A Brief Explanation of the CPE, the November riots, and French politics in general (tags)
The riots in French suburbs have always been detonated by police violence. The first of these riots happened in Lyon's suburbs, in Vaulx-en-Velin, a working class hub with Renault factories. Monstrous urbanisation, tens of thousands of workers who became jobless after corporate downsizing in the 1970s, inexistent public infrastructures, stigmatisation against people of foreign origin, schools that only proposed dead ends, heroin for the young and alcohol for their parents; voila the situation of this peripheral city forgotten by all until police violence led to the death of a young man. Police violence triggered this riot in 1990, and those that followed, all the way up to those of November 2005...
French government withdraws “First Job Contract,” enlists unions in assault on job securit (tags)
President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced yesterday that new legislation will be drawn up to replace the “First Job Contract” (CPE), which sparked a massive wave of protests and strikes in recent weeks. Leaders of the trade unions, some student unions and “left” political parties immediately declared the shift marked a decisive victory for the anti-CPE movement and signalled their intention to halt further mass mobilisations against the government.
French unions hold talks with government in move to end “First Job Contract” strikes (tags)
France’s major trade unions and student unions, a total of twelve organizations operating under the umbrella of the Intersyndicale, held a joint meeting in Paris Wednesday morning to coordinate negotiations with the Gaullist government over the “First Job Contract” (CPE). Five trade unions—CGT (General Confederation of Labour), CFDT (French Democratic Confederation of Labour), FO (Workers Power) and two management unions, the CFTC and the CFE-CGC—later held separate discussions with deputies from the ruling Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) party. Other unions will meet with the government in the coming days.
France: As millions protest government attacks, unions signal retreat on “First Job Contra (tags)
An estimated 2 to 3 million striking workers and students demonstrated throughout France yesterday against the Gaullist government’s “First Job Contract” (CPE) legislation, matching the turnout at a similar day of action on March 28. Tuesday’s strikes and protests followed President Jacques Chirac’s announcement last Friday that he had officially ratified the CPE, which permits employers to dismiss young workers without cause during their first two years of employment.
A socialist strategy for workers’ power: the only answer to France’s “First Job Contract” (tags)
The month-long struggle against the Gaullist government’s “First Job Contract” has brought to the fore the fundamental class and political issues facing workers and young people not only in France, but across Europe and internationally. The needs of youth and workers—decent-paying and secure jobs, education, health care, a future without war or repression—are in irreconcilable conflict with the interests of a financial elite who represent a failed political and economic system. This oligarchy of wealth and power is determined to make the working class pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
Carta de la señora Maigret a John Lennon (tags)
Cuando John Lennon creó “Imagine”, éste, probablemente no imaginaba su propia muerte. La Señora Maigret ofrece, en esta carta, testimonios de la pervivencia de Imagine y de los excelentes resultados que puede tener este discurso, el que mantuvo el mismo cantaautor en su época de los Beattles y los de otros, como Saint Exupéry o Dylan en la puesta en práctica de otros mundos posibles