At least france has the balls to pull this shit.
The US just saw their failing rail system cause a serious chemical spill, then when the rail workers unionized and asked for time off they got told by the president they have to keep working.
Worse than that. Major public opinion was against the rail strikes because they didn’t want to pay more at the supper market. Americans are just capitalist zombies doing whatever their corporate overlords tell them to do.
American here. Yep. Most of us are clueless fucking morons who have been brainwashed into hating unions and the “laziness and entitlement” that comes with it. These dipshits will pay money for a sticker to put on their car to show that they support the class traitors that are the overly militarized police that constantly destroys our property and kills us. Most of us are indoctrinated, nationalist cowards who worship sociopathic oligarchs because they’re “job creators”. And anybody who doesn’t chug the Kool Aid is called unamerican and becomes socially excommunicated. Being aware and intelligent and having basic critical thinking skills is too threatening to their fragile worldview to be permitted to have a seat at anybody’s table. And I’m tired of being gentle about how stupidly dangerous or dangerously stupid their active efforts against knowledge, class consciousness, justice, and democracy are.
Last night, my wife and I tried to come up with a list of things to be proud of our country for. Ready? Because it took like an hour to come up with this.
- Americans with Disabilities Act
- no pay toilets
- National and State Parks
- pop culture as an export (music, movies, jeans)
- military technology
I agree but dont forget that you also have the privelige of even saying these things without repercussions in the first place.
What will the 2nd amendment fans have to say about this? How are citizens bearing arms preventing the government from becoming tyrannical and acting agasint the people will? Did arms prevent the government from the evil commie masks and vaccines?
Except the railroad workers gained more time off and credited the Biden administration.
https://www.ibew.org/media-center/Articles/23Daily/2306/230620_IBEWandPaid#:~:text=The IBEW and BNSF Railway,Norfolk Southern on March 10.
Lemme is just as bad as reddit for misinformation
None of what he said was misinformation. Fuck biden for making it illegal for them to strike.
If only we were as badass as French people when protesting for workers rights, most other places are full of entitled bootlicking pussies who make memes about people who actually get out there and fight for their rights.
stares at OP
I respect the fucking shit out of the French willingness to strike, protest, and burn for their rights. I wish my country had a quarter of their fervor.
That doesn’t mean I’m not going to tease them :)
What I think is interesting is that we usually have pretty good scores in term of productivity despite having a lot of holidays and strikes.
If anything it should be a testament to the idea that it’s ok to be against “too much work”. It’s not being lazy, it’s understanding that you work better when you are properly rested.
At least that’s the way I see it. Don’t work more, work better.
We work with a lot of teams from France and during July, guess what, nothing bad happens. Despite everyone acting like everyday is a crisis, it somehow is never a big deal
The bosses need to chill and realize people enjoying life doesn’t mean everything else falls 8 months behind
If only…
(A Frenchman)
Can we get more details on this?
I’d like to hear something more nuanced than the bumper sticker logic that seems to always float to the top of this community
Liberal policies have done a lot of harm to the French system. We still have a lot of holidays, probably more than anywhere else (minimum 5 weeks, sometimes 6 or 7, and then, if you have more than 35h/week, you have even more, up to 11 days/year for 39h/week).
But healthcare and unemployment are being dismantled over the years.
Government is planning a law this autumn to force people to work to get the lowest unemployment income (what you get after 2 years of unemployment, or if you never worked). Unemployment became harder (you get less for less time).
Public healthcare is understaffed and underfunded. There are more and more wait before you can get an appointment and the quality is decreasing. You more and more need a complementary insurance to cover the full cost, because the public one covers only a part of the cost or not some specific cares.
Police is becoming litteraly fascist, asking for special laws applying to them. And the government consider giving it to them. They are asking for more weapons, and they are asking to clean the vermin from the cities (litteral words they use, I consider this sedition). Currently the government plays nice to the police because they’re scared if what would happen if they didn’t. Especially since they rely a lot on the police to shit down protests.
Protest are severly repressed by the police, and the right to protest is in actual danger because if the préfet (chief of police in a department, appointed by the government, representative of the government locally and responsible for the security of the department ; a department is a small administrative region) decides that your work is necessary, then you can be drafted to work. Public services are already unable to protest (in hospitals for example).
Information is very concentrated. TV channels are possessed by like 4 people, same for newspapers. And public ones are less and less independant.
This autumn will be very hot. Right now it’s the holidays. In September both school and assembly will get back to work, and the government is planning to anger teachers, one of the most powerful union in the country, and several questionable security laws. Government has no legitimity but hide behind the discourse that “no one else has legitimity either”.
I don’t think we have it worse than in many places, but it’s getting worse for us. Fighting in the beginning of this year didn’t got us anything for retirement (now 65yo to get it).
it feels like the “promises” (read: lies) of neoliberalism have screwed over many first world nations.
a lot of what you excellently described is going on in the United States as well, for the most part.
many kudos to our French brothers and sisters and their massive protests. I’m not sure what needs to be done, but I hope that people around the world can take back what is rightfully theirs: equality, true freedom from oppressive, corrupt governments, and an honest living
I like to pretend the police “shitting down protests” isn’t a typo
Adds a weird, unnecessary twist to an already interesting, though highly disconcerting, read
France is far from a worker’s paradise:
- The last time a slightly leftist government was elected was in 1981, and they turned neoliberal in