---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 11:59:29 -0800 (PST) From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Progressive Economists' Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Irish Times on French unemployed movement (fwd) > The Irish Times > WORLD NEWS Thursday, January 22, 1998 > > Jospin shivers in > winter of discontent > > Lara Marlowe looks at the unemployment protests that are still > gathering momentum and are not confined to those without work > > France: It wasn't the storming of the Bastille, but when a crowd of > unemployed protesters invaded Fouquet's, an expensive restaurant on > the Champs-Elysée, earlier this week, their cries of "we're hungry, > we're hungry" resonated through France's guilty social conscience. > > Among the 83 people arrested at Fouquet's was Helyette Besse, known as > the "Mama" of the 1980s extremist group Action Directe. The > Revolutionary Communist League, Trotskyists, gay, lesbian and > ecologist fringe groups have also played a prominent role in France's > five-week old revolt of the unemployed, which has presented the Prime > Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, with his biggest crisis since taking > office last June. > > Only a tiny proportion of France's four million unemployed have > participated in the demonstrations, and many of the protesters are not > even unemployed. Yet a majority of French people say they sympathise > with the movement, and Mr Jospin was last night forced to explain his > economic and social policy in an attempt to calm the rebellion. His > popularity rating, though still high at 51 per cent, has dropped six > points, and his Green and Communist coalition partners have sided with > the demonstrators. > > The government was slow to react when activists began occupying > unemployment benefits offices in Paris, Brittany and the south of > France the week before Christmas. With most of the cabinet on holiday, > the crisis received little attention. On January 9th, Mr Jospin > offered a billion franc (£119 million) emergency fund for the jobles˙ s. > Protest organisers sniffed at the offer - just as demonstrators > rejected sandwiches or a meal in the staff canteen at another stylish > Paris restaurant, La Coupole, last weekend; the Coupole crowd stood > their ground and got oysters, steak and even a bottle of champagne > from a restaurant client. > > On January 10th, riot police forcibly expelled demonstrators from more > than a dozen dole offices across France; but the cycle of sit-ins and > expulsions continued. A week later, Mr Jospin offered another carrot: > a special committee to study the protesters' demand for a F1,500 > (£179) increase in the minima sociaux - France's financial net for t˙ he > poor and unemployed. > > There are eight different categories of minima sociaux including the > RMI (minimum insertion revenue) and the ASS (specific solidarity > allocation). Recipients number 3.3 million - six million counting > their families - and all live near the official poverty level of > F3,200 (£380) per month. > > Mr Jospin told parliament this week that France's 12.4 per cent > unemployment rate - one of the highest in Europe - is "the central > question of our society". He has kept campaign promises made last > spring to create 350,000 government jobs for youths and to initiate a > 35-hour working week. But he is firmly committed to monetary union, > and an increase in welfare benefits could doom France's participation. > > Mr Jospin has been careful not to inflame public opinion against EMU > by blaming the Maastricht criteria for his refusal to cave in to the > revolt. The benefits increase demanded by protesters would cost F70 > billion (£8.33 billion) - an unacceptable added budget deficit and t˙ ax > burden, Mr Jospin said. > > Furthermore, such an increase would mean that some unemployed people > would earn more than the minimum wage of F5,259 (£626). Sounding > uncharacteristically like a liberal free marketeer, Mr Jospin said: > "We don't want a society of assistance, but a society founded on work > and productive activity." For once, the right-wing opposition > applauded. > > The right is not so keen on Mr Jospin's plan for a 35-hour working > week, which will be debated in the National Assembly on January 27th. > A study released yesterday by the OFCE, an independent economic > forecasting group, said the 35-hour week could create 450,000 new jobs > by 2000. Another study carried out for the French Central Bank and > leaked yesterday to Le Monde said the law could create over 700,000 > jobs in three years. > > But business management groups fiercely oppose the law, claiming it > will actually worsen unemployment. To encourage job creation, > management says, the government must reduce the charges sociales - > welfare contributions made by French employers which total 40 per cent > over and above a worker's salary. > > These economic debates may not calm the modern Jacobins who invaded > Fouquet's and La Coupole. Their discontent seems to be spreading: > primary school teachers went on strike on Tuesday, and school nurses > across France followed suit yesterday. The government is > requisitioning buses so that next week's inauguration of the Stade de > France, specially built for this year's World Cup, will not be > sabotaged by a public transport strike. But a week-old strike by the > pervenches - the policewomen who place parking tickets on cars - has > gained the widest popular support.
