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People power grips France
BBC News ^ | Saturday, 25 March 2006 | Caroline Wyatt

Posted on 03/25/2006 6:24:52 PM PST by cougar_mccxxi

Hundreds of thousands of people - mostly students - have taken to the streets in France for a second week of protests against the controversial new employment contracts. Caroline Wyatt has been considering whether they might be the symptom of a greater malaise in French society.

"To the barricades!" is the cry heard again on the streets of France, as they ring to the sound of student chants.

The crisp early springtime air on the Left Bank is filled once more with the heady scent of revolution, black coffee and Gauloises.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: france; grips; people; power
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1 posted on 03/25/2006 6:24:55 PM PST by cougar_mccxxi
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To: cougar_mccxxi
People power grips France..

Expect blackouts soon...
2 posted on 03/25/2006 6:29:11 PM PST by Dallas59 (MOHAMMED LIED-PEOPLE DIED)
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To: cougar_mccxxi

""The government must create jobs," Victor, an economics student tells me as he prepares to march again."

They have HUGE problems in France if this is the attitude of business students.


3 posted on 03/25/2006 6:30:40 PM PST by Tzimisce (How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President! www.dndorks.com)
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To: cougar_mccxxi

These are the same people who do not have enough "power" to get and/or keep at a job?


4 posted on 03/25/2006 6:30:44 PM PST by msnimje (SAMMY for SANDY --- THAT IS WHAT I CALL A GOOD TRADE!!!)
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To: msnimje

The really stupid thing is that the government is doing the only thing it can to help create a business climate that might create jobs-- making it possible for an employer to take a chance on an unknown entry level worker and then fire him/her if they don't pull their weight-- and it is this attempted change that they are rioting to stop.

So, they'd rather have no job, than a job that they can get fired from.


5 posted on 03/25/2006 6:34:05 PM PST by RobFromGa (In decline, the Old Media gets more shrill, thrashing about like a dinosaur caught in the tar pits.)
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To: cougar_mccxxi
Now, let's see. If I were a Sorbonne graduate applying for a job, how would my job application read?

I majored in Marxist studies. I took part in riots where we smashed windows and burned cars, to make the government keep a law that guarantees me a job for life (or until your company goes bankrupt). Based on that, I want you to hire me.

Did I miss anything?

Congressman Billybob

Latest article: "2nd Report on the Campaign for the NC 11th Distrrict"

6 posted on 03/25/2006 6:35:25 PM PST by Congressman Billybob (www.ArmorforCongress.com RIGHT NOW. I need your help.)
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To: Tzimisce

Far too many Americans think it's our government's place to create jobs.


7 posted on 03/25/2006 6:35:35 PM PST by OldFriend (HELL IS TOO GOOD FOR OUR MAINSTREAM MEDIA)
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To: Congressman Billybob
And the 'journalist' who wrote this is deliberately mistaking a mob for 'people power'.

"Give us what we want or we'll break stuff and set it on fire" is not 'people power'.

L

8 posted on 03/25/2006 6:37:17 PM PST by Lurker (I trust in God. Everyone else shows me their hands.)
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To: OldFriend

Too many people think the government actually makes wealth, because it prints currency. A naive understanding of basic society.


9 posted on 03/25/2006 6:37:42 PM PST by Clock King ("How will it end?" - Emperor; "In Fire." - Kosh)
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To: cougar_mccxxi
People power grips France .......... Hundreds of thousands of people - mostly students - have taken to the streets in France....."To the barricades!" is the cry heard again ......


"I called it mob rule and gave them a whiff of grapeshot!"

10 posted on 03/25/2006 6:37:46 PM PST by Polybius
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To: Congressman Billybob

Just one thing - most of these people actually aspire to a government job, thats the prize in France.


11 posted on 03/25/2006 6:37:57 PM PST by buwaya
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To: OldFriend
Far too many Americans think it's our government's place to create jobs.
12 posted on 03/25/2006 6:37:59 PM PST by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com† | Libs: Celebrate MY diversity! | Iran Azadi 2006)
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To: cougar_mccxxi

Let these "people" have at it here, and they'll run right into the muzzle of the 2nd Amendment.


13 posted on 03/25/2006 6:39:11 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie, because he didn't bake one.)
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To: Tzimisce

"""The government must create jobs," Victor, an economics student tells me as he prepares to march again." "

If only Chirac had a magic wand.


14 posted on 03/25/2006 6:39:38 PM PST by gondramB (Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.)
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To: cougar_mccxxi
"The government must create jobs," Victor, an economics student tells me as he prepares to march again.

Pathetic. They're protesting a plan which would make it easier for them to be fired at short notice. Apparently, the purpose of business in France is to benefit the worker. They expect people to take risk - to invest time and money - in new businesses for the benefit of strangers. Good luck.
15 posted on 03/25/2006 6:40:07 PM PST by Jaysun (The plain truth is that I am not a fair man, and don't want to hear both sides.)
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To: Lurker

I was a participant (just another face in the crowd) during the Philippine "people power" campaign against Marcos the dictator. This French business isn't "people power". Its just anarchy.

Some photos of "people power"

http://360.yahoo.com/luisalegria

This was centrally directed, organized, non-violent, and disciplined, which is a bit unusual for Filipinos. But it was done and it worked.


16 posted on 03/25/2006 6:44:51 PM PST by buwaya
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To: cougar_mccxxi
"France today does feel like a tinder box, a nation dancing on a volcano"
It is. Very much like France in 1788!
"As the world around them changes at a baffling rate, her students want the old certainties back"
This is the only certainty: In a matter of decades la belle France will be a Muslim theocracy, with the Koran as the constitution and the shariah as French national law, and Arabic, not French, will be the national language.
"It is true that politically, a war has begun for the very soul of France, to decide how it faces the future."
France faces the future as an Islamic theocracy.
"Such odd revolutionaries. No heartfelt cry to change the world, but a plea for everything to stay the same."
Nothing will stay the same. The coming Islamic Revolution threatens to be as terrible as the revolution of 1789. Pray that it will not! Pray that the French people awaken in time to save themselves.
17 posted on 03/25/2006 6:48:53 PM PST by Savage Beast (9/11 was never repeated--thanks to President George W. Bush and his surveillance program!)
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To: cougar_mccxxi
The trappings of revolution applied to dreams of reaction. That's the modern left in a nutshell.
18 posted on 03/25/2006 6:49:41 PM PST by JAWs (Ytringsfrihed er ytringsfrihed er ytringsfrihed. Der er intet men.)
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To: cougar_mccxxi

They love the smell of Renaults burning in the morning. Smells like... surrender.


19 posted on 03/25/2006 6:53:46 PM PST by TChad
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To: cougar_mccxxi

Mob rule, This is called democracy.


20 posted on 03/25/2006 6:55:18 PM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran ("What good is being Irish if you can't be stupid, BILLY CONN")
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