(Eng) Strikes in France
Ronald Creagh (rcreagh@alor.univ-montp3.fr)
Sat, 2 Dec 1995 19:25:17 +0100
The strike movement is developing through all the country. There are no
trains, no metro in Paris, no buses in many cities. Even where students are
not striking, the universities are in a state of great turmoil.
The post office has also now joined the strike and so are other groups (air
stewards, etc.). Next week, doctors are also planning a demonstration as
well as other groups. Even the police is threatening to go on strike as all
the hullabaloo that was organized to "fight terrorists" has asked them to
work extra hours which have not been paid.
The main reason is that the government is threatening the social security
system and the retirement pension : civil servants had to work for 37 1/2
years to get their full pension, and the government has decided to put it
to 40 years(thus also preventing the creation of new jobs, in a country
where there is more and more unemployment).
Our university (Arts and Humanities) has declared that it will close on
Dec. 15 if its demands are not satisfied. Students have also gone and
joined students in a course in another university in Montpellier to show
that their own classes were too small. Indeed, our university was built for
8000 students and now has 18000 with no great change in the buildings.The
student movement is divided : the unions are in the hands of socialist and
leftists who are generally untrustworthy ; yet there are no political
demands. Professors are generally lukeworm and hesitating between demagogic
and reactionary attitudes.
As for the government, it is made of technocrats who are uncapable of
understanding what is happening. They want to adopt the Thatcher method,
refusing any concession, and letting the strike go on till people get fet
up. As they are also projecting their image of May 68 on the present
events, they want to initiate the same sort of reactionary movement as the
notorious Gaullist demonstration to the Champs-Elysees, when all the Paris
police was walking in plain clothes to applaud de Gaulle. They intend to
organize the same thing next week : a big meeting of "people fed up with
the strikes".
The strike is also creating many problems to small business and the large
Parisian shops. This may be an opportunity for the French fascists.
Another eventuality which is envisaged is new elections or a referendum.
The latter might indeed confuse all issues ...
Ronald Creagh
Universite Paul Valery
B.P. 5043
34032 Montpellier Cedex
France
Fax (Domicile/Home) (33) 67 64 77 23