France shows how it's done. Again.
Just a few days after the month-long transportation/energy workers strike was joined by teachers, district nurses and lawyers (and the police were going to protest), President Emmanuel Macron’s government began to fold.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe offered a major concession to unions after trade groups took to the streets for a fifth straight day of protests against President Emmanuel Macron's overhaul of the pension system.The prime minister said in a letter to unions and employers that he was ready to make an offer to unions, on the basis of a compromise, after talks on Friday.
It was just over a year ago that the Yellow Vests forced Macron to back down.
Like the Yellow Vests before, the union strikers are overwhelmingly popular.
France was just early in a growing global movement against neoliberalism.
Chile and Ecuador have also won victories against neoliberals.
Colombia, Honduras, and Lebanon protesters (among others) are currently battling austerity.
Comments
French police are pussies.
The protests wouldn't have got so far out of hand in the US. /s
@CB I hope that was intended
I hope that was intended to be ironic/sarcastic.
A disturbing number of protestors (and bystanders) have been blinded or otherwise maimed there by police use of
(just) less-than-lethal weaponry.
And demonstrations/riots do get out of control frequently in the US - as long it's a deep blue enclave like pretty much any city on the West Coast and the "demonstrators" are Antifa, BLM or the like.
Not that US cops don't kill people, but shooting or tasing or bludgeoning a mentally ill homeless person armed with a spork is really more their style.
As spending any amount of time on the Free Thought Project will certainly confirm.
Hi there.
The "/s" at the end of the statement means "snark" or sarcastic. Just thought I'd put this in here as a reminder that some of us read too fast and don't get the snark or don't know how to signal the readers what is intended.
Hope that helps.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
@Dawn's Meta
Thank you - that does help.
Can't contribute $$ at the moment, but I did plant a lemon tree last week...
Yes, it was snark/irony
The Yellow Vest's have been protesting since November 17, 2018 and at times they have been very violent mostly due to an escalating police response (there were some small embedded groups that tried to escalate the violence at times). So far, the French police have restrained from using deadly force. But they have resorted to tear gas and non-lethal weapon ammunition (many times used inappropriately/illegally).
If these protests would have occurred in the US with the same size, scope and longevity of the Yellow Vest protests, the National Guard would have been called out. In addition, I doubt the American police would have refrained from using deadly force in many of the hand-to-hand melees between the protestors and the police that occurred. France has a long history of tolerating protest - some extremely violent by American standards - without resorting to American policing methods.
If the French police started behaving like American police under these circumstances, the French citizens would overthrow the government. There has been historical precedent on a number of occasions. The right to protest against their government is an honored national birthright of the French citizen.
Very good summary.
the Jilets Jaunes were worn down quite a bit by heavy use of tear gas, rubber projectiles, arrest and fencing.
This movement is larger and stronger. The two have joined which to me is good.
The black-clothed police we saw in one city were mostly young and looked scared to us. The people talked to them when they could, but their face shields and guns seemed to be difficult hurdles.
There are investigations into police actions during marches and protests to determine if they are restricting the French right to free speech and assembly.
This evening it is clear the unions don't think the one concession of taking longer years of work out of the bill is enough. They are very concerned about women workers, who often take time off for raising French kids and those working in body-breaking professions. The new proposed point system would leave these workers at a disadvantage to those who can work longer.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
Again, they elected this schmoe.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Americans need to face up to the fact
that they created a choice between HRC and DJT in the last Presidential election, and did not bother to consider alternatives.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
I think the DNC created that not American voters
It was a populist year and it's not surprising that a TV clown running as a populist won a nomination against the same old tired ideologues that they had rejected before.
The only candidates that I personally heard voters who were not political junkies excited about were Trump and Sanders. I posted diaries at BoomanTribune about conversations I had with the dispossessed of America, strangers who touted Trump. I talked with them about Bernie Sanders and almost universally got back "Oh, he's good too!" Most significant to me was a older lady, I would guess late 50's, a former Middle Manager at a Fortune 500 Company, whose job was transferred to China (with the whole operation). This was an apparently conservative woman in a historically Republican suburb. Still well-dressed she was enraged at being denied a counter job at Burger King (probably too old). I'm sure she voted for Trump, but could have voted for Bernie ("Oh, he's good too!"). Not in a million years would that lady have voted for Hillary just because they had similar plumbing.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Nobody was forcing the American voters to choose --
either DJT or HRC. They could have chosen any of the minority-party candidates on offer, except perhaps in Oklahoma where ballot status requirements are unconstitutionally high. Or they could have chosen not to vote, and a lot of them did just that.
