Friday, October 22, 2010

French Fury in the EU Cage: "Work Harder to Earn Less"

by Diana Johnstone from Counterpunch.

While mainstream media in the US trivializes the protests is France by simply portraying them as simply protests against lifting the retirement age to 62, this writer tells the real story. The issues there are basically the same as here: the takeaway of all the social-economic gains that working people have achieved since WWII. It's working people fighting back against the neo-liberal agenda. It's naked class war. And once again we see the same divide and conquer strategies being used by the ruling class:
The government has subtly tried to pit one generation against another, by claiming that it is necessary to protect the future of today’s youth, who are paying for the “baby boom” pensioners. It is therefore extremely significant that this week, high school and university students massively began to enter the protest strike movement.  This solidarity between generations is a major blow to the government.