General Strike in France very popular

[reggie the dog]

I went on strike today, millions of people did in our 60 million people nation of France. 3 million people, 5 percent of us, were in the street protesting! In Paris even McDonald's workers went on strike to demand raises! http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/actu-minute/2009/03/19/la-journee-de-mobilisation-du-19-mars_1169837_3224.html#breve543

vive la grève! We struck to protest cuts in social funding as well as just being sick and tired of the rich getting bailed out and not us! Also because the president sucks. Retired people were protesting to preserve the retirement program for their kids, private and public sector workers. I never saw such a big demonstration in Draguignan. Jr. High school kids, high school kids, university students, teachers, parents with their grade school kids, the sheep shearers union was there today!!! JUDGES were on strike! Wine makers, the post office, government office workers, even some off duty cops.

[msongs]

1. stop paying taxes! revolt! if you all stop paying taxes the rich can't benefit from...oh well nt

[AndyTiedye]

5. That Only Works If You Have No Assets for the IRS to Seize

IRS agents love tax resisters, because they make it easy to meet their quota without doing a lot of work.
They can impose thousands of dollars in penalties without having to wade through the kind of paper jungle
that those who are actually trying to cheat set up through their lawyers.

Tax resistance only works if you don't own anything, have nothing in the bank, and don't make much.
In that case, you probably don't owe the IRS very much in taxes anyway.

[reggie the dog]

13. only the top 50 percent of wage earners pay income tax

and our social system is still good, so we get a good service. We pay a tiny bit of tax and I am proud to do so.

[bajamary]

2. Bravo

Bravo. Keep the pressure on the Sarkozy government.

Even so, France is a whole lot better to its citizens than is the USA.

Bon chance !

[Echo In Light]

3. Excellent!

[stray cat]

4. Do you really think if the entire country demands a raise they will get one?

How long are they willing to stay off the job - or is it a one day thing?

[reggie the dog]

14. this is a one day thing to show the government that

if things do not change we will go on strike like in Guadaloupe, Martinique, and Reunion. If there are not changes they could very well be a general strike in May. University proffesors and students have been on strike for two months already. Teachers may walk out next month. Same for the trains. We shall see.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. The Left is alive and vital in France.

I've been following the rise of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (Nouveau parti anticapitaliste, NPA)which now poses the greatest threat to Sarkozy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090319/ts_afp/financeeconomyfrancepoliticsstrike_20090319153338

Polls suggest the crisis is already benefiting the extreme-left leader Olivier Besancenot, whose newly-launched Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) is named in recent surveys as the most credible alternative to Sarkozy's government.

For more about the NPA and Besancenot see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Anticapitalist_Party

[Echo In Light]

7. Thanks for the input

[TahitiNut]

10. Look at what a beautiful day it is in Paris!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[reggie the dog]

16. the CFDT are the centrists here

that is why they wear orange and not red like the communists. I am far on the left but the CFDT are my allies as well as they are center left.

[reggie the dog]

15. I will vote for them in the next

legislative and presidential elections in three years. I voted Bové then Socialist last time for President, and PCF (communists) for the legislature. For the European elections in June I will vote for a new coalition either the NPA or the Front de Gauche, they are trying to work out a coaltion between them before the elections so that one party will run candidates in one area and the other party in the other places.

[TahitiNut]

8. Liberté, égalité, fraternité!!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. And, let us not forget Madame DuFarge to keep the lists. And, Marat..

"Marat we're poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don't make
Us wait anymore
We want our rights and we don't care how
We want our revolution now!"

From Marat/Sade

[reggie the dog]

19. n'oubliez pas

la solidarité

[TahitiNut]

22. Mais oui! It's in the 19th Arrondisement.

:dunce: :dunce:

[reggie the dog]

25. I used to live in the 19th arrondissement

rue mathis, métro Crimée or Riquet

[TahitiNut]

27. Au Boeuf Couronne ... one of my favorite restaurants (for beef)

I enjoyed going there. They served pommes souffle alongside the beef tenderloin and haricots vert. Yum! It's been 30 years since I lived and worked there (in Aulnay sous Bois) for over three months ... eating out each evening. I became VERY familiar with the restaurants of Paris.

Along that part of avenue Jean-Jaures there were a few beef specialty restaurants, apparently because the stockyards were once there. I enjoyed Au Boeuf Couronne the most.

