost three years ago.The French people we talked to and encountered ,save for one man, were courteous and polite and couldn't understand why we don't have a single payer health care system. You are absolutely right about the electronic voting machines. Most Americans, especially the so-called opposition party (the Democratic one), still don't seem to grasp the fundamentals of vote counting fraud and privatized computer scanning equipment.
I never trusted Sarkozy for a second, knowing he was a front man for the international banksters, the corporatists, using NATO troops as flunkies for the New World Order.
I hope you're right about him and his gang of thieves being toast!
Now back to my studies on Robspierre and the revolution. My best to you!
thanks for the input, peaceman. Most frenchies are not big fans of Robespierre --who was more a Glenn Beck-type demagogue with easy access to guillotines and other sharp objects, lol. Just another example of how the usual sociopathic nihilists steal power from the people and pre-empt movements for constructive change.
I was only joking about Robspierre, canardtahiti. I'm aware of his style for enhancing public outrage. That is why I usually say, when talking about the general strike in shutting commerce down, "take to the streets, withhold your labor," (peacefully).
Sorry I missed your irony, et "pardon."
A few years back, under the bushthug regime, I regularly posted "general nationwide strike" encouragements on CD...but NONE of my messages to that effect were ever posted. Not one.
I guess CD is finally coming around to the idea. It would be encouraging if the USA citizenry awakened to this powerful "weapon of mass instruction," lol.
canardtahiti, No problem. The same thing happened to me several years back when I wrote the words "general strike." CD would send a message when I tried posting saying "your comments are awaiting something or other." I actually forgot the word--maybe it was "moderation?" Other posters had the same problem and two of the old-time "regulars" said that CD might have a built-in sensor to delete posts with certain words and suggested reposting the same comments but spelling "general strike" differently, like "general stryke." and CD posted my comments. I guess enough of us inquired and complained and they removed the censored word. I don't know.
Ever since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, I've been instigating for that powerful "weapon of mass instruction," but the American people are even dumber now than they were than, and turn against each other rather than the ruling elite who easily manipulate them. I can't even lol.......
Between the GMO foods, the thousands of chemical additives, prescription drugs, and MSM propaganda, you know what's going on across the big pond.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who will guard the guardians, watch the watchers, etc?)
See reply #1 glenn ford September 9th, 2010 10:38 am paragraph #1 "USAan's often vote against their own economic interest, often because of social wedge issues." This is in reply to your question which I regard as non-rhetorical but I could be wrong. Paraphrasing a quote I heard many years ago I remember - ruling parties in a parliamentarian style government are changed about as often as someone changes their shirt. This often referred to non-first world governments but occasionally Italy and possibly Greece when it is not ruled by a Junta. The two party system gives you a choice if they are truly separate but our two are just different sides of the unified party so I agree with you about the duopoly we currently have. Our Hobson's choice is Tweedledum or Tweedledee. Our main choice seems to depend on dumb.
I'm angry at teachers flying around in their private jets and fire fighters vacationing on their private islands while executives who altruistically create jobs, expand the economy, improve infrastructure and get technologies of the future off the ground are left to greet people at Wallmart to make ends meet. This situation is despicable. This country needs its honor restored so that white guys in business suits can share in the American dream too.
Your anger is justified.
I'd like to add, The Owners (of the USA) are also hard at working seeking new wars to fight, thereby creating jobs and keeping Ameeraka safe all in one fell swoop.
Another ironic fact is that the European workers are treated vastly better than their American compatriots both economically and socially. I don't see the Scandinavian nations calling for "austerity". Why is it always "austerity" for the poor and working classes but never for the ruling classes? We Americans take twice as much shit as any other industrialized nation. That's because we are the least educated and most brainwashed. Starvation unfortunately is a powerful motivator.
Do you see which of America's political parties is the most vociferous in calling for austerity? Do you see which political party encourages anti-immigration tea partiers? Your last 2 sentences are very true. As to your last sentence, the 'least educated' part will come into play and minorities and immigrants will be the target of "a powerful motivator." This is pretty much how this has always played out. I hope the economy picks up soon. I fear the coming news of displaced anger.
One of the parties may be more vociferous in calling for austerity, but the other is more effective at implementing it.
One of the parties may encourage anti-immigration tea partiers, but the other party has justified and legitimatized that and increased police state pressure on immigrants.
The Republicans can only get half of the people on board with Capitalism, with the corporate imperial program. The Democrats are now busy getting the other half on board.
Is that the difference you see between the two?
I've been doing forced austerity for over a year now. Herr Shawartzenegger demands it of all state workers makeing $50,000 or less a year. That way the ones over $100,000 are not affected.
