President Sarkozy of France is on the verge of a breakthrough in his ambitious plan to wean his country off the restrictive working practices he believes stand in the way of national prosperity.
Yesterday, the strike of rail and subway workers that has crippled France for nine days was clearly crumbling, as workers began returning to work in large numbers and union branches conceded that support for the dispute is collapsing.
“We think a dynamic of return to work has begun,” Julie Vion, a spokeswoman for France’s state-owned railroad network, SNCF, said.
Union leaders began to concede defeat yesterday. “We have to face reality. Since yesterday’s negotiations, things have changed. The strike is no longer the solution. The strike strategy is no longer winning,” a leader of the Sud union representing Paris underground railway workers, Philippe Touzet, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
More at Captains Quarters and Powerline – “the right man at the right moment.”
I recently did a post of praise for Sarkozy on my blog.
I like this Sarkozy guy. He seems to be teaching even North American conservative politicians how to properly deal with the Left!
It must be illegal to form a union.
Unions serve only one purpose: dragging the countries into poverty.
Atta boy for Sarkozy!
He is indeed, the ‘right man’ at the ‘right time’.
France had become entangled within the sophistry of the left, focused only on their lifetime jobs, their 30 hour work weeks, their benefits and pensions – and ignoring that these are results, these are OutPuts…that require InPut.
Without a willingness to work, to produce, to innovate – there’s no OutPut. No money to support those lifelong jobs, that 30 hour workweek.
The sophistry of the left has one result; it strangles an economy. It rejects merit, rejects work, rejects innovation? Why? Because it rejects differences, it rejects the necessity of inequality; it rejects those who ‘do things better’.
France is finally ready to move out of socialism and the left. Quebec, on this side of the Atlantic, has also made a first step in this movement away from socialism with its election of the ADQ. Quebec is actually moving faster towards privatization and giving power back to the citizens than Ontario.
Now, let’s see if Ontario can do it; it’s trapped with leftism, trapped within Big Government Can Do Everything. Can Ontario grow up or does it still require the Nanny State as parent?
Ontario? Sure.
Toronto? Eh, not so much.
Maybe there is hope for France.
Sarkozy is the best thing that could possibly happen to France. He’s proving himself to be the French Thatcher.
This victory against the Unions is incredibly significant. In the past, the French people turned against the government when the unions held the entire country hostage. The idea was: “you’re right, but please give up.”
Now, however, the situation is different: Sarkozy ran on a platform of reforms. He received a mandate. And… the French people are standing by their president.
A major test, well done.
The French don’t seem to have a complete understanding of what democratic government is. Political parties and elections –yes. But then when the government tries to govern it is trucker blockades, farmers dumping manure and University student throwing tantrums.
It’s great to see a leader that finally stands up to the trouble makers. And better yet to see that Black Jac Chirac is finally being investigated for corruption now that he doesn’t the “honour” of the French presidency to shield him.
oh no, the life of another french citizen may be in jeopardy.— Borat Dion call you doctor
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2007/11/23/poverrty-kids.html
I’ve got it!
Send Stephane Dion to France and Nicolas Sarkozy will give him lessons on how to lead.
Isn’t he a French citizen, he won’t even need a passport?!
He might even stay!
Cal: The French don’t seem to have a complete understanding of what democratic government is. Political parties and elections –yes. But then when the government tries to govern it is trucker blockades, farmers dumping manure and University student throwing tantrums.
It’s you, who thinks that democracy begins and ends in the voter’s booth, who has an incomplete understanding of what democratic government is. Political protest and civil disobedience have a long and proud history in Western democracy.
Unlike ET I’m not so sure socialism is ever leaving France, to be contained a little maybe, but, please, it’s the French are talking about. Gutting the union parasites that feed at the public trough will take decades if ever. That’s an endurance the French don’t have. France has so many useless college grads that are fit for nothing better than life as barnacles cemented at their ridiculous little 30 hour a week tasks. They are totally risk/reward averse and don’t want that nonsense wrecking havoc on them. They took to the streets when it was suggested that, God forbid, an employer could let the little slackers go in the first few months if they were dead weight. Imagine that.
Sarkozy does not have the public mandate that Reagan or Thatcher did.
