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France Gets a Foretaste of a World After Peak Oil
Christine Lepisto, Treehugger
“It’s like apocalypse time,” to quote a friend, on the situation in France. While much of the world ponders what can be done to avoid peak oil, instability of our transportation systems, and breakdowns of national security, France is making a trial run. If you have been watching the news, you know that the disruptions in France stem from protests against the government’s proposal to raise the retirement age to 62. But for people living and working in France, the effects could be a foretaste of the world when oil runs out. Having an unavoidable commitment in Paris this week, this author can report the experience first-hand. It is not a promising picture.
A plane to Paris is the preferred travel option for a business trip. But news out of France reported total cancellations of some airlines, and 30, 40, or 50% disruption of traffic arriving and departing from France’s major airports. A key factor was the scarcity of fuel, as refinery workers strike and fuel depots were blocked by protesters. Colleagues in Paris reported television footage of passengers wandering forlornly down streets towing their luggage…unable to get transportation from the airport. Clearly, booking a flight would be an invitation for trouble.
A train from Berlin to Paris is an all-day affair. But better to book a train and guarantee arrival for urgent business, than to have a flight canceled and then struggle against the crowd trying to rebook their travel plans as airports rack up red messages on departure boards. But on this front the news is hardly better: train cancellations rival air travel for the chaos prize.
That’s it then: the decision to experience the strikes in France from ground level is made. The best option is to drive.
(24 October 2010)
France on strike – dramatic photographs
Boston.com
Weeks of strikes, protests and demonstrations have brought much of France to a standstill as workers, students and others voice their strong opposition to a government proposal to raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62. A quarter of the nation’s gas stations were out of fuel, hundreds of flights were canceled, long lines formed at gas stations and train services in many regions were cut in half. Protesters blockaded Marseille’s airport, Lady Gaga canceled concerts in Paris and rioting youths attacked police in Lyon. The unpopular bill is edging closer to becoming law as the French Senate is preparing to vote on it today. Collected here are recent images of the unrest around France. Update: Pension reform bill just now passed by French senate. (40 photos total)
(22 October 2010)
See original article for dramatic photos. -BA
Durango exchange student sees French strikes up close
Erin Neale, Durango Herald
I’m in a study-abroad program. However, I’m not sure how much “studying” I’m actually getting done.
When the French president changes the early retirement age to 62 and there no longer is accessible gasoline to the common person, teachers at public schools prefer to strike over work.
And the students don’t feel like coming to school. Or they do come to school, but for socializing on the front lawn all day, not learning. With a grand total of three hours of class time, that has been my last two weeks at school.
France had similar retirement laws as the United States. At age 65, you retire. Or if you want to retire before, go ahead, but you cannot collect retirement money until you are 65.
Here, you needed to work 40 years before you could collect retirement checks.
The normal person would start work at age 25 and work until 65. However, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has changed that age to 67 and requires 42 years of work.
Also, if you work before the age of 20, those years do not count toward your 42.
The French aren’t happy, therefore they strike. It is interesting to watch these scenes. I never have experienced anything like this in the United States, nor during my previous trips to France.
A strike, to me, meant people walking through streets with signs yelling rhythmic phrases.
To the French, that is amateur.
How about closing down all gas stations in the country; shutting down the bus and train system; students literally “blocking” their teachers out of school; and many more drastic measures? The day before the gas was turned off, there were lines of cars for blocks and blocks waiting to stock up.
(24 October 2010)
French strikes: dinner ladies lead the fight against pension cuts
Angelique Chrisafis, Guardian
School workers have downed soup ladles and cheese knives as a symbol of women’s anger at rise in retirement age
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On the corner of a steep, narrow Marseille street this week, the opening chords of Eye of the Tiger thundered from giant speakers as 100 or so women in pink and white overalls with fists raised marched from the Force Ouvrière union head office. Some carried posters showing themselves decrepit and grey-haired, trying in vain to usher children to the dining table.
For weeks a mass rebellion by the city’s dinner ladies, affectionately known as tatas, has forced more than half of the city’s nursery and primary school canteens to close. These women in white overalls and slip-on plastic shoes, joined by their pink-clad counterparts in the city’s creches, have downed soup ladles and cheese knives and taken to the streets in protest at Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension reforms.
Arabelle Lauzat, 45, a head dinner lady in a primary school who has been working in school canteens for 15 years, finds the job physically exhausting. “There’s a lot of heavy lifting, quite an intense work rhythm and a lot of noise,” she said. “We’ve all got health problems: bad backs, slipped discs, ear problems. It’s a profession you love, but it wears your body out.”
She fears that Sarkozy’s plans to raise the minimum pension age from 60 to 62 and full pension age from 65 to 67 will require them to work long after they are physically able to deal with children.
(20 October 2010)
Original headline was wrong. It should be “against” pension cuts. -BA
Marseille close to standstill as worst strikes in 15 years cause French chaos
Harriet Alexander, Telegraph (UK)
France’s worst period of strikes and civil disobedience for 15 years has brought the city of Marseille almost to a standstill.
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… Marseille has been crippled by strikers. A fleet of huge ships cruises offshore, unable to dock, their lights reflecting against the still waters of the port at night. From the air it looks like a giant game of Battleships.
In the city centre, streets are still piled high with rubbish after the refuse collectors joined dock workers, train drivers, students and airport staff who have brought the city almost to a standstill.
The worst period of strikes and civil disobedience for 15 years erupted after President Nicolas Sarkozy tried to introduce austerity measures – in particular raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. As the anger rose, so did the piles of rubbish in Marseille’s streets.
“This city looks like a war zone,” said William Paterson, an American-French lawyer who has lived there for 18 years. “How can this be allowed to happen?”
It was a question that is being asked with increasing anguish across the whole of France.
On Friday, after days of debate, the Senate voted to adopt the new pension law, which is now likely to become law this week. As senators debated, battles raged on the streets. In Paris on Tuesday police used tear gas against crowds in the suburb of Nanterre, during the sixth national strike since June.
(23 October 2010)
Sarkozy’s approval rating hits new low as French strikes drag on
Deutsche Welle
Things are looking bad for President Nicolas Sarkozy, as France continues to protest against the government’s pension reform. According to a new poll, the president’s approval rating has hit an all-time low.
As France’s unpopular pension reform plan moves closer to becoming law, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s approval rating has dropped to an all-time low, dashing hopes that the legislative achievement could bring him a political comeback.
The poll, conducted by the IFOP institute and published in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday, showed only 29 percent of respondents were satisfied with Sarkozy’s job performance. That was down three points from September, and was a new low for the president since he took office in 2007.
Sarkozy and his allies are hoping that the ongoing protest and strike movement in opposition to the pension reform, which is set to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60, will die down as families leave their homes for the mid-term school holiday this week.
But unions have already called for two more days of strikes, and university students are planning nationwide marches on Tuesday – last-ditch efforts to stop the reform before a reconciliation between the two houses of parliament and a final vote by the National Assembly expected Wednesday.
Strikes in the country’s oil industry and blockades of fuel depots have left 35 percent of gas stations in the Paris area completely dry or out of one kind of fuel, a Transport Ministry spokeswoman said. About a third of gas stations in western France were in “real difficulty” and 10 to 15 percent in the rest of the country were empty, she added.
Polls suggest a majority of French voters support or sympathize with the strikers, but Jean-Francois Cope, leader of Sarkozy’s UMP party in parliament, blamed the widespread disruption on the work of a minority..
(24 October 2010)
From my hometown in France : Videos and updates on the strikes
Dan, Fels Niger
On Tuesday, October 19th, the junior High School of Val d’Huisne, in my hometown, was burnt down to the ground by persons unknown, and the action then blamed on strikers.
The authorities had been meaning to shut down this school for the last two years in the name of budget cuts, but thanks to teachers and parents, it had remained open for the students from the working class “Sablons” neighbourhood.
The school burned all night despite the best efforts of fire-fighters. Incendiary devices were found in the rubble. Now, nothing is left.
On Thursay October 21st, numerous road blocks put in place by municipal workers, students, auto workers, railway workers, nurses, teachers, and many others. Only trucks and buses are blocked, drivers returning home from work are allowed to pass. Many honk to signify their support.
On Friday, strikers (auto workers, truckers, teachers, railway workers, manufacturing workers) manage to force their way into the local council (Conseil General) meeting in my hometown. They are greeted with applauses by French Communist Party and Socialist Party mayors and Members of Parliament.
The strikers heckle Fabienne Labrette-Ménager, right-wing MP from a local constituency, who has just introduced a private parliament member’s bill which would authorize police to arrest “strikers who disrupt traffic”.
The strikers : “Shame ! Shame !”
Fabienne Labrette-Ménager : “I’m not ashamed ! You’re preventing honest, hard-working people from going to work…And you’re increasing the number of unemployed people through your actions.”
The strikers : “How many unemployed people do you know ? It’s surprising you would mingle with such lowly people !”
Fabienne Labrette-Ménager : “Well, I used to be the head of the Manpower private employment agency !”
Applause from workers “Bravo ! bravo ! Making money from those desperate for a job ! Well done !” …
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Strikes in France
I’m exhausted.
I’ve spent the last three days going from road block to road block, together with teachers, railroad workers, truckers, nurses, etc.
So far, in our sector, we’ve managed the feat of keeping the Arnages oil depot totally closed since Friday 4 AM !
As a result, all the petrol stations in a radius of 70 kms are closed, completely out of gas.
I slept 4 hours on Friday night, 6 hours on Saturday, 2 on Monday … Today, we got the main Teachers’ Union to call on all striking teachers to come and help block all the remaining fuel depots.
The police can’t intervene, because the truckers have established road blocks on the major roads leading to the oil depot.
What is incredible is that despite the fact that there is no more oil available, and therefore that people are blocked at home, a resounding 71% of the population approves of the strike (according to today’s opinion polls).
(October 2010)
English-language blog of a French striker. “Libertarian Marxist views, Revolutionary Trade Unionism and other healthy pursuits.” -BA