That plus they need money for all the attack adverts against state workers. I'm so happy to help.. it's not like I could find another job in this capilist state with a pension and anything resembling medical, that I can afford since I am disabled.
But the fatcats know that and are working hard to take even that away. :)
I fear I'm beginning to really hate America.. :(
>^^<
The more educated people are, the more brainwashed they are. That is why the national political discussion is so confused and frustrating.
The chilling thing is that is every one of the strkiers would be regarded as a "terrorist threat" if they were USAns doing the same thing here.
I've seen videos of UK protest actions against coal power plants and even airline operations at Heatrow that would probably have resulted in the use of deadly force if they were done in the US.
If you watched CNN yesterday, you saw Jack Cafferty making fun of the French for 'crying' about raising their retirement age. Those poor French are worried about retiring at 62 when many Americans are working well past the US retirement age of 65. Boo hoo. MSM is trying to get us to accept that we are not entitled to retire at all, but must work until the day we die; in fact, it is 'healthy' for us to stay active this way. Perhaps when it is an option, but not when forced.
The message they seemingly want to send us is that no one is entitled to retire--ever. Ironically, the job market becomes hostile to most of us over 50. Corporate America wants slaves at all ages. They'll get what then want once they succeed at fleecing us of all the social security taxes we've paid, or paying out so little it won't matter.
Yes, this is exactly what we French know to be true: Sarko's corporist gang of thugs wants only one thing from us -- "work until you drop dead," just like in the USA. Well, fuck that. And Jack Cafferty is clueless. The French will FIGHT for their rights, unlike today's american zombies.
Unfortunately, with the exception of the troops dying for nothing in oil wars on the other side of the world, Americans are basically self-centered cowards. We probably need something like what the Europeans have been through for the past 1500 years or so - some truly serious pain & suffering!
It's odd that the generation born into the great depression, having lived through their parent's labor struggle and benefit from it the most votes Republican. Or for that matter, that anyone with an income of less than $100K a year votes Republican. At least by voting Democratic, you have the alibi that those candidates switched on you come inauguration time.
Gerrymandering, electoral college, corporate compaign contributions, etc, etc, are all just minor spelling mistakes when it comes to the American democratic process. The fact that ruling elite factions get their minions to abandon their own interests for the sake of nebulous ideas like "national honor" or "family values" even given ample evidence that the elites themselves don't believe any of these positions is the fatal flaw in American governance.
No, the fatal flaw is that we continue to think the two-party system is the solution to the problem rather than the source of the problem. The current demonstrations and strikes in France, which at this time are not as large as I had anticipated, have been organized largely by a labor union with a Communist leaning. Where in the hell would you find that in the US? Since the '30s we have not had working-class political parties, not even struggling little third parties. In the early '70s I joined the Socialist Workers Party, and even though I considered the other members the most intelligent and grounded people I have ever met and completely agreed with every item on their agenda, including a call for a revolution in the USSR, I knew we were merely engaging in some sort of Trotskian nostalgic trip. Today I'd be thankful for even that much.
I'm leaving for Paris in a few days, and I promise not to complain about any inconvenience no matter where French transportation workers may leave me stranded (though I do hope it's not at CDG). I'm always excited to be in France, but this trip promises to be special.
Solidarity.
Thank you for that.
People here want the golden eggs - health care, decent wages, affordable living, a clean and safe environment - and think they can just vote for those things, or wish them into existence. But at the same time they always want to kill the goose that lays those golden eggs - "a labor union with a Communist leaning," as you say - a strong and militant and radical Left.
to Two Americas:
You have presented an excellent analysis. Indoctrination is not education. Educate yourself!
HOORAR FRENCH WORKERS PROTECT THEIR SAFETY NET AS MUST WE. The wealthy CHIP AWAY at our safetys net while they collect their billioh in bonuses.
HOORAY FRENCH WORKERS PROTECT THEIR SAFETY NET AS MUST WE PROTECT OURS.. The wealthy CHIP AWAY at our safetys net while they collect their billioh in bonuses.
Sarkozy got in because of political infighting on the Left. There's another disaster looming if the French Left and the commies can't get their act together. Gaulists are always waiting to spoil the party too. Remember, (as do I) that France had a Vichy government during WWII... and de Gaulle wanted to steal the fire from the partisans (who were mostly commies) - it's not a cake-walk in France, despite the civil disobedience that tries to keep the crazy rulers in line.
But I'd sure rather be living there than here... my parents had to give up their citizenship to become Americans - now why can Zionist terrorists (and war criminals) hold 'dual citizenship' today??? They're all a bunch of traitors. And I can't go 'home' - ever.