France has been sent into a state of confusion with the spread of protests against liberalizing labor laws. Calling themselves the "Kleenex Generation" for being something you can use once then discard, young people have been protesting in the streets and it is becoming mass resistance. The government has refused to withdraw the "first employment contract" ("CPE") program, however, and students and workers have voted for a general strike.
The new law will allow places of work with twenty or more employees the ability to lay off workers under the age of 26 at any time within two years of employment. Last year, the French government passed a "new job contract law" ("CNE") giving that same right to companies with less than twenty employees. The government says it will encourage the hiring of young people and ostracized members of society, but the people directly concerned are just made to feel more insecurity about their jobs. Unions and leftists are strongly opposed to the new legislation, and even business leaders are saying it is undesirable in that it would limit freedom to just a limited, specific group in society.
And so there are many who say the reason the situation has come to this is the government's forceful policies, which ignore popular sentiments. It can be seen in how parliament passed the bill, without ample debate, right while W100,000 people were out protesting. It is for the same reason you hear criticism that the majority of citizens oppose neoliberalism, while the politicians are operating according to agreements made amongst themselves.
The rejection, in a national referendum, of the European constitution last year shows you what happens when politics is out of touch with popular sentiment. The right-wing government that put the issue to a vote when it knew of the public opposition and Socialist Party that supports the government have both been dealt a serious blow. If you look at it from that perspective, the protests are, in character, a revolt against the politicians who are ignoring the public's needs. It is why what is happening in France is not something for Korea to merely watch from a distance.
The Hankyoreh, 22 March 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Mass Resistance and French Disregard for French |
