Tagged with France

What makes someone murder cartoonists?

charlie-hebdoThe attack on Charlie Hebdo was an atrocity calculated to outrage, to intimidate, to silence critics of Islam, and to remind the West that terror attacks can strike at the heart of its capital cities. It has provoked an outpouring of anger and solidarity with the victims, and not a small amount of stupid bigotry. Yet one hopes the barbarity seen in Paris does not achieve this objective. Liberty after all has faced opponents tougher than three gun-toting fanatics who cowardly attack defenceless people and then run. But why has this happened, or rather how could it have happened?

Saying Charlie Hebdo were asking for it, or that this is somehow blowback for France’s interventions in Afghanistan and Mali says nothing at all really. France has been up to its neck in military adventures for years. The magazine has been scathing of Islam – as it is of all religions – for longer. This has taken place in a context where French Muslims have been singled out by the “secularist” moves against religiously-inspired dress and symbols, and the unwelcome return of the National Front. Yet this has not elicited a wave of terror attacks. Continue reading →

France’s ‘rigid’ labour market: Manuel Valls should get his facts right

Manuel VallsThe French Prime Minister has revived the idea that the French labour market is overly protective of permanent employees. However, international comparisons show that this is not the case, argues Duval Guillaume

The functioning of the labour market is not satisfactory because it is not creating enough jobs, it generates significant inequalities between highly protected employees on permanent contracts and very precarious workers on fixed term  and agency contracts. We need to take action on this.”

So French prime minister Manuel Valls told France’s weekly magazine Nouvel Observateur on 22 October. Continue reading →

Austerity is the cause of the crisis in France. Investment can end it

hollande-et-parti-socialiste-300x300The French economy is in a grave crisis, much worse even than the sluggish growth of the OECD countries and almost as bad as Britain. In the 6 years since the beginning of the crisis the OECD economy as a whole has grown by just 4.5%. Over the same period the French economy has grown by just 1.2%. This is closer to the British economy, which was still 0.6% lower than when the recession began. The data is shown in Fig. 1 below.

Continue reading →

94 reasons why French trade unions have boycotted Hollande’s job summit

Francois HollandeFrançois Hollande’s jobs summit is becoming a farce. Unemployment in France has risen to a new high of 3.4 million. The socialist President is desperate to be seen to be doing something about it. But Monday yet another union walked out of the two day ‘social summit’, an unprecedented desertion by organised labour for any administration in Paris, let alone one with a centre left political colour.

The CGT and FO, no.1 and no.3 respectively in terms of size, had already decided on Monday to boycott the summit. Solidaires didn’t turn up at all. And now teaching union FSU has told the government where to get off. Continue reading →

Support the French rail strikers

SNCF en greveThe French rail strike – now in its sixth day — is a pain. Nobody likes seeing their train cancelled. High school exams are being disrupted too. But why are the railway workers on strike?

They are protesting against the railway reforms of the Government of President Francois Hollande and PM Manuel Valls. The Government claims its reform will ‘unify the railway family’ that is today divided into two separate companies: SNCF which is the train operating company and SNCF which maintains the tracks. It is Europe that years ago demanded this separation. Continue reading →