LES MANIFS!

While I don't usually reference (or read) the Wall Street Journal, there coverage of the French strike & demonstrations-turned-riots has bee great. This photo from Paris is wonderful, & the article with it explains what's been going on quite well.

This has been by far our most interesting week in France. Starting last Tuesday, my students have been protesting, demonstrating, distributing materials & spray painting sheets to make banners. They brought these banners to the streets and, surrounded by police (protecting them rather than blasting them with tear gas) they marched back into the school while chanting that there should be NO no CHANGE change TO RETIREMENT yeeeeaaaah... They then marched themselves across the grass & into the building for class.

I thought that would be the end of it. I thought last week's demonstrations (or in French, manifestations) were their last big go. The government has decided to change the retirement age from 60 (unheard of in the States) to 62 (at present the absolute minimum age for minimum Social Security benefits in the States). People are refusing: They see what's coming. Soon it will be 65. Then 67. Then they die behind their desks... Like in the States, where 67 has long been the age of FULL retirement for people born after 1960.

For we Americans, this is seeming like small chickens. Most people work until their 65 to get any benefits, and most people are responsible for their own retirement. In France, retirement benefits are paid for with your wages–like your doctor visits & your college education. This means massive debt for the country. (This also means that the nation's debt has helped the citizens instead of the war efforts. I'd rather have debt that supports the people than supports a war–check this debt calculator or this Washington post article to look at our country's debt & what we got for it.)

I've had a chance to talk to several of my well-informed students about what's happening, and I understand their frustrations. Currently, the job prospects for those aged 50+ are not good in France–so the real fear is that they will not be working more, but that they will spend more time as figures in the unemployment calculations. My students aren't yet in the work force, and they're not among those students screaming to stop additions to their workload. My students are getting very concerned for their country.

"Something has to change," they tell me. "Two years, it's not a big thing. But we need more negotiations." If things keep going as they have been, by the time my students enter their 30s & are workin' hard for the money, they'll be paying two retirements: one to fund the baby boomer generation & one to create another fund for themselves. The situation, at the core, isn't much different than in the states: People get benefits now. People my age won't. People are hesitant to change the system, because it's scary & unfamiliar.

So while the French have been getting their strike on, Joe & I have been soaking it all in. We went down to the demonstrations today en route to shop for bicycles & stopped to talk to a French friend. He's a photographer, so he's been in the middle of the (highly organized) demonstrations, which were starting to look like a really outstanding, crowded block party surrounded by police & lots of sirens. We got to talk to him for a minute about the strikes–how they're scheduled to end tonight but probably won't... and how if they don't end tonight, the gasoline strike will stop Charles de Gaulle. (This is uncannily like Atlas Shrugged, so it's extra exciting for us as we get deeper into the book!)

While at the "manif" as they say, I grabbed a sticker from the Parti Socialiste & resisted the urge to immediately plaster it to my coat forever. Say what you will about their strikes, it's hard for the States to hold a candle to the French passion for their government (with the exception of the terrifying Tea Party)... & hey, at least their letting the country have more than two (real*) parties.

*This is not a dig at "third parties." This is a dig at the Tea Party. Just to clarify.