The French are Kicking Butt For a Week in the Streets and the left in SF is Complacent.

Thank you for this excellent article, and the contrast with the despicable gambling racket baseball hysteria, the old Roman empire trick of giving workers circuses instead of bread, and the serious class struggle taking place in France.

Through serious class struggle, the French workers have won retirement at age 60, 5 weeks paid vacation mandated by federal law (the US has no vacation law whatsoever; even poor Russia has a federal vacation law because they had a revolution), socialized medicine (as described in the excellent movie, Sicko), 16 weeks of paid maternity leave (in the US, we have UNPAID maternity leave 1 month before and after birth, with the employer only being required to hold the job for you for 1 month after birth), and better unemployment benefits.

All the Indymedia sites should feature the writings, instantly translated into English, at Indymedia Lille, Nantes and Paris. Here is a video from Lille Indymedia.
Go to http://lille.indymedia.org/article23831.html
then
http://www.cnt-f.org/59-62/2010/10/video-manifestations-occupations-piquets-de-greve-la-cnt-dans-laction/

More information on a daily basis may be found at the World Socialist Website at
http://www.wsws.org/category/perspectives.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/category/Struggle_France.shtml
has lots of articles, and here are some references:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/demo-o19.shtml

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/fran-o19.shtml

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/fran-o18.shtml

IT IS INEXCUSABLE AND A SIGN OF NO CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS THAT THE SECOND FRENCH REVOLUTION IS NOT PROMINENT ON INDYMEDIA, DEMOCRACY NOW, FLASHPOINTS OR KPFA. The basic contradiction is between labor and capital and all other issues stem from that contradiction and cannot be solved until labor's needs and interests are addressed.

Working people do come out and fight. Yesterday, outside of Walgreens' around the city, carpenters were
doing an educational picket on unfair labor practices. The hotel and restaurant union continually defends
the rights of workers. The French are organized as members of a class. They know who they are historically and proud to fight
in a united manner.

RE: 'worker solidarity' post above -

There is obviously a huge difference between what's happening in France— a worker revolt— and what's barely happening in SF, California, and the US.

While French workers are shutting down the country and could very well topple the government there, "Carpenters are handing out informational flyers" at Walgreens and hotel workers are picketing. Other than some meaningless photo opp civil disobedience actions that temporarily inconvenienced a few tourists by blocking one entrance (while making sure others were not blocked), the hotel worker pickets haven't been effective in shutting the hotels down, winning a new contract, or convincing the mega-corporate owners to share their profits with workers. Informational pickets and symbolic arrests, and cooperation with the police to make sure sidewalks aren't blocked and consumers can continue on their day only show capitulation to the capitalist bosses and have not reversed the decline of the working class.

Ask why there is no call for a General Strike when one union is being ripped off and busted and you get the excuse that 'it can't happen here' and US labor laws restrict secondary boycotts and the solidarity necessary to make a General Strike effective. Hello! Why didn't the unions back the candidates calling for repeal of Taft-Hartley? Did they really believe the Democrats would deliver on the Employee Free Choice Act and the golden age of union organizing would be at hand? Obama never supported repeal of Taft-Hartley, and hardly demonstrated leadership in passing for EFCA. Didn't a Black leader once assert that 'Power concedes nothing without a demand...'

Meanwhile public employee unions in the state are selling out their newest, youngest members by agreeing to two-tier pension deals that will protect some pensions while making new workers second class workers. Shouldn't the carpenters be shutting down the state capital to protest the treatment of members of the SEIU? Shouldn't AFSCME members be blockading non-union construction sites?

At a time when international working class solidarity is an urgent necessity, we can barely spark any solidarity among US workers beyond calling for electing more Democrats.

In 1983, when our Social Security was changed to full benefit at age 66 or 67, depending on your age group, with the youngest age group having to wait the longest for full benefit (we all can still retire at age 62 with about 75% benefit), AMERICAN LABOR DID NOTHING. There were the usual phone calls to Congress and posturing in Congress, but THERE WAS NO STRIKE OF ANY KIND. The Europeans to whom I tell this find it incomprehensible. This writer, an American, wonders just exactly what will make American labor strike. I do not have much time for the refusal to act, being close to retirement. IN FACT, MOST AMERICANS RETIRE BETWEEN AGES 60 AND 65 WHETHER OR NOT WE GET FULL BENEFIT AS WE NO LONGER HAVE THE MENTAL OR PHYSICAL CAPACITY TO BE FULLY PRODUCTIVE. Those who last longer are the EXCEPTIONS WHO PROVE THE RULE. Yes, we have a longer life expectancy now, but MOST OF US CANNOT WORK UNTIL 80 OR 90. That is what being old is: We have constantly diminishing physical and mental capacity. And of course, the young must work to survive and there is no future without the young.

IN ADDITION, FRANCE HAS ABOLISHED THE ANTI-LABOR DEATH PENALTY, and is among 88% of the world that has done so. The United States still has this barbaric weapon of terror against the workingclass because labor is very weak.

THE UNITED STATES IS THE MOST BACKWARD COUNTRY IN THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD as it has the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy in the industrialized world due to having no socialized medicine, which is to say, no serious labor movement, partly because it is tied to the capitalist Democratic Party. When we have a serious labor movement, the workingclass will have to vote for serious labor candidates who support socialism.

THE ONLY THING THE US IS NUMBER 1 AT IS PRODUCING MILITARY HARDWARE TO KILL THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD SO AS TO MAXIMIZE THE PROFITS OF THE CAPITALIST CLASS. The greatest profits are in munitions and that is the reason for the endless blood for oil wars, to maximize the profits of the munitions makers and the oil companies.

The French pension system is described very well by Diana Johnstone at Global Research, 10/22/10, in an article from Counterpunch, 10/21/10, at
"Collapse of Social Security: French Workers Confront the Neoliberal Policy Agenda"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21561
and Counterpunch, 10/21/10 at "French Fury in the EU Cage" at
http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone10212010.html

As Ms. Johnstone explains, the French pension system is a complicated combination of time worked and age, so that if one gets a complete education for skilled jobs, one may start fulltime work at age 30 if one can get it, and finish the required 43 years by age 73 for a full pension, which is about 40% of wages, outrageously low!

For all French websites, if you do not know French, you can get an instant English translation of the website's text by clicking Translate in the upper right and then click Always Translate. When you go to a new website, your browser will automatically implement the Always Translate command. The videos are of course in whatever language the people speak, usually French.

http://toulouse.indymedia.org/
Video of blocking Blagnac airport at:
http://toulouse.indymedia.org/spip.php?article45705

Second video at:
http://toulouse.indymedia.org/spip.php?article45684
and
several videos including Blocking Blagnac airport at
http://www.tvbruits.org/spip.php?mot74

Third Video at:
Lyon Indymedia
http://rebellyon.info/
Specifically:
http://rebellyon.info/Video-Les-forces-de-l-ordre.html

Auvergne Indymedia:
http://auvergne-indymedia.org/

Dijon Indymedia:
http://www.brassicanigra.org/

Grenoble Indymedia:
http://grenoble.indymedia.org/

Marseille Indymedia:
http://www.millebabords.org/