Youth, unions continue protests

Protests continue in France, led by youth and trade unions, against the First Employment Contract, or CPE, a bill that would make it easier for employers to fire youth under the age of 26 at will. The law was proposed and pushed through the French parliament by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin with little parliamentary debate and no consultation with youth or trade unions.

Youth and allies see this contract as an attack on labor laws that have protected all workers in France and have been won in hard-fought struggles.

French police say that more than 3,500 people have been arrested since the beginning of the protests on March 7. Union leaders have issued an April 16 deadline for the government to revoke the law.

In a country where youth unemployment is a staggering 23 percent—and 50 percent in the poorer immigrant suburbs—government officials are now scramb ling to appease the rage and frustration of the youth, but on government terms. Presi dent Jacques Chirac signed CPE into law on April 2 but did not implement it immediately, offering mild amend ments such as shortening the two-year contract for youth to one year, and adding language that would require employers to give reason for termination.

The youth are saying they won’t accept any amendments to the law, only its repeal.

Meanwhile, hard-line Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has been poised to take charge of negotiations over the law, even as he demonizes the protesting youth. Sarkozy reportedly said of the demonstrators on April 4, “It is giving them too much credit to ascribe an ideology to them. These are just hoodlums, who come to break and pillage. I’m not sure there is an ideology behind all this.”

Sarkozy is contending for a presidential nomination from the ruling Union for a Popular Movement party, with Villepin as his main rival.

Workers World spoke to Jean-Claude Keusch, a retired journalist for the CGT (Confédération Générale du Travail) union confederation magazine VO (Vie Ouvrière, Worker’s Life), who was at the demonstration in Paris April 4. He said:

“More than 3 million people were in the streets in France on April 4, according to organizers of the anti-CPE demonstrations. A million according to the police.

“Throughout the demonstration shouts calling for a ‘general strike’ could be heard. On the afternoon of April 5, union leaders were scheduled to meet with the government for discussions.

“Whatever the size was, one thing is certain: far from weakening, the anti-CPE movement once again proved its determination. Another certainty: the standing of Prime Minister de Villepin reached its low point. He is now physically exhausted, as he showed yesterday in front of the deputies of Parliament.

“This, following the astonishing, even surrealistic televised announcement made by head of state Jacques Chirac last week [that he would ratify the CPE], when his voice was out of sync with the visual presentation, has widened the gap even more between a broad part of public opinion and the choices carried out by the government.

“France has entered one of its most serious political crises in the history of the Fifth Republic. Even within the majority center-right government, voices are raised that condemn the strategy carried out in Matignon [the prime minister’s residence].

“And more and more Minister of Inter ior Sarkozy appears to the eyes of the right wing as the man who could get the government out of this quicksand. But it is a good bet that this change in personnel will be only a meager response to the anger of the street. As long as the CPE is not definitively withdrawn, there are few chances that a serious dialogue will begin between the majority of people in France and the current government.”