I find the French as bad as the Russians in that when their Big Ideas crash and burn, they don’t default to the reasonable like we in the Anglosphere. I don’t think it is culturally there for them.
I read the post about the growing peace in Iraq, I read about Sarkozy whipping the Unions in France, I consider that Canada has a conservative party governing as does the USA, plus I believe there will be another conservative in the white house after the next election. I hear about a call to start bombing the training camps in Afghanistan and Eastern Packistan. I see a bungling pack of idiots ruling Britain and consider that their days me numbered, I see Saskatchewan going Conservative..
Common sense is breaking out all over and not a minute too soon. The Left has had the run of it for a long time and they have failed in everything.
Let’s keep the healing going.
Excellent. First the unions, then the farmers. A blueprint for Wall?
Sarkozy certainly can’t be all bad if the Tehran Times hates him.
Sarkozy was ex-Mossad secret agent
A report reveals that French President Nicolas Sarkozy worked for Israeli intelligence for a long time before he was elected president.
French daily Le Figaro has revealed the French leader once worked for the Zionist regime as a sayan, Hebrew for ‘collaborator’.
Ex-Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky says sayans, who perform many roles, are Jewish citizens of other nationalities assisting Mossad.
Citoyen Dion says: That’s not fair.
Citoyen Sarkozy says: As your hero PET said, Fuddle-duddle, Citoyen Dion.
…-
French transport strike ends (CNN)
[…]
“…transport unions voted to bring industrial action to an end and begin talks with transport bosses and the government.
The decision to start negotiating is being seen as a victory for French President Nicolas Sarkozy as he battles to reform public services.” […]
“The very fact that the unions have come to the table is a breakthrough,” she said. …-
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/23/france.strikes/
@Kathy:
I’m afraid that the issue is more subtle than you have indicated. English-speaking cultures are more prone to taking scofflawing seriously, so the usual form of civil disobedience consists of quietly ignoring the law and treating any resultant punishment as a mere exaction. Yes, the way that the speeding laws are treated is an example of English-speaking civil disobedience in miniature. It says that the speed limits were set wrong at the outset.
In French culture, scofflawing is taken less seriously, so we see regular organized protests instead of quiet lawbreaking.
Every now and then, there are organized campaigns of civil disobedience in English-speaking countries, but they tend to be either treated as somewhat silly or as a threat to public order…unless they use passive-resistance techniques primarily. This kind of protest tend to work, especially when it confines itself to breaking a law that’s already a ‘dead-letter’. Interestingly, protestors’ aggression with regard to tresspass tends to be given a cultural bye, but less disguised forms of aggression tend to invite the crackdown – or a shunning.
Incidentally, if you want to win real respect in French culture, and are male, a good way to do so is to show that you’ve been law-abiding under real pressure not to be so. This shows that you’re a “man of the Law.” I have to admit that I don’t know what the female analog is.
ET: France had become entangled within the sophistry of the left, focused only on their lifetime jobs, their 30 hour work weeks, their benefits and pensions – and ignoring that these are results, these are OutPuts…that require InPut…The sophistry of the left has one result; it strangles an economy.
But ET, according to Conference Board statistics (available at conference-board.org/economics/database.cfm), France’s productivity rate, as measured by GDP/hour (EKS$) has been higher than the US’s for more than a decade. How do you explain that?
It rejects merit, rejects work, rejects innovation
A 2006 Conference Board of Canada report ranked the US third among the world’s industrialized nations in terms of its economic innovative capacity. Tied for #1 were Norway and Sweden, two countries with far more “left-wing” economic policies and political ideologies than the US. Again, how do you explain this?
@Selmer:
Actually, I can, and it’s a fascinating explanation. The drag of socialism isn’t felt much, at first, in peoples that are culturally homogeneous. Homogeneity makes socialism’s appeal to group loyalty less problematic.
In the end, though, economic reality intrudes. You may be interested to know that both France and Sweden suffered currency crises that made them both back off from socialism. Ever since the devaluation of the franc in 1981, Mitterand’s “socialism” has had more than its share of soothing words.
