[lbo-talk] A Tradition of Protests

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Mar 30 05:57:57 PST 2006


Nathan says that US workers can't do the same as French workers, because many strikes that would be legal in France would be illegal here. That is true, but US unions have come to seldom use even legal strikes and legal job actions, as stats that cover work stoppages over the post-war period (cf. <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/ lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20050509/009880.html>) shows. Also, unions can still legally organize street protests that aren't strikes and job actions. Immigrant workers in LA, Chicago, etc., as well as French workers, demonstrate the power of the streets.

<blockquote>Paris protests have become so pervasive and continuous that last year there were more than 1,700 demonstrations in the capital, more than six every working day, [Pierre] Mure [Director of Public Order of the Paris Police] says. That number is about the same as the year before, and the total is up by about 500 a year since the mid-1990s, according to police figures. More than 5,200 officers are assigned full time to demonstration control in Mure's department, which the city created two years ago to monitor the protests. Many days, even that show of force is not enough.

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Although there were nearly 5,300 marches, parades and demonstrations in Washington, D.C., in 2000, according to police and the U.S. Park Service, most were held on or around the central green area known as the National Mall. Only about 10% of protest activities in the U.S. capital result in street closings, authorities say.

In Paris, police figures show about 56 million people protested in the streets from 1993 through 1999 — the equivalent of France's total population. "What can we do?" Mure, 53, says with a Gallic shrug of the shoulders. "This is the tradition of our French culture."

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"When we say things in a closed room, there is no impact at all," says Jacques Girod, deputy secretary of the trade union Force Ouvriere, which represents about 800,000 public and private workers. The union's members attend hundreds of demonstrations a year. "The streets are the best way. We have to keep the demonstrations going in order to show the government we are serious." (Vivienne Walt, "Every Day Is May Day for the Police of Paris," USA Today, 1 May 2001, <http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2001-05-01-paris-usat.htm>) </ blockquote>

Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>



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