Tag: protests

French police dislodge ‘yellow vest’ fuel tax protesters 

French police moved to dislodge protesters blocking roads and fuel depots on Tuesday as the government took a harder line on the so-called “yellow vest” movement against environmental taxes on fuel.

Continue at France24: French police dislodge ‘yellow vest’ fuel tax protesters – France 24

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Commemorating the Global May ’68 Events 

Fifty years after the transformative May ’68 student-led protests in France, universities and cultural institutions across the country are presenting diverse programs and events that revisit the spirit of the ’60s in all of its facets, from revolution to social activism and more. Check back here periodically for an updated listing of events.

Read More: Commemorating the Global May ’68 Events | French Culture

The spirit of 1968 rises again: can French students and workers triumph?

President Macron faces his biggest challenge as strikes and protests recall the epic struggle that rocked France to its core. We can win, insist this generation…

At Nanterre university, on the outskirts of Paris, militant students have a dilemma: how can they pass their end-of-year exams while simultaneously fighting to derail the French government’s education reforms?

“It’s a worry, but we’ll find a way,” says Annaël Lombe, a student union leader who is taking his political science finals in a few weeks. “Exams or not, we won’t stop the protest. We will carry on the action.”

Fifty years ago, Nanterre students issued much the same warning. It turned out to be far from an idle threat. Subsequent protests at Nanterre sparked the May 1968 civil unrest that drew 10 million students and striking workers on to the streets and brought France to a halt. It was a dramatic – some thought revolutionary –moment in French history that nearly toppled a government.

In the end, the protests fizzled out, but even now the events remain a model of how people power can rattle French political leaders and in doing so change society.[ . . . ]

READ FULL STORY at: THE GUARDIAN The spirit of 1968 rises again: can French students and workers triumph? | World news | The Guardian

As strikes and student protests mount, is France heading for a rerun of May 68? 

As demonstrations spread in France over the government’s university reforms and some students joined ranks with striking rail-workers, there is increased talk of whether France is heading for a repeat of ‘May 68’?

“May 68. They are commemorating, we are starting again”, reads a slogan recently tagged onto the statue at the iconic Place de la République square in central Paris, which is so often the hub where protesters and strikers gather.

The graffiti is not just wanton vandalism and could be a word of warning to the French government.

Nearly 50 years ago in May 1968, student protests over the education system flared up into nationwide confrontation and turned into one of the greatest upheaval in modern day France.

“Protesting and contesting are always a potential political option for youth people, and that’s a good thing for the vitality of our democracy,”

This week, student demonstrations over new tighter university admissions rules appeared to be headed in the same direction, as several hundred students in the universities of Lyon, Lille, Strasbourg and Bordeaux joined ranks with France’s railworkers as they staged a second day of strikes. [ . . . ]

More at: THE LOCAL As strikes and student protests mount, is France heading for a rerun of May 68? – The Local

French women to walk out of work in protest against gender pay gap 

Women in France earn around 15.1 percent less than men, according to the latest data from the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat, which Les Glorieuses has calculated to mean women will be essentially working for free for the rest of the year after 4:34pm on November 7.“As of 4:34pm [and 7 seconds] on November 7, women will be working ‘voluntarily’,” the organisation said in a statement on its website.

“We call on women, men, unions and feminist organisations to join the movement… and to hold events and protests in order to make income inequality a central political problem. By tackling this subject, we’re showing that the gender pay gap is not just a ‘woman’s issue’.”

Source: French women to walk out of work in protest against gender pay gap – France 24