Barricades at the Sorbonne (update)
On Saturday -- see here -- I reported on the latest student protests in France, this time in response to a new government employment policy that would make it easier for companies to fire younger employees (like Sorbonne dropouts).
Well, the situation is still quite serious, as Reuters reports: "French students prepared to step up protests on Tuesday against a job reform championed by conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, whose authority has been hit by popular discontent over the measure." De Villepin's plan aims to reduce unemployment, but, needless to say, the students don't quite see it that way: "He says the reform would encourage firms to hire young people, but opponents say it would make it easier to fire them."
The Guardian has the nastier details: "The students swarmed into the College de France, one of France's most prestigious research and teaching institutions, hurling stones and metal barricades at riot police who used teargas to try to disperse the chanting crowd." And here's the problem at the root of all this: "One in four young people in France is unemployed, but the figures rise to 50% in the poor suburbs."
Students are "on strike" at universities all around the country. The prediction here is that de Villepin, who is planning to run for the presidency next year, will blink first.
Whether withdrawing the policy will do anything to alleviate unemployment among France's young people, rather than just reinforce the status quo, is another matter. This may not have been the right policy at the right time -- I'll let French labour experts debate that -- but it should be clear that desperate times call for a new way of doing things. Unfortunately, these barricade-building students, descendents of far nobler protesters against authority, can't see the economic forest for the trees of their short-term self-interest.
Well, the situation is still quite serious, as Reuters reports: "French students prepared to step up protests on Tuesday against a job reform championed by conservative Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, whose authority has been hit by popular discontent over the measure." De Villepin's plan aims to reduce unemployment, but, needless to say, the students don't quite see it that way: "He says the reform would encourage firms to hire young people, but opponents say it would make it easier to fire them."
The Guardian has the nastier details: "The students swarmed into the College de France, one of France's most prestigious research and teaching institutions, hurling stones and metal barricades at riot police who used teargas to try to disperse the chanting crowd." And here's the problem at the root of all this: "One in four young people in France is unemployed, but the figures rise to 50% in the poor suburbs."
Students are "on strike" at universities all around the country. The prediction here is that de Villepin, who is planning to run for the presidency next year, will blink first.
Whether withdrawing the policy will do anything to alleviate unemployment among France's young people, rather than just reinforce the status quo, is another matter. This may not have been the right policy at the right time -- I'll let French labour experts debate that -- but it should be clear that desperate times call for a new way of doing things. Unfortunately, these barricade-building students, descendents of far nobler protesters against authority, can't see the economic forest for the trees of their short-term self-interest.
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
8:22 AM
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