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March 17th, 2006 | #1 |
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: JUDEAware, originally MassaJEWsetts
Posts: 8,901
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French Police Detain 300 Labor Protesters
French Police Detain 300 Labor Protesters
Hundreds Detained After Quarter of a Million People Demonstrate in France Against Labor Law By JOHN LEICESTER PARIS Mar 17, 2006 (AP)— Police detained some 300 people around France after nationwide student marches against a new labor law turned violent, as street cleaners cleared away torched cars Friday and the government braced for more protests. A quarter of a million people took to the streets in some 200 demonstrations around the country Thursday, in a test of strength between youth and the conservative government of 73-year-old President Jacques Chirac. Most of the violence and the arrests were around the Sorbonne university in Paris, where police fired rubber pellets and tear gas at youths who pelted them with stones and set cars on fire. Fifty-one police and riot officers were injured, and a total of 272 people were detained nationwide, 187 of them in Paris, the Interior Ministry said. The country's main student union condemned the violence, which police blamed on fringe groups of radicals and anarchists and a few petty criminals who broke into a jewelry store in the melee. The clashes died down by late Thursday, and no major overnight violence was reported. "There was a demonstration that went smoothly and then there were a few delinquents who came to pick a fight," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters. The next major test will come Saturday when unions and students march together. If the government faces down the groundswell of protest, Chirac's prime minister and supposed preferred successor, Dominique de Villepin, and his ideas for revitalizing France will have scored a major victory heading into next year's presidential race. If not, Villepin's presidential ambitions may be finished and the government's reforms discredited. The students' anger focuses on a new form of job contract championed by Villepin that will allow employers to fire young workers within their first two years in a job without giving a reason. The government says the flexibility will encourage companies to hire thousands of young people, bringing down unemployment rates that run at 23 percent among young adults and around double that in some of the depressed suburbs that were shaken by weeks of riots last year. http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ory?id=1736642 (Page 2 of 2) The job contract was one of the government's responses to that violence. But students fear it will erode France's coveted labor protections and leave the young by the wayside. Villepin said Thursday that he was "open to dialogue, in the framework of the law, to improve the first job contract" but showed no sign of withdrawing the measure. Thursday's protests in Paris began peacefully, with students whistling, chanting and beating drums. Later, however, tension mounted and police and rioters waged a back-and-forth battle amid acrid clouds of tear gas outside the Sorbonne on the Left Bank. Several hundred youths threw Molotov cocktails, paving stones, metal crowd-control barriers, and tables and chairs taken from nearby cafes. Many cars were overturned or torched. Associated Press Writer Jean-Marie Godard contributed to this report from Paris. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. http://abcnews.go.com/International/...1736642&page=2 |
March 17th, 2006 | #2 | |
Left-wing NS
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,062
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Sarkozy is blaming neo-nazis and extreme-leftists for the violence.He calls them both trash and thugs.
Its interesting times we live in. All over Europe the mechanisms of problem solving in the capitalistic system fail and young people start to revolt.The law Villepin did pass is totally unsocial. He thought it up for the immigrant youths to have better opportunities at the job market.But now the "native" young French are pissed off since the prospect of having a job for only two years and then being thrown on the streets again does not sound very good to them. The massive anticapitalist movements of the extreme left and the extreme right will rise again all over Europe. Quote:
__________________
In the age of Globalization,its not the international Left,but the nationalist Right,which is the true anticapitalist force,which will set restrictions on the international Capital and will secure and improve the nation-state as a social shelter. |
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March 18th, 2006 | #3 | |
Left-wing NS
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,062
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Another article which gives a better understanding of the situation in France:
Quote:
__________________
In the age of Globalization,its not the international Left,but the nationalist Right,which is the true anticapitalist force,which will set restrictions on the international Capital and will secure and improve the nation-state as a social shelter. |
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