France CPE Riot Watch: A Million People March to Protest CPE First Job Contract

French students hold a banner picturing France’s Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy as they demonstrate against the new youth contract for first-time job seekers called CPE (First Labour Contract) in Marseille March 28, 2006.

Reuters: A million French protest against youth job law

At least one million people marched in French cities and unions staged a one-day national strike on Tuesday, urging the government to scrap a youth jobs law in one of France’s biggest protests in decades.

Unions and student groups said 3 million people took part in rallies across the country, including 700,000 in central Paris, where police used tear gas against hundreds of youths who threw bottles and Molotov cocktail petrol bombs.

One union official said demonstrations against Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s CPE First Job Contract were among the biggest since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.

The Interior Ministry put the national turnout at 1,055,000, twice that of a day of action a week ago. Unions and police habitually give widely diverging estimates.

Interesting. Folks are demonstrating/protesting in France because of job security issues surrounding their youth and immigrant workers and in Los Angeles they are protesting the right to enter and work in the United States illegally. But, are these protests effective? Will they change government policy makers minds?

Union and student leaders say the CPE will create a generation of “throwaway workers” by making it easier to dismiss employees under 26 during a two-year trial period. Villepin hopes it will reduce youth unemployment of almost 23 percent.

“We’re demanding the complete withdrawal of the CPE. You can’t treat people like slaves. Giving all the power to the bosses is going too far,” said Gregoire de Oliviera, a 21-year-old student protesting in Paris.

French students shout slogans at a nationwide protest demanding the government to scrap a contentious youth job law in Paris March 28, 2006.

Villepin, 52, has stood firm over the plan but the strong turnout increased pressure on him to amend or withdraw the measure and calls for his resignation grew. He made a new call for talks with unions, but they rejected his appeal.

The protests forced the Eiffel Tower to close to tourists, while commuters around the country faced delays on public transport and airports were disrupted.

The difference in part between Los Angeles and Paris is that the United States government is responsive with a balance of power between legislative and executive branches. Parliamentary systems can be bureaucratic and non-responsive to voters immediate concerns.

Flap bets that Villepin capitulates.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (L) speaks with Minister for Employment, Social Cohesion and Housing Jean-Louis Borloo (R) as he arrives at the French National Assembly to attend the questions to the government session March 28, 2006.

Stay tuned…..

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