| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
18 Mar 2006 11:06:35 PM |
| Object: |
French Police Subdue Riots Over Jobs Law |
French Police Subdue Riots Over Jobs Law
By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer
24 minutes ago
PARIS - Police loosed water cannons and tear gas on rioting students
and activists rampaged through a McDonald's and attacked store fronts
in the capital Saturday as demonstrations against a plan to relax job
protections spread in a widening arc across France.
The protests, which drew 500,000 people in some 160 cities across the
country, were the biggest show yet of escalating anger that is testing
the strength of the conservative government before elections next
year.
At the close of a march in Paris that drew a crowd of tens of
thousands, seven officers and 17 protesters were injured during two
melees, at the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris and the Sorbonne
University. Police said they arrested 156 people in the French
capital.
Four cars were set afire, police said, and a McDonald's restaurant was
attacked along with store fronts at the close of the march.
Tensions escalated later Saturday as about 500 youths moved on to the
Sorbonne, trying to break through tall metal blockades erected after
police stormed the Paris landmark a week ago to dislodge occupying
students. The university has become a symbol of the protest.
Police turned water cannons on the protesters at the Sorbonne and were
seen throwing youths to the ground, hitting them and dragging them
into vans.
"Liberate the Sorbonne!" some protesters shouted. "Police everywhere,
justice nowhere."
In an apparent effort to set fire to a police van serving as a
blockade, protesters instead torched the entrance of a nearby Gap
store, apparently by accident, engulfing the small porch in flames.
With commerce snarled in some cities, people asked whether Prime
Minister Dominique de Villepin would stand firm on implementing the
change that he says is needed to encourage hiring. The usually
outspoken leader was silent Saturday.
Protest organizers urged President Jacques Chirac on Saturday to
prevent the law from taking effect as expected in April.
The group issued an ultimatum, saying it expects an answer by Monday,
when leaders will decide whether to continue protests that have
paralyzed at least 16 universities and dominated political discourse
for weeks.
"We give them two days to see if they understand the message we've
sent," said Rene Jouan of CFDT, France's largest union.
The law would allow businesses to fire young workers in the first two
years on a job without giving a reason, removing them from protections
that restrict layoffs of regular employees.
Companies are often reluctant to add employees because it is hard to
let them go if business conditions worsen. Students see a subtext in
the new law: make it easier to hire and fire to help France compete in
a globalizing world economy.
Youth joblessness stands at 23 percent nationwide, and 50 percent
among impoverished young people. The lack of work was blamed in part
for the riots that shook France's depressed suburbs during the fall.
Protests on Saturday reached every corner of France — most of them
largely peaceful — with organizers citing 160 marches from the small
provincial town of Rochefort in the southwest to the major city of
Lyon in the southeast.
In Marseille, extreme leftist youths climbed the facade of City Hall,
replacing a French flag with a banner reading "Anticapitalism." Police
used tear gas to disperse them and made several arrests.
Police also fired tear gas at a protest in Clermont-Ferrand, a central
city where 10,000 people marched and about 100 youths threw beer cans
and other projectiles at a building.
The Paris protest march was the biggest, attracting some 80,000
people, according to police. Organizers put the number at 300,000.
Widespread discontent with the government has crystalized around a new
type of job contract that Villepin says will alleviate France's
sky-high youth unemployment by getting companies to risk hiring young
workers.
Critics say the contract abolishes labor protections crucial to the
social fabric.
"Aren't we the future of France?" asked Aurelie Silan, a 20-year-old
student who joined a river of protesters in Paris.
Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope insisted on the need for a
"spirit of dialogue."
"The hand is extended, the door is open," he said on France-3 TV
network. However, he limited dialogue to "improving" Villepin's plan —
not withdrawing it.
Waves of red union flags topped the densely packed crowd in Paris,
which overflowed into side streets and stretched more than 3 1/2 miles
under bright sunshine.
"Throw away the job contract, don't throw away the youth!" chanted a
group of students shaking tambourines. Many wore plastic bags to
illustrate their feeling that the new law reduces young people to
disposable workers.
Some demonstrators became violent as the march ended. Youths set a car
on fire, smashed a shop window, trashed a bus stop and threw stones,
golf balls and other objects at police. Police responded with tear gas
during skirmishes that lasted several hours.
Chirac has pushed Villepin to act "as quickly as possible" to defuse
the crisis, but has backed the contested measure.
On Friday night, a group of university presidents met with Villepin
and called on him to withdraw the jobs plan for six months to allow
for debate.
Failure to resolve the crisis could sorely compromise Villepin, who is
believed to be Chirac's choice as his party's candidate in next year's
presidential election.
--
"There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to
whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is
impossible." -- Jack Vance
"Civilizaton is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
.
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: French Police Subdue Riots Over Jobs Law |
19 Mar 2006 01:46:48 AM |
|
|
France's students are just saying they won't be niggerized into a
***** class so that older Frenchmen can continue to have total job
security in a France with sky-high unemployment. Look at the new law
as Jim Crow en Francais - and the students' reaction makes sense.
No $4 to park! No $6 admission! http://www.INTERNET-GUN-SHOW.com
.
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: French Police Subdue Riots Over Jobs Law |
19 Mar 2006 02:59:11 AM |
|
|
Time for NATO airstrikes to repay Archduke France's Mitterand flying
into Sarajevo (replete with Manhattan life chain) for New Year's 1993!
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
