[PEN-L:1840] Re: French movement situation (fwd)

[bill mitchell <ECWFM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yves Marie (courtesy of Tom Walker) wrote
>
>The situation in France is now undoubtedly the biggest social crisis since
>May 68. Yesterday was a new action day, and the struggle were bigger than
>ever. There was 2 million strikers (at the peak of the strike in May68,
>there were ten million strikers).

it is misleading to draw an analogy b/tw the current french industrial action
and what was happening in may 1968. in fact, the two "uprisings" are opposites
with a similar manifestation. In may 1968, the movements were pushing for
radical change - both economic and social. they were pushing for a
revolution in the way the state operates and the role of government.
on a social level, they wanted to cash in on the summer of love.
no-one is calling for free love and drug reform in 1995.

in 1995, the action is conservative, to defend the status quo.

while i don't side with the french government on anything ever, i also have
been thinking about this dispute in the context of bob rowthorn's comment (in
his book on inflation) that (paraphrasing) "under capitalism, the working class
and trade unions cannot afford to be too successful".

non french people on the list should realise that the welfare system in france
is very broad and costs a mint. the health system is plagued by overservicing
with excessive prescriptive drugs being the norm. the doctors and the
pharmaceutical companies have controlled and protected their interests at the
expense of the general contributors to the health budget. it is out of control.
only recently, the government allowed the introduction of cheaper generic drugs
(b/c the local companies finally had developed processes to produce them).

the aids question is near to being a scandal in france. the local drug
companies blocked the introduction of  major american aids treatment b/c they
had not yet developed an alternative themselves. many people have suffered as a
result of the protection.

on the pension issue - the train drivers (and bus drivers) can retire when they
are 50 on a 75 per cent pension based on the last 6 months of their working
lives. the normal workers don't get anything like this. as time goes by and the
population ages, there are now more people on these luxury pensions than their
are transport workers. so the scheme is likely to be untenable in the near
future.

the alternative to maintaining things like and overserviced health system
(lining the pockets of the drug companies and the doctors and pandering to
hypochondriac patients who opt for drugs rather than natural treatments and
preventative measures), and keeping a small group of workers in luxury
pensions, is that the rest of the economy suffers - the public sector either
has to put up taxes or cut it expenditure elsewhere - eg. in higher education
which is suffering from spending contraints badly.

the lesson is simple. it is a capitalist society and the workers will only
suffer if they try to get to much. the hegemony does not indefinately lie in
their marches or slogans.

the solution is to adopt the 1968 sentiments and change their system.
of-course, what is going on now is not even remotely reflecting that sentiment
and is rather about narrow special pleading.

kind regards
bill
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