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GREAT NEWS FROM FRANCE!
During 1997, French industry grew by an impressive 4.5% and exports by an astonishing 12% -- the best figures for more than 20 years.
Meanwhile, back in the real world --
Throughout, coverage of the campaign by the British media has been dismissive - even insulting.
- December, Marseille: unemployed people occupy benefit offices to demand desperately needed emergency payments.
- January: nationwide campaign of marches and occupations by France's 3.1 million unemployed, demanding decent benefits and jobs.
- January 17th: 20,000 on the streets of Paris. 10,000 in Toulouse. Thousands more in Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Marseille, Bordeaux, Grenoble... The government makes knee-jerk concessions, introducing new local emergency funds to give the unemployed more money. A poll shows that the action taken by the unemployed enjoys 70% support in France.
Over the last 15 years, in France as in Britain, Big Business has been in the driving seat. Successive French governments, obsessed by the goal of European economic and monetary union, have held down benefit levels. Many unemployed with families get benefits equivalent to less than 50 per week; some under-25s get nothing at all.
France's unemployed are in earnest. They want jobs. They want enough to be able to live on decently while they look for jobs! They are no longer prepared to be sacrificed to the nightmare of a Europe that is good for business!
In Support of the Unemployed in France
In Support of the Proposal for a 35 Hour Week
January 27thThe government say that, in the long term, the proposed 35 hour week will create new jobs. The bosses, determined to maintain their profits at any cost in human misery, are fighting the proposal tooth and nail.
- France's unemployed march again
- The French government introduces its bill proposing a statutory 35 hour week, with no loss of earnings.
For the unemployed, the long term is a meaningless concept. As they have pointed out: l'urgence ne peut attendre -- when your situation is desperate, you can't afford to wait! They need more benefits now!
Meanwhile, in Britain --
Tony Blair's "New Deal" will subsidise Big Business to take on workers they would have employed anyway, at lower wages than before. Claimants will be pushed into poorly paid, insecure, exploitative jobs. Wage levels will be forced down throughout the labour market.
Pressure on the unemployed feeds through to those in work. Why are you still on your way home at 6.30pm? Each year the rush hour gets later, stress at work gets worse. A quarter of overtime done by British workers is unpaid. And all the time, the rich are doing very nicely, thankyou...
A shorter working week means:
- More jobs -- a chance for the unemployed to participate
- More time -- for workers to devote to their own happiness, rather than the prosperity of their employers.
We can dream, can't we?
Or we can -- like France's unemployed -- fight!
To support the campaign for the rights of those receiving low pay or benefits in this country, contact us on 0181-374 5027. Printed and published by Haringey Solidarity Group, PO Box 2474, London N8.
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