For a few weeks in October of this semester, I woke up to find trash burning at the end of my street, a tram and bus system running on a schedule entirely at the whim of the drivers, whole buildings and classrooms barricaded at the local university and almost daily protests staged in the city center. This, I thought to myself on more than a few occasions, was not in the program description for my semester abroad in France.
The protests and riots are one reaction to the French government’s decision to rise the retirement age from 60 to 62.† Protests continue even today, after the senate has already signed the bill.† According to the directors at my abroad program, union leaders and demonstrators want to save face and are likely to continue the fight until President Sarkozy officially signs the bill, although everyone expects fewer and fewer people to attend.
The strikes have been effective in disrupting economic activity throughout the country.† In Paris, a third of flights at Charles de Gaulle airport and half those at Orly were cancelled.† A fifth of the country’s gas stations either ran short of fuel or ran completely out.† Here in Nantes, France’s sixth largest city, the protests were no less disruptive.† A number of students who had been planning trips had to reschedule when their flights and trains were cancelled due to oil shortages.† Trash collection stopped throughout much of the city and has only just recently begun again.† A recent hockey game between Nantes and Toulouse was cancelled because the team from Toulouse didn’t have enough gas to make the trip.† Several classes at the local university have been cancelled, often because the professors are on strike.
Now that the bill has passed through the senate and only awaits Sarkozy’s signature, protests are slowing down across the nation, to the relief of many.† “The reforms are necessary, you can’t have a smaller and smaller young population supporting a larger and larger older population” said Xavier Bourrut Lacouture, whose family has been hosting me during my semester.† “The rest of Europe has already passed similar laws; France is an exception in this.”
As the strikes wear down, some fear that government is learning the wrong message.† People are frustrated because they do not think that the government has listened to them, said RaphaÎlle Robin, a university student working with the study abroad program.† Indeed, the measure was introduced and pushed through in a short amount of time considering the scope of the proposed reform and the high level of debate surrounding the issue.
Among the most puzzling aspects of the protests are the large number of students involved from both the university and high school level.† “There are some who just want to get out of class and the protests are a great way to do that,” said Morgane Pocard, another French university student working with the exchange program.† “Some of them actually think that because the retirement age is increasing, it will become more difficult for younger people to find jobs.”
In some areas, student protests became violent when riot police were sent in to break blockades.† According to a survey published by the Guardian, many students feel that Sarkozy has failed to take into account either the needs of younger people about to enter the workforce or the possibility of funding the pension system through cuts to other government expenditures.
Many local students have complained that not enough attention has been paid to alternative solutions to a widely-acknowledged problem with the pension system and indeed the lack of a coherent and sound alternative to the proposed change to the retirement age has proven to be something of an Achilles’ heel for protesters and unions opposing the bill.
The presence of student protesters makes the French government especially tense as it invokes memories of the May 1968 student-led protests that resulted in sometimes violent clashes between the police and protesters.
In 1968 began as a long series of student strikes at a number of universities and high schools in Paris quickly developed into a larger demonstration when de Gaulle’s administration made the decision to use police force to quell the strikes.† Violence broke out in street battles with the police and a general strike by students and a large portion of the French workforce quickly followed.
De Gaulle quickly fled to Germany, where he dissolved the National Assembly and called for new parliamentary elections.† When elections were held in June, de Gaulle’s party surfaced stronger.† Although the protests proved to be political failures, they are credited with changing social attitudes.
There a number of important distinctions to be made between the two protests.† One of the most important distinctions is the economic context in which French citizens took to the streets.† In 1968, protests unfolded against a backdrop of economic growth and progress.† Today’s protests have been inspired in large part by the lingering effects of the global financial crisis.† Ongoing rates of high unemployment have added potent fuel to the protests.
It is difficult not to draw comparisons with the United States and efforts to reform Social Security.† The reaction of the French youth to pension reform has perhaps been misinformed, but at a time in which much of the world is only just beginning to emerge from a global financial crisis, their level of political engagement is somewhat inspiring, at least for this international student to see.