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I marched today so that you could retire at 60[ UPDATED]

by LEP Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 01:59:28 PM EST

just like me. Oh, never mind, I retired at 63.

Another huge march in  downtown Paris today. Actually there were two; one which went from Republique to Bastille and then to Nation (the one I took); the other went directly to Nation via Blvd. Voltaire. And thousands were on the sidewalks giving their support.

The first group of photos have posted below in the comments is of the assemblage of the march that was passing by Republique; very near the Cirque d'Hiver. just south of Republique.

The second group is of the march from Cirque d'Hiver to Bastille.

Finally, I've added a few shots from Bastille looking back toward Republique taken about 6p.m. The line kept coming until about 7:30 when it ended where I was standing. I believe it continued until Nation.

Update [2010-10-17 13:48:16 by LEP]: Finally, I would like to say a few words with regard to the nature of this movement. It's really only partially about the eligible ages for retirement. To me, it's more of a protest against Sarkozy and his authoritarian way of doing things. He rammed through these changes in the retirement law with no consultation with the unions, the opposition or, most importantly, the people. For all I know his changes may be justified but the people don't trust him and he hasn't even bothered to make his case. I don't know how this can end; maybe his own party will throw him under the bus ;)

I would also add, if I understand him correctly, that Melanchthon thinks this affair is an attempt by the right to break the unions, a la Reagan. So, this is a matter of life and death for the unions. If they lose, it's "America in France" in not too long.


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good for you, although I doubt I will ever be in a position to retire. My pension plan is the weekly lottery, until that comes in I must look for work

keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 02:26:30 PM EST
keeping my fingers crossed for you on the lottery ;)

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 02:49:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
My personal pension plan if they have abandoned all other pensions is armed robbery, either I get to live in the sun off the proceeds, or get a nice warm cell.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 02:52:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Do you need wheels?

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:09:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
the moment I mention this I always get crowded out with offers of help :)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:18:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But seriously ;-)

Actually I'd be useless as a wheelman, but I'm very good at infiltration. "Nobody ever expects the Borgå Inquisition".  

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:23:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
LEP, we love you ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 02:42:37 PM EST
Well marched sir.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 02:52:34 PM EST
Hey, you joined the anarcho-syndicalists? Kewl! ;-)

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:11:07 PM EST
You have stolen the basic plot of my new book: 'LEP unfurled', in which a former soft-core cinéaste declares "Praise Marx and pass the Aloe Vera"

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:20:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"'allo vera!" "allo me duck!"

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty
by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:27:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I am using Aloe Vera to relieve some of the itching caused by psoriasis, on the basis of LEP's recommendation. And it helps - relative to other treatments.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:30:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
good one! aloe is a wonder.

green clay is good too.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:39:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That I have to investigate.

Whoops

You can't be me, I'm taken

by Sven Triloqvist on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:44:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, my favorite is the CNT ;)

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:30:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The assemblage for the march that passed by Republique was near the Cirque d'Hiver.

I was in the area of the anachistic CNT, the 'heavy metal' of the unions.

The French Communist Party.

High school students arriving.

And angry.

Help, Martine Aubrey and Marianne.

The crowd thickens and the march is about to begin.



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 03:57:32 PM EST
Not so very noisy this morning (the high-school kids weren't around), but all the same about 7,000 in a town of 15,000 population...

Among the many unions, groups, associations present, I quite liked the free-thinkers thinking freely:

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 04:07:44 PM EST
Excellent!

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 04:11:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Thank you for this LEP!
Seems like you people can accomplish something there!

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein
by vbo on Sat Oct 16th, 2010 at 09:17:40 PM EST
I met my wife and her family at Cirque d'Hiver and wz marched to Bastille.



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 02:44:47 AM EST




Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 03:02:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 03:10:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]

French speakers?

Arrival at Bastille.



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 03:18:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They sound pissed...

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 03:50:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]
They are. I'll write more about this tonight but this movement is about more than the age of retirement; it's more about anti-authoritarianism against Sarkozy who would love to be a dictator.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 03:59:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
RABOT DES NICHES
par le
NABOT DES RICHES?

"Niches" (fiscales) = tax breaks

"Rabot" is a plane (tool), reference to the language the government has put into circulation, according to which they are engaged in "planing down" ie reducing tax breaks.

But the slogan questions whether this "planing down" will be fairly done by the "nabot des riches", the rich people's dwarf ("nabot" = "nain" = dwarf), meaning...

Now who could that mean?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 04:04:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
A slogan I liked yesterday (but couldn't get a shot of), was:

On ne parle pas cuisine avec des cannibales

You don't discuss cooking with cannibals.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 04:06:20 AM EST

estHer is holding the sign on the right.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 01:30:26 PM EST
Right?

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 01:37:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The short girl on our right.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 01:50:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 01:55:05 PM EST
Finally two miscellaneous photos, the first of an exhibit at Bastille, and the second of Mr. Thibout, The head of the CFDT being interviewed for TV.



Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP on Sun Oct 17th, 2010 at 02:00:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
On the last picture it's Jean-Claude Mailly, the Secretary general of trade union Force Ouvrière.

And Bernard Thibault is the Secretary general of CGT, not CFDT. François Chérèque is the Secretary general of CFDT.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

by Melanchthon on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 09:15:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Thanks for the correction ;)

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 09:53:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
LEP and afew, thank you for photos of demonstrations! I am an unemployed older American worker. Some of us are disappointed we will not have any such thing. In my town in central Indiana poverty is much more widespread than media cover. In my view, you are marching for the concept of full employment which I think US has abandoned, and rights of labor, which it almost has as well. Some people (French, Spanish, Brussels) still care ...
by lachatte (stormydogger at yahoo dot com) on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 08:21:50 AM EST
We fight for you, too! Showing that the neo-liberal steamroller can be stopped is important for all of us.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
by Melanchthon on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 09:18:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Can, will it be stopped???
(I'm less optimistic.)

And - who's marching for full employment?

by Lily (put - lilyalmond - here <a> yahaah.france) on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 09:37:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
And - who's marching for full employment?

Anyone who is marching for greater sovereign outlays is marching for improved employment.

That's the magic of Keynesian multiplier effects.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 09:55:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
We have an economic system that willfully steers away from full employment in the name of monetary stability.

Without achieving monetary stability, of course.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 09:56:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
We have an economic system that wilfully steers away from full employment in order to prevent full employment.

While a reserve army of labour is not required for capitalism to function, it does make looting a lot easier.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 09:59:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]
If you rely on volatility for your profits, none of this is bad.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 10:35:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I doubt you will find somebody in the demonstrations who is marching for "greater sovereign outlays"... ;-)

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
by Melanchthon on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 10:03:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, I think/hope that the steamroller will run out of financial steam. When that happens, those who have tried to stop it will have a say in what shall be done.

While people are probably not marching for full employment, fear of unemployment is an important issue for many of them: fear of being unemployed at 58 and live on reduced benefits before being able to retire for the adults, fear of being unable to find a job when they get out of school/college for the young.

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char

by Melanchthon on Fri Oct 22nd, 2010 at 10:11:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]


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