Pretty much everyone has tacitly accepted the two-tribe approach to politics: the (D) happy business-suit tribe, or the (R) stern moralistic phony-television-preacher tribe. We get crappy policies cycle after cycle, and nobody blinks. Instead, everything is the fault of the other tribe.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
There was a HUGE amount of pressure for Americans to
make the binary choice. No ranked-choice voting, and constant repetitions of "a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump", "throwing away your vote", and even name-calling people as "traitors" to the Democratic Party. Then add in the rampant cheating against Sanders in the primaries, which ensured that Americans did NOT have a free choice, and the hackable-by-design voting machines and tabulators.
The absence of ranked-choice voting, especially, (which the Democratic Party elites oppose just as much as Republicans, if not more) made for a very difficult choice for a lot of people.
Yes, but so what?
Both candidates sucked. All the Pressure People had is: "Vote for Sucky Candidate A or else Sucky Candidate B is going to win."
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
I made my protest vote for Jill Stein
What was the outcome? I'm accused of electing Trump.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Indeed.
American politics is controlled by an arrogant, stupid elite with little respect for democracy. Kind of like Germany in 1933, except our Constitution is better than that of the Weimar Republic.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Water under the bridge
It shouldn't distract you from this movement
I would like to think
that the government in Ecuador has made any real attempt to find alternatives but there is little indication that is so. Instead I expect the government to be better prepared when the bell rings for round two. The government will not be surprise.
That said tonight marks two years since we arrived in Cuenca. We receive our permanent residency visas on Tuesday. My son is still somewhat in limbo due to requirements that sprang up out of nowhere in August. It’s a documentation issue that will probably make him renew his temporary visa for two years while he builds a history that meets the new requirements. Our attorney has a good handle on the solution so we’ll just go with the flow. Tranquilo. It’s not just a good way to live, it’s the law.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
I was there when it was socialist
and there when it was neoliberal.
I thought of you.
Hope you are well.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
How about them
Gilets Jaunes?
Positive role models, non?
Inspirational signs seen in video of the latest protests:
big banner at the head of one march:
"Global Uprising"
small sign with a hand-drawn Earth as background:
"Make Earth Great Again"
That one has a certain ring to it, but can't quite place it...
I've been reviewing different news outlets on what is going on.
Notice that Macron said something like 'sure, it's the voice of reason to take the retirement age of 64 off the bill'.
But several other very damaging points are still there. Not sure we will see much reduction in strikes (grèves) once the unions and other professional associations read what's left in the bill.
It is interesting to me to see that the members of the Paris Opera are marching along with transit workers and other unions. Some of the police were also getting ready to strike.
It is my belief from what I have seen, especially concessions on retirement ages and benefits, that Macron is trying to split the ranks by protecting some of the police, fire, and first responder units. We have seen these black suited very young and very scared forces they deploy against people who mostly don't want any harm done to them.
Privatization is also making this a worse mess. Whether corporate employers have to allow unions or not, I'm not sure. Formerly public services are being privatized rapidly.
There are many non union sole proprietors (auto entrepreneurs) who need the protection of unions. They are especially hurt when the transportation systems are disrupted. Not sure about how they might unionize, but wish it would happen. There wouldn't be a split in the public about the strikes if most were members of some union.
Edit to add: Macron probably put the bill out before the holidays hoping the unions and other professionals wouldn't take away visiting the family at Noël. But they held the line anyway. After the holidays a majority of people were with the strikers. Macron is not well liked.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.
"Let's you and them fight!"
"trying to split the ranks by protecting some of the police, fire, and first responder units." Gee, where have we seen that before? Standard "divide and conquer" tactics.