OVERSEAS BRIEFING

Author: Kelsey Smith

PARIS - The French are revolutionary. Their model of democracy did not come about little by little, as was the case for their non-continental neighbors to the north, but in one fell swoop. In one fell swoop, mind you, that was the result of a serious, violent struggle. And as I write, another struggle is growing all the more violent not very far from here. Today the ongoing manifestations of students, workers and even retirees against the Contrat Première Embauche (CPE), a labor law making it easier to fire workers under the age of 26 within their first two years of employment, were coupled with a strike by the transportation, postal and banking industries. The hope is that this devastating blow to the economy will force those governmental officials in favor of the law to swallow their pride and back down. When unhappy with labor laws, medical benefits or work hours, the "syndicats" organize days of solidarity when workers take to the streets. Anything to protect their way of life - a life that places the value of personal time above hours logged in at an office.

Though I find this philosophy of life both admirable and charming, I must say that it is sometimes difficult to feel sympathetic when you hear that students are protesting because a law is being passed that would make it possible for them to be fired if their employer is not happy with their performance. Job security is a concept that means little to me. I expect that I will have to work very hard and that if I do not, my employer will let me go. It is difficult to see how refusing to go to school for an entire month is really going to help the situation.

Conversely, as a young American who is very unhappy with the way things are going in my own country, I admire the mobilized, active youth around me. The question that arises is, are they doing it for the right reasons? Or, are they merely play-acting, filling roles they have seen performed time and time again by their parents and grand parents, jumping at the opportunity to take to the streets?

The legend of May '68 lives strong in Paris. There are times when I find myself walking around the urban campus of Sciences Po, the University I am currently attending and, it stands to be mentioned, one of the only universities that has maintained classes during this ordeal, wondering which decade I am living in. Observing the behavior of students in the hallways, tying on armbands of solidarity against the CPE, and in the Assemblé Général, a student-run forum where we vote on whether or not to strike, I can't help but feel this is exactly what they have been waiting for.

I also found it interesting that I met most of the students I know, not in class, but at the several manifestations I attended. They were friendly, open and obliging to all of my questions and observations about the CPE and the French manifestation culture in general. Additionally, it can be said that being tear-gassed by the police together is certainly a bonding experience. It is also important to mention that the majority of violence I witnessed from the protesters themselves came, not from students who were there with presumably honorable intentions, but from kids, not much older than 14, who were just looking for an excuse to antagonize the police.

As it stands now I feel for both sides of the situation. As the government tries desperately to provide a growing population of unemployed citizens with the opportunity to work, a nation in general is struggling to keep its cultural institutions in a world that is hurling towards general economic liberalism at an alarming rate.