[reggie the dog]

30. the stockyards were where the science and industry

museum is found today

[RufusTFirefly]

26. What are they saying, reggie?

About 45 seconds into the clip, you can hear people chanting "Solidarité! Avec le ____________" I think. Can't make it out though.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8pqvz_les-don-quichotte-solidaires-des-gr_news

[reggie the dog]

31. avec des personnes dans la rue

avec des mal logés

they are protesting for the rights of homeless people, or people in poor lodging conditions. They pass out tents to homeless people. Like in the USA many homeless people are mentally ill. We have less homeless as a percent of the population in France than in the USA but thankfully these people are fighting for the rights of the homeless. It was a general strike yesterday so people had lots of demands.

their organization is called "Don Quichotte"

[RufusTFirefly]

36. Merci! n/t

[Vidar]

11. Vive la France! Thanks for the report.

[Lars39]

12. le kick

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Another strike in France!? Awesome! k+r, n/t

[reggie the dog]

18. doggie striker

http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/1101403-vos-photos-des-manifs-du-19-mars-de-marseille-a-saint-brieuc-en-passant-par-laval:i-3

FO is a far left union, as is SUD which I am in, there is also the CGT, they are really far left. The Socialists and communists were there. yippie

[newtothegame]

20. Are the strikes always about more money and free stuff?

Do they do walkouts against war, drug policies, etc.?

[reggie the dog]

21. it is not about money

it is about preserving the welfare state. But yes they do protest wars, but they did not go to Iraq, drugs are all depenalized as far as use is concerned already.

[JackRiddler]

23. I love the reactionary responses to news from a country...

where the standard of living is far higher than in the United States, precisely because the people take to the streets at the drop of a hat!

[Echo In Light]

24. The mind boggles, eh?

[Raskolnik]

28. You might want to ask the de facto servant class of immigrants how wonderful Paris is.

I'm sure those folks that have been burning cars in Paris for the last year or two find being second-class citizens quite refreshing.

[JackRiddler]

29. I don't deny this...

but you might want to ask the immigrant underclass anywhere the same question. Which isn't to justify their situation, at all.

We're talking here about the current strikes. France is no paradise, it's just a place where the citizens are more organized than in the United States to at least defend their own rights against those of the ownership class.

[reggie the dog]

33. of course it is paradise here

you get sick, IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO GO TO THE DOCTOR
university tuition 5 euros a year up to 300 or so a year depending on your income level
govt subsudies for each kid you have irregardless of income level
govt subsudies which pay all but 60 euro a month for day care for my kid and I am middle class, if you are poor it pays 100 percent
our social aid programs make sure people have enough to eat, tthat they are lodged and that they can buy clothes (a bonus check given to all parents for kids clothing at the beginning of the school year) for the ENTIRE YEAR! So talk of welfare queens so that unlike in the USA parents do not have do deal drugs or prostitute themselves to put food on the table at the end of the month. The result is a more or less tranquil society, far less violent than in the USA. Hell you can cut across people land while hiking and they generally do not care and have no right to shoot you like in many states in the USA.

Top it off with a 35 hour work week and 5 weeks paid vacation minimum and you get something pretty close to paradise.

PS our unemployment insurance pays us 75 percent of our salary for as long as we worked. 2 years work gets 2 years unemployment benefits.

[JackRiddler]

34. But you'll admit the same benefits do not accrue to the Africans...

in Africa, where French-based interests backed by the French state and covert state actors remain active in imperial ventures that cause or contribute to the deaths of millions and the crushing poverty of nations, and from which the French people derive at least the benefit of commodity access. (This alongside other imperial nations, such as the United States.) Long as this is true, no country in the world system can simply be called a paradise.

[reggie the dog]

35. true

true,

[reggie the dog]

32. they are NOT second class citizens

there are problems with unemployment and racism in France like anywhere in the wolrd. The difference is that the poor, unemployed here only pay 5 euros a year for the university, have free, quality national health care, go to quality schools and seeing as the high school diploma is a national test even kids in poor neighboroods do not have to worry that they come from a "bad" read poor area with "bad" read poor schools like they do in the USA. The strike today is about helping those in need or those who worry that they will soon be in need. We just may all start burning and looting like in Guadalupe soon enough if the governemnt keeps trying to cut the social system and keeps blowing smoke up our asses.