1 to 2.5 Million Strike, Protest, and Riot in France
DriftingByTheStorm
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Huge crowds have taken to the streets in France to protest over the handling of the economic crisis, causing disruption to rail and air services.
Unions said 2.5m workers had rallied to demand action to protect wages and jobs. Police put the total at 1m.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said concerns over the crisis were legitimate and the government had to listen and act.
He will meet union and business leaders next month to discuss what programme of reforms to follow this year, he said.
Overall, the government estimated that a quarter of the country's public sector workers had joined the action, which was called by eight major French unions. The unions put the figure higher.
A spokesman for the CGT union told AFP that 2.5m people across the country had taken part in the day's protests. French police put the number at just over 1m.
In pictures: French strike
Economic woes at heart of strike
France takes strike in its stride
CGT leader Bernard Thibault called on Mr Sarkozy to recognise the gravity of the situation and "reassess his measures" to deal with the economic crisis.
In Paris, police said some 65,000 demonstrators had joined a march from the Place de la Bastille towards the centre of the city.
There were reports of violent outbreaks on the outskirts of the protest as it reached central Paris, with dozens of youths throwing bottles and lighting fires in a main shopping street.
Police in riot gear charged the youths, pushing them back on to the Place de l'Opera where the crowds were gathering, but the situation remained volatile.
There were repeated baton charges, and after fires were lit on some of Paris' best-known boulevards, police used tear gas on the minority of protesters who were violent.
Earlier, some 25,000 to 30,000 people rallied in the city of Lyon, according to organisers and police.
In Marseille, organisers and the authorities disagreed, with the former putting the number of demonstrators at 300,000 but the police estimating 24,000 had taken part.
The protests are against the worsening economic climate in France and at what people believe to be the government's poor handling of the crisis.
Opposition Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said people were out in the streets "to express what worries them: the fact that they work and yet cannot make ends meet, retired people who just can't make it [financially], the fear of redundancies, and a president of the Republic and a government that just don't want to change policy".
Staying home
The strike action disrupted transport services but did not cause the paralysis forecast by unions.
Regional trains and those in and around Paris were hit, and a third of flights from Orly airport were cancelled.
Paris's second airport was heavily hit by the strike, but flights out of the larger Charles de Gaulle hub were experiencing only short delays, AFP news agency said.
Schools, banks, hospitals, post offices and courts were also hit as workers stayed at home. Officials said just over a third of teachers and a quarter of postal and power company workers were on strike.
According to a 25 January poll by CSA-Opinion for Le Parisien, 69% of the French public backs the strike.
"I'm tired and frozen after waiting half-an-hour on the platform," commuter Sandrine Dermont told AFP as she arrived by train in Paris.
"But I'm prepared to accept that when it's a movement to defend our spending power and jobs. I'll join the street protests during my lunch break," she said.
Hit hard
Many people are furious that Mr Sarkozy said there was no money left to raise wages and consumer spending power, but nonetheless managed to find billions of euros to bail out floundering French banks, says the BBC's Emma-Jane Kirby in Paris.
The walk-out has affected transport, education and postal services throughout the country, our correspondent says, and is the biggest one-day strike since Mr Sarkozy took up office.
Commuters at St Lazare station in Paris
With unemployment looking likely to reach 10% next year, she says, the protesters hope he will drop his programme of cost-cutting reforms and focus instead on protecting workers' jobs and wages.
Mr Sarkozy cannot ignore this demonstration of anger, our correspondent adds. Street protests have repeatedly brought down French leaders and Mr Sarkozy does not want his government added to that list of casualties.
"We want to show how the people are dissatisfied with the situation at the moment," Thierry Dedieu of the CFDT general workers' union told the BBC.
People had the feeling they were paying for a crisis they were not responsible for, he added.
But earlier in the week, French Finance Minister Eric Woerth condemned the strike organisers, accusing them of scare-mongering during a time of economic uncertainty.
Unions said 2.5m workers had rallied to demand action to protect wages and jobs. Police put the total at 1m.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said concerns over the crisis were legitimate and the government had to listen and act.
He will meet union and business leaders next month to discuss what programme of reforms to follow this year, he said.
Overall, the government estimated that a quarter of the country's public sector workers had joined the action, which was called by eight major French unions. The unions put the figure higher.
A spokesman for the CGT union told AFP that 2.5m people across the country had taken part in the day's protests. French police put the number at just over 1m.
In pictures: French strike
Economic woes at heart of strike
France takes strike in its stride
CGT leader Bernard Thibault called on Mr Sarkozy to recognise the gravity of the situation and "reassess his measures" to deal with the economic crisis.
In Paris, police said some 65,000 demonstrators had joined a march from the Place de la Bastille towards the centre of the city.
There were reports of violent outbreaks on the outskirts of the protest as it reached central Paris, with dozens of youths throwing bottles and lighting fires in a main shopping street.
Police in riot gear charged the youths, pushing them back on to the Place de l'Opera where the crowds were gathering, but the situation remained volatile.
There were repeated baton charges, and after fires were lit on some of Paris' best-known boulevards, police used tear gas on the minority of protesters who were violent.
Earlier, some 25,000 to 30,000 people rallied in the city of Lyon, according to organisers and police.
In Marseille, organisers and the authorities disagreed, with the former putting the number of demonstrators at 300,000 but the police estimating 24,000 had taken part.
The protests are against the worsening economic climate in France and at what people believe to be the government's poor handling of the crisis.
Opposition Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry said people were out in the streets "to express what worries them: the fact that they work and yet cannot make ends meet, retired people who just can't make it [financially], the fear of redundancies, and a president of the Republic and a government that just don't want to change policy".
Staying home
The strike action disrupted transport services but did not cause the paralysis forecast by unions.
Regional trains and those in and around Paris were hit, and a third of flights from Orly airport were cancelled.
Paris's second airport was heavily hit by the strike, but flights out of the larger Charles de Gaulle hub were experiencing only short delays, AFP news agency said.
Schools, banks, hospitals, post offices and courts were also hit as workers stayed at home. Officials said just over a third of teachers and a quarter of postal and power company workers were on strike.
According to a 25 January poll by CSA-Opinion for Le Parisien, 69% of the French public backs the strike.
"I'm tired and frozen after waiting half-an-hour on the platform," commuter Sandrine Dermont told AFP as she arrived by train in Paris.
"But I'm prepared to accept that when it's a movement to defend our spending power and jobs. I'll join the street protests during my lunch break," she said.
Hit hard
Many people are furious that Mr Sarkozy said there was no money left to raise wages and consumer spending power, but nonetheless managed to find billions of euros to bail out floundering French banks, says the BBC's Emma-Jane Kirby in Paris.
The walk-out has affected transport, education and postal services throughout the country, our correspondent says, and is the biggest one-day strike since Mr Sarkozy took up office.
Commuters at St Lazare station in Paris
With unemployment looking likely to reach 10% next year, she says, the protesters hope he will drop his programme of cost-cutting reforms and focus instead on protecting workers' jobs and wages.
Mr Sarkozy cannot ignore this demonstration of anger, our correspondent adds. Street protests have repeatedly brought down French leaders and Mr Sarkozy does not want his government added to that list of casualties.
"We want to show how the people are dissatisfied with the situation at the moment," Thierry Dedieu of the CFDT general workers' union told the BBC.
People had the feeling they were paying for a crisis they were not responsible for, he added.
But earlier in the week, French Finance Minister Eric Woerth condemned the strike organisers, accusing them of scare-mongering during a time of economic uncertainty.
If I was to smile and I held out my hand
If I opened it now would you not understand?
If I opened it now would you not understand?
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
so much for the idea that protests do nothing.
and he has to act. the french people will end that government if they don't act.
I experienced a French strike while I was living in Paris. Those people really know how to strike. They shut down 90% of public transport. The place was a mess.
Good for them...
those unions sure are useless, huh? Always causing jobs to leave their country with their unrealistic demands for security and fair pay for the workers instead of cash for rich bankers and shareholders....they're obsolete I tell ya :roll:
When the French take action, they sure know how - usually with results.
Iceland was another example of that recently with their goverment's handling of the economic/bank crisis.
Nor have i seen ANY coverage on the nightly news.
What else is new.
:roll:
If I opened it now would you not understand?
Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America, argues that bureaucracy has killed effective protesting because mass social protests in the U.S. now have a feeling of "Disneyland activism."
"It feels fake, because it is fake," she says.
If I opened it now would you not understand?
but just because someone is getting the highest wages in his/her industry does not mean there isn't a reason to strike.
seems the french have been really good at keeping up with inflation (here in the US wages have been stagnant in the US since the 70's). maybe this is one of the ways they go about doing that.
There are one or two "government" controlled channels over there so I'd only imagine what kind of coverage they'd have of the strike.
That is a very over simplistic view of the reason of the strikes! Living in Paris, does she not understand what is going on in France (and other countries)? Is she French?
The French are protesting against the government's handling of the economic crisis, the rising unemployment and the government's inaction. Lots of my family are taking part in those protests and I can assure you they are NOT striking for higher wages. And for info, the french DO NOT have 100% job security - that is ridiculous. Six weeks paid holidays is more or less the norm on the continent (includes bank holidays) - of course if you compare that to the US.....
.... and dozens of other channels! So what do you mean by your comment?
That if someone were to strictly follow the coverage of those "government" channels they will get a negative view of the strikes because the government will feed it to them.
Been watching French news... they say it as it is. No brainwashing like Fox for this... no people to be so gullible as Fox viewers I think!
Don't know if you are aware that recently, advertising has been banned on TV (state channels) and will be phased out over the next couple of years. Sounds good... no ads to interrupt your viewing, etc. But the French may see it in a different light. Seems it may be a 'ploy' to deprive state broadcasters of funds, handing this money to private broadcasters (which one of them TF1 just happens to be owned by a friend of Sarkozy). Also could lead to job losses as less funds available and last but not least, the appointment of the Head of Televisions would also be decided by the president (should the bill pass) - what a way to control even more state television.
Now.... all this has been reported on state channels, the media workers went on strike - not only was this reported but was obvious since programmes were heavily disrupted.
So yes... news does lean one way or the other, but no 'pulling the wool over people's eyes'. Just look at French history and the 'belligerence' and militancy of the French and you will have a better idea of what 'state' news is up against.