The new Joan of Arc on a crusade to stop French unions causing misery to millions

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | June 4, 2003 | Philip Delves

[katana]

France's exhaustion with its unions has found its voice in a 21-year-old student, Sabine Herold, who is challenging the silent majority to revolt against the strikes crippling her country ...

In the middle of the Iraq war, she and her friends demonstrated outside the American embassy in support of military action, a bold step considering the overwhelming opposition to the war in France. "There is a systemic opposition to America in France," she said yesterday.

[EggsAckley]

KUDOS to Sabine!!!

[laotzu]

The entire article in case you wanted to actually read it:

France's exhaustion with its unions has found its voice in a 21-year-old student, Sabine Herold, who is challenging the silent majority to revolt against the strikes crippling her country and causing havoc for British travellers.

Sabine Herold called the union members 'reactionary egotists' With schools and government offices closed yesterday, Channel ferries halted, and airlines cancelling most of their flights to and from France, Mlle Herold called the union members 'reactionary egotists'

They "claim to defend public services but are just defending their own interests", she said.

With her pale blue mascara and long eyelashes, she makes an unlikely Joan of Arc. But her words have found an echo in large protests by students and parents against repeated strikes by teachers and threats to disrupt this summer's exam schedule.

She has also become an emblem for the many in French society who believe that economic reforms are long overdue. She blames President Jacques Chirac for caving in repeatedly during his career to union pressure. The many British travellers who have been affected by the strikes in France can only hope her campaign succeeds.

Faced by strikes by dockers and airport workers, British Airways cancelled 90 of its 120 planned flights between Britain and France yesterday, while Easyjet scrapped 37 and Bmi operated only six of its normal 24 flights.

P&O Ferries ran sailings between Dover and Calais until 7am British time, before a walk-out by dockers halted services.

Mlle Herold shot to prominence on May 25, when hundreds of thousands of union members marched through Paris to protest against the government's pension and de-centralisation reforms. She addressed 2,000 people in front of the Paris town hall.

She pointed to where the unions were marching and to loud applause shouted: "We will not give up the streets to them. For once, we are going to tell them 'No'.

"I have lessons and exams, but I have no bus service. I pay for my carte orange [a monthly public transport ticket] but I have no underground service. Later on, I will pay my taxes, but my children won't go to school. Like all of us here today, I am angry."

In the middle of the Iraq war, she and her friends demonstrated outside the American embassy in support of military action, a bold step considering the overwhelming opposition to the war in France. "There is a systemic opposition to America in France," she said yesterday.

Mlle Herold, who attends the prestigious Institut des Sciences Politiques in Paris, said: "The Left in France used to be reforming, but has become conservative, while the Right has gone the other way."

She had to walk only half an hour to her lessons yesterday morning, but she said the unions were "punishing the people who want to go to work, kids who want to take their exams. These strikes are a catastrophe for France".

On June 15 she plans to address a far larger crowd in the Place du Châtelet, assembled by her organisation, Liberté J'Ecris Ton Nom. The daughter of two teachers from Reims, Mlle Herold was not interested in politics until about two years ago.

Since then, she has been devouring the great texts of "classical liberalism", seizing on thinkers such as Hayek, one of Margaret Thatcher's favourites, and wondering where France went wrong. Liberal conservatives are a rarity in France where the Right-wing parties are much more centrist than in Britain or America.

Mlle Herold, however, is not alone in pining for change in France. Like many of her generation, she would rather go on to business school than the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the civil servants' graduate school that trained most of France's current political and business elite, but is losing kudos as the French state loses respect.

"There is no value put on work in France," she said. "I've just come back from Hong Kong where people love to work. In France they are always looking for a way to get out of it."

During an exchange term at Birmingham University she was impressed not only by the beer but also by the British work ethic. "If people want to work, they can work. In France we have let the union minority take us all hostage."

The question now facing Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is whether Mlle Herold really does speak for millions. If so, he may be able to press through his changes. If not, and the strikes continue, he will be forced to resign.

[Constitution Day]

Great article, thanks for posting!

I think we should make her an honorary FReeper!

[babyface00]

Didn't they burn Joan at the stake eventually?

[rwfromkansas]

Keep it up. We salute you, Sabine.

[Drango]

challenging the silent majority to revolt against the strikes crippling her country ...

NO NO NO...let the strikers continue. Cripple the French Economy! POWER TO THE PEOPLE

[wideawake]

It's fascinating that she takes the name of her organization - Liberte J'Ecris Ton Nom (Liberty, I Write Thy Name) - from a poem by the leftist hero Paul Eluard.

It must really chap the hides of French intellectuals.

She seems to be very intelligent and charismatic and to have a very US Republican kind of attitude.

We should support her.

[wideawake]

The English did. Not the French.

The French executioners were staging a job action that spring.

[babyface00]

I just read some of ol' Paul's stuff. Boring drivel IMHO, but I'm no connoisseur of french poetry and I only read a few of his things.

If their sense of poetry is anything like their sense of humor (i.e. Jerry Lewis) then they can keep it.

[schaketo]

She pointed to where the unions were marching and to loud applause shouted: "We will not give up the streets to them. For once, we are going to tell them 'No'.

Perhaps I can help Sabine Herold also understand the PERMANENT change in U.S. sentiment regarding socialistic france:

1. french President Jacques Chirac, personally helped Iraq begin its nuclear program.
2. france assisted China in shipping raw materials for chemical weapons to Iraq through Syria.
3. french security services helped suppress opposition groups seeking to depose Saddam Hussein.
4. The french had supplied Iraq with precision switches for nuclear weapons.
5. french companies had resupplied Iraq with spare parts for fighter jets on the eve of the March 2003 invasion. Intelligence reports indicated that Iraq was able to obtain French military spare parts for its Mirage jets and Gazelle attack helicopters in violation of U.N. sanctions.
6. The french helped Iraqi officials escape U.S. capture by issuing them EU passports. The passports allowed the Iraqis to evade detection by U.S. military and intelligence agencies because they were EU travel documents.
7. Intelligence officials said France attempted to conclude an oil deal with Saddam's government days before U.S. military action began March 19.
8. french anti-aircraft weapons smuggled into Iraq prior to the war, the Roland 3 batteries, and Roland 5 shoulder-fired anti-air missiles. Reports have still not been denied that these systems were stamped '2002 date of manufacture.' 9. The french peddled disinformation against the Americans before the war -- this is a war for oil, Resolution 1441 does not authorize military action, George Bush is "cowboy," etc. -- at the very least, they now deserve some of their own.

Those countries who stood against us before the Iraq War are responsible for EVERY life lost in Iraq -- whether the lives be coalition lives or Iraqi lives. france, more than any other country, is responsible for all the deaths of our warriors.

france had an unemployment rate of 9.3% last month (April 03). It’s rising. Can we help them push it over 10%? 20%?. The new reality show on FOX this fall could be the marxists, socialists, and fundamentalist muslim imports (they are about 10% of the population and growing) burning paris to the ground. You can help:

WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET!

Gotta keep this alive. Share this link with all like minded family and friends. They are feeling the heat.

15000 french products that you can boycott:

http://howtobuyamerican.leethost.com/b-db-boycottfrance.shtml

[Skywalk]

Wonder why all the conservative/rightist women are so hot?

[babyface00]

The English did. Not the French.

Oops. My mistake. Thanks for the correction.

[randog]

"There is no value put on work in France," she said. "...In France they are always looking for a way to get out of it."

Here we have the definition of socialism.

[EggsAckley]

Having been caught many many times in French transportation strikes, I can testify to how disruptive the Unions are. It is extremely maddening to be stuck for twelve hours at a train station, waiting for the silly French to settle a union dispute. Ridiculous way to run a railway.

[wideawake]

Eluard wrote several good poems.

He also wrote hundreds of mediocre ones.

All French litterateurs and philosophers start believing their own press very early on and their work suffers as a result.

[fightinJAG]

Great article--thank you.

[katana]

I don't think you have to worry. This young lady is admirable but she is swimming against a heavy tide of socialist looters in alliance with Islamofascist vermin and, I'm sorry to say, I think she will be lucky to be alive six months from now.

But brave? Yes. It's ironic but the last real (and rare) example of French courage was also a young girl. That one was burned at the stake by the English. This one I fear may suffer an equal fate at muslim or marxist hands.

[McGavin999]

OMG, france has a french Margaret Thatcher. Way to go girl, maybe like Maggie you'll help to save your country. Like Joan you will have a tremendous battle on your hands. I will pray that they don't burn you at the stake. You may be the salvation of the old France.

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Pray for this courageous lady. She is a herald of good things but her voice will quickly be drowned out. Only God can give a person the courage to keep speaking out against the Unions. She is the heroine. When will her story be made into a movie????? Sally Fields, and ugly duckling lady (cannot even remember her name), where are you????