The Paris Traveler

“T”akin’ It To The Streets

by Kim on May 20th, 2008

 Manefestations, protests, strikes–they are all part of the French culture.  You disagree with a policy or want higher pay, as a collective group you take your cause to the streets, much the same way your ancestors did hundreds of years before you.  It is in your blood, it is your birth right, it is how politics occasionally are shaped here in France.  

I do not profess to be a  political analyst by any stretch of the imagination.  But the strategies used by the French intrigue me.  Manifestations, or strikes, would be announced in the papers and on the news days before the actual event–a warning if you will, of the inconveniences you will be sure to experience in the near future.  There was no surprise attack like I am use to here in the states.  I don’t remember ever being “warned” of a possible walkout.  They just happened.

 I have been involved in several transportation strikes both while I lived in Paris and as a tourist.  I can tell you, it is incredibly inconvenient for everyone.  Cars clog streets that are already suffering from a crazy amount of traffic and they become parking lots.I had no way to get my daughter to school if the buses weren’t running and had no idea if that was an excused absence.  The métro is more sardine like than usual and cabs, forget it! I had to fight with a gentleman as I had flagged one down, negotiated with the driver to take me to Roissy, ran back into the hotel lobby to get my bags and he was trying to take it.  I don’t think so mister–you are messing with the wrong person.  It was not one of my best moments!

In 2006, as the country was dealing with some of the highest unemployment in it’s history,  former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin made a bold move to revamp what appeared to me to be an out-dated labor law.  As it stood, one could be hired with little recourse for employers to do away with individuals that didn’t work out without paying large penalties for firing them.   Accountability on the part of the employee seemed to be missing.   It made no sense to me that all this dead wood was allowed to accumulate and business’ hands were tied.  Students, the very same students who were also complaining about being unemployed, took to the streets in protest against the law, essentially protesting for no change and no solution to the problem.  I have to say, even though the ensuing situation brought Monsieur Villepin’s presidential hopes to an abrupt end, I admired his thinking and awareness that things must be changed in order to move forward.  The right to protest is deeply ingrained in the French psyche, so much so that now young students, high schoolers are taking to the streets locking arms against reforms in national education.  Sarkozy who must have smirked through his rival’s trials back in 2006, now gets a taste of the same medicine.   

Briefly, I have to share my favorite manifestation experience.  Coming home one afternoon, the main cross street by my apartment, Avenue Bosquet, was closed off to all traffic and filled with both “protesters” and gendarmes. I texted my daughter at school, giving her a heads up that she might not be able to make it all the way home by bus and explained the situation.  As I made my way through the crowd, unsure of what to expect, not knowing if bottle rockets might go off or rocks would be thrown through store front windows, I stayed as far away from the police as I could so not to be confused with the protesters.  But this didn’t feel threatening.  As a matter of fact, everyone was standing around drinking wine, eating cheese and baguettes and offering both to me as I walked by.  It had the trappings of a festive street party.  I came across someone who spoke English and was able to explain the whole situation:  the mime and interpretive dance unions were holding their annual protest for I have no idea what but just because they could!   A silent protest–it was odd.   

Additional information:

•  Sarkozy set to collide with culture of protest (iht.com), 
•  Opponents Set April 17 Deadline to Rescind French Labor Law (nytimes.com)

Photo Credit:  (Thibault Camus/The Associated Press), flickr, themarkpike

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