THIBAUT THOMAS
Contributing Writer
In 1789, when a Parisian crowd was demonstrating furiously in front of his palace, King Louis XVI asked, “Is it a riot?” and was answered, “No Sir, it is a revolution.’’ These kinds of things seems to happen a lot in France.
Since 1981, the French like to demonstrate furiously against their government every five years or so. And the students, following the example of the revolution of the minds of May 1968, are always on the edge of protest.
Is this about the angry second-generation immigrants who are victims of poverty, racism and exclusion like last November?
Que nenni, this time it’s political: The students say they’re fighting for their futures, even though American students may laugh at the subject of the protests.
Last month, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (in his address at the United Nations in February 2003 as Minister of Foreign Affairs) proposed to the parliament a new law, creating a type of contract for people under 25 years old, the ‘‘Contrat Première Embauche’’ or CPE (First Job Contract). His goal was to reduce the unemployment rate for the young, especially those who are in the poorest housing suburbs and who showed concern in November during the riots. (Remember, in France it is the opposite of the United States: suburbs equals poor, downtown equals rich.)
The problem is that the new contract is breaking some habits. It allows the employer to fire the employee without giving any reason, during a two- year trial period. There is also very little severance pay.
The French theory is labor laws have to maintain equality between the employer and the employee. The employee is working hard, he is guaranteed that he will not be fired without a good reason, and that if so, he will have good monetary compensation. But this law is a violation of the French tradition of defending the rights employees to have contest if they are fired for illegitimate reasons.
The students and the left parties are fighting against that law, which is seen as throwing young French into a precarious life the Prime Minister and right wing parties call “flexibility.’ Some fear the banks will deny housing loans to young people under that contract, as they will have no guarantee that they are not being fired at will and that they are not being paid compensation if they are fired.
Students are demonstrating in the streets, with some high-schoolers joining the protests. A majority of universities are partially on strike, and the buildings are permanently occupied by demonstrators. Ten or so entrances are blocked by the students who don’t allow other students to enter to take their classes.
The police tried to re-open them by negotiating and sometimes by violence. My own political science school, the Institute d’Etudes Politiques d’Aix en Provence is on strike, and students are organizing debates and public workshops to inform the citizens.
The 50th anniversary address of my school has been cancelled by the Secret Services since it is concerned about possible violent action by Marxists and anarchist activists. The anti-riot police blocked down the campus and filtered the students.
Sadly, the street demonstrations are becoming more and more violent, most notably in Paris. The news has reported groups of 50 thugs lynching protesters, laymen and even journalists. They wander along the demonstration and chose random people, beating up and robbing them with visible joy. It is “A Clockwork Orange” in Paris streets, but this time these perpetrators are uneducated politically unconscious youths taking advantage of the tension.
The police are working with the student organizations to spot, more easily, these thugs who are a threat to the movement’s credibility.
After three weeks of protests, the Prime Minister seems to be ready to open negotiations. He is risking his job, as popular protests made a prime minister resign in 1997.
The new law is wrong because it is not protecting enough young workers. However, too many students are fooling themselves as they are still believing in a total security of labor. Given the example of the European countries and the United States, it seems that flexibility should be mandatory.
Thus, this new contract should facilitate the transition period between two jobs by providing a substantial income to young workers (this law allocates only $500 for two months after being fired, then nothing), and better possibilities to get more education between two jobs.
Thibaut Thomas is an auditing student at Pepperdine. In June, he will return to his school in France after a nine month internship in a public interest law firm in Santa Monica.
03-30-2006