French Workers Strike And March in The Streets – Blame Economic Crisis on the United States

Arcellor Mittal workers demonstrate during a protest march in Marseille January 29, 2009

The French socialist trade unions are at it again.

Hundreds of thousands of teachers, nurses, factory workers and plumbers marched through French cities on Thursday to demand pay rises and protection for jobs.

The demonstrations were the high point of a nationwide one-day strike called by France’s eight main trade unions to try to persuade President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to help ordinary people overcome the economic crisis.

But the stoppage, billed as a “Black Thursday,” did not bring France to a halt as previous strikes have done. Public transport continued to run, albeit on a reduced and erratic schedule.

“The government has taken measures for banks but today it is the workers who are suffering,” said Charles Foulard, a technician at a refinery run by energy giant Total.

“This crisis comes from the United States, it’s the financial bubble that is bursting. It’s not for the workers to pay for that,” he said as crowds gathered at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, birthplace of the French Revolution.

Surprised they didn’t blame Bush.

France is just broken – a lesson as to what happens to a social democracy when the left-wing unions call the shots.

One Comment

sassinfras

January 30, 2009 at 5:44 pm

france is no where near as broken as the US. it has one of the best health care systems in the world whereas the US is ranked about 67th.
these french unionist have a point in blaming the US for the global financial crisis. since the 1980s the world bank and the IMF have been demanding that for any country to get a loan it must reform its economy,basically known has the washington consenus. these policies ,masqerading as technical and uncontentious,include such bald ideological claims as all ‘state enterprises should be privatized’ and ‘barriers impeding the entry of foreign firms should be abolished’. when the list was complete ,it made nothing less than miltion friedmans neoliberal trumvirate of privatization, derugulation/free trade and drastic cuts to government spending.
it is friedman economics which has caused this mess worldwide which every president since reagan has supported and the world bank and IMF has imposed on the world.

sassinfras

January 30, 2009 at 5:44 pm

france is no where near as broken as the US. it has one of the best health care systems in the world whereas the US is ranked about 67th.
these french unionist have a point in blaming the US for the global financial crisis. since the 1980s the world bank and the IMF have been demanding that for any country to get a loan it must reform its economy,basically known has the washington consenus. these policies ,masqerading as technical and uncontentious,include such bald ideological claims as all ‘state enterprises should be privatized’ and ‘barriers impeding the entry of foreign firms should be abolished’. when the list was complete ,it made nothing less than miltion friedmans neoliberal trumvirate of privatization, derugulation/free trade and drastic cuts to government spending.
it is friedman economics which has caused this mess worldwide which every president since reagan has supported and the world bank and IMF has imposed on the world.