Sweden endured a currency crisis and recession in the early 1990s that cause the government there to back off somewhat. From Wikipedia: “The Swedish welfare system remains extensive, but a recession in the 1990s forced an introduction of a number of reforms, such as education vouchers in 1992 and decentralization of some types of healthcare services to municipal control.”
Oh, come on Selmer, ET is ALWAYS right…because she says she is. Don’t expect something as trivial as facts to change that.
I think it is too early to say Sarkozy has broken the unions. In the past the French truckers blocked the roads to the Channel ports crippling British business. They had the tacit support of the police who are in the same union. Sarkozy is no Margaret Thatcher. I think the next few months will be very interesting.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/business/ambrosevanspritchard/nov07/europe-exchange-control.htm
If the euro continues to rise against the dollar and the oil ticks bail out and buy euros the French and other euro economies could go down the pan. Airbus in particular is really in trouble and the French are obsessed with big symbolism. Take the Channel Tunnel. It is losing money hand over fist, but no one will allow it to go under. Sarkozy is trying to do a good job but it will take a lot more than one man to wean them of socialism.
Lberia…instead of throwing insults…can you show anything that says ET is wrong? Typical leftard.Shoot the messagener instead of putting facts out to prove her wrong.
ooppppsss…messenger…before lberia starts a strawman attack..heh
Daniel M. Ryan: You may be interested to know that both France and Sweden suffered currency crises that made them both back off from socialism. Ever since the devaluation of the franc in 1981, Mitterand\’s \”socialism\” has had more than its share of soothing words.
I have read and acknowledge the \’cultural homogeneity\’ argument. It certainly provides a compelling explanation for why social democratic policies, particularly in Scandinavia, have had a much easier time being enacted.
But cultural homogeneity alone cannot fully explain why these policies themselves have lead to higher rates of economic productivity, let alone better levels of population health, environmental cleanliness, educational achievement, child and adult poverty, etc.
For instance, that France underwent a currency revaluation in the early 80s cannot explain the fact that their productivity per hour has been higher than the US\’s (and most other countries) since the late 80s, and indeed both before and after the workweek was shortened in the late 90s.
The recession in Sweden in the early 90s was actually a global recession, and so the economic setbacks experienced in Sweden cause cannot be attributed to that event. Indeed, its generous social welfare system ensured that the recession\’s impact among more vulnerable populations was buffered.
In 2003, a couple of researchers (Rainwater and Smeeding, \’Poor Kids in a Rich Country: America\’s Children in Comparative Perspective\’) found that, worldwide, the single strongest predictor of child poverty rates was \”left cabinet share\” (i.e., the percentage of \”left-wing\” party members elected in government). In other words, there is something about left-leaning policies themselves, and not just the national/cultural contexts in which they are enacted, that lead to improvements to the social and economic well-being of those societies.
TO SAY THAT UNIONS NEED TO BE REELED IN SOMEWHAT, WORLD-WIDE, CAN PRESENT A STRONG ARGUEMENT.
UNIONS USE THE SAME PRINCIPLE AS DEMOCRACY: THAT A SINGLE INDIVIDUAL CAN HAVE A SAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITHIN A VERY LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE.
IF A PERSON IS AGAINST THE VERY FORMATION OF A UNION, THEN I BELIEVE THIS PERSON TO BE UNDEMOCRATIC, A TOTALITARIAN, PERHAPS.
UNIONS PROVIDE A BETTER LEARNING ENVIRONMENT, AND FAR BETTER SAFETY RECORDS.
THEY ALSO PROVIDE A SAFETY NET FOR THE WEAK, THE WEAK-MINDED, THE SLOVENLY, MOST INCOMPETANT WORKERS IN OUR CANADA. THE LEADERS (BUZZ) NEED TO BE TAKEN DOWN A NOTCH OR TWO. UNION REPRESENTATION, FINALLY, IN MY OPINION, IS AT THE CORE OF THIS ISSUE.
justthinkin:
Selmer did provide proof, ie. facts and links to them. ET rarely, if ever, substantiates her opinions. Yet, like a true hypocritical right winger, she always demands proof from other commentators.
This selmer/daniel dabate is fascinating. I’m thankful for such a great blog that attracts such educated comments.
@azphiks: please lay off the caps, it hurts my brain.