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Politics

French Fried by Demonstrations

April 4, 2006 at 1:17 PM | 0 Comments

We've seen Les Miserables--we knot it's axiomatic that the French are good at protests. What's on their agenda these days? Workers under the age of 26 are protesting a recent change in the law, allowing employers to fire recent hires without notice within  a two year span. The probation period had previously been three months.

Since the beginning of February, when Prime Minister Dominque de Villepin revealed the law, protests and strikes been growing nationwide. President Chriac signed the law over the weekend, though he did offer concessions that the protestors subsequently rejected.

In the last two weeks, students barricaded themselves in the universities, and yesterday the Eiffel Tower was closed while Ryanair cancelled their flights to France as an estimated 100,000 protestors took to the streets. No, not Ryanair! Have they no sense of decency?

Heavy stuff, but if you want to get a good, ground-level view of what's happening, head to the libcom.org blog. There's photos from the protests across the country, and nearly minute by minute posts of the goings on. It's a little rah-rah revolutionary in tone, but it's explained in English, perfect for those of us who had all of their French language skills from high school dribble out our ear while we slept.

[Image via stuartisett/Flickr]

Related Stories:
·   Libcom Blog
·   Protestors Take to the Streets [IHT]