Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Connection between demonstrations in France and US

French trade unions are behind the enormous demonstrations in France. Certainly at the very least some of the trade unions behind the demonstrations in France were represented at the World Social Forum.

Many trade unionists took part in the second World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January-February 2002 as an alternative to the World Economic Forum. French trade unions were widely represented and we review their involvement in this initiative.

There is also a connection between the World Social Forum and the demonstrations seen in California.
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If these associations are accurate and they seem to be, we will begin to witness the most massive demonstrations ever seen on the face of the earth.

The World Social Forum, if all of this is true, seems capable of dwarfing previous anti-war demonstrations in our recent past.

-Am

French trade unions and the World Social Forum
Many trade unionists took part in the second World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January-February 2002 as an alternative to the World Economic Forum. French trade unions were widely represented and we review their involvement in this initiative.

The second World Social Forum meeting was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 31 January to 5 February 2002. The Forum, which was founded by the Brazilian Business Leaders' Association for Citizenship (Associação Brasileira de Empresários pela Cidadania, CIVES) and the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Assistance to Citizens (ATTAC), had held its initial conference in Porto Alegre on 25-30 January 2001. From the outset, the Forum positioned itself as a citizens' movement to set out alternatives to the 'inhumane neo-liberal order, personified by the World Economic Forum in Davos' (in the words of the final declaration of the Parliamentary World Forum held at Porto Alegre in January 2001).


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French Protesters Increase in Number

Updated 1:04 PM ET April 4, 2006

By JENNY BARCHFIELD

PARIS (AP) - Police said at least 1 million people _ organizers said 3 million _ poured into the streets across France on Tuesday in the latest protests against the government's new jobs law.

It was the second time in a week that unions and student groups had succeeded in mobilizing such numbers. The largest march, in Paris, drew at least 80,000 people, while 935,000 marched in other parts of the country, police said. Organizers put the figure in the capital at 700,000 _ and 3 million nationwide.

The nationwide strike shut down the Eiffel Tower and snarled air and rail travel over a jobs measure that has riven the country and put the government in crisis mode.

Protesters have mounted ever-larger demonstrations for two months against the law, which would make it easier to fire young workers. But President Jacques Chirac signed it anyway Sunday, saying it will help France keep pace with the global economy.

He offered modifications, but students and unions rejected them, saying they want the law withdrawn, not softened.



"What Chirac has done is not enough," said Rebecca Konforti, 18, who was among a group of students who jammed tables against the door of their high school in southern Paris to block entry. "They're not really concessions. He just did it to calm the students."

Police actively looked to thwart troublemakers. At Paris' Saint-Lazare station, riot officers with weapons and a police dog pulled over train travelers disembarking from the suburbs, searching their bags and checking identities.

Tourists, meanwhile, stood bewildered before closed gates at the Eiffel Tower. Parisian commuters flattened themselves onto limited subway trains. Garbage bins in some Paris neighborhoods stood overflowing and uncollected by striking sanitation workers.

Irish budget airline Ryanair canceled all its flights in and out of France.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin devised the disputed "first job contract" as a bid to boost the economy and stem chronic youth unemployment. He maintains it would encourage hiring by allowing employers to fire workers under 26 during their first two years on a job without giving a reason.

The measure is meant to cut a 22 percent unemployment rate among youths that reaches 50 percent in some poor, heavily immigrant neighborhoods. Villepin has cited the national statistics agency as saying it would create up to 80,000 new jobs at zero cost to the state.

Critics say it threatens France's hallmark labor protections, and the crisis has severely damaged Villepin's political reputation.

Chirac stepped in Friday to order two major modifications _ reducing a trial period of two years to one year and forcing employers to explain any firings _ in hopes of defusing the crisis. In so doing, he dealt a blow to Villepin, his one-time top aide and apparent choice as successor next year.

In an apparent first in France, Chirac signed the original measure into law this weekend, as promised, but also effectively suspended it with an order that it not be applied. The 73-year-old president's legal sleight of hand kept the law alive while a new version is in the works.

Now that the law has been signed, protesters have less maneuvering room. The government appeared to be hoping that protests would die down after Tuesday's big event and was looking to possible talks between more moderate unions and lawmakers led by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy, a leading presidential hopeful, is the only senior government official unscathed by the crisis.

The head of the governing UMP party's bloc in parliament, Bernard Accoyer, told reporters he had invited labor leaders to talks.

Two labor leaders _ CFDT union chief Francois Chereque and CGT union chief Bernard Thibault _ suggested they would attend. But both said they hoped the law eventually would be rejected.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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