Quote France:
"Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across France on Tuesday in 150 anti-government marches to protest privatization, stagnant wages and a law that makes it easier to lay off employees at small companies."
O.K., it's true that faced with the cheap labour economies of China and parts of Asia, it's a difficult task for Europeans to try and hang on to customary standards like job security, high pensions, welfare and controlled working hours. But I always admire the French when they do things like take to the streets and I fail to understand why such action never takes place in this country. To put it bluntly, all we seem to get over here is some small-town demonstration over fox hunting! 😕
Consider how different attitudes are in France. Quote:
"The broad-based protest led by labor unions and leftist political parties was backed by nearly three-quarters of the public, according to opinion polls."
One prediction I feel sure of making is that France alone will wind up sticking up two fingers at Blair and some of the Eurocrats who want to impose sweat shop working conditions on Europeans and likewise allow a huge (non European) country like Turkey free access to European welfare and jobs. I believe if the E.U. does go the way Blair wants then France will pull out altogether and maybe Germany will follow.
To put it plainly, the French don't relish the prospect of working till they reach 70 years old - something Blair seems to think is acceptable for the working classes he disdains (as a silver spoon-fed lawyer who attended a plush university). The French openly maintain the French model of higher taxes, high employment standards and strong welfare is an economic model that's worth taking to the streets for.
Again I quote:
"Didier Ringot, 38, a software engineer at Alcatel, the French telecommunications company, said he was marching to protest against the "ridiculous" raises of 3 percent that he and his colleagues received this year, after zero increases in previous years.'Compare this with the profits that Alcatel is making," he said. 'We see that they have the means'."
This is true. Multinational companies are getting richer and the workers are getting poorer. The French just happen to feel strongly over the imposition of the U.S. model over Europe where you have a handful of super rich company tycoons paying small taxes while many U.S. people go hungry (as we saw in New Orleans).
Somehow I have a hunch Europe is going to reject the vision for Europe Blair currently holds and long may the French continue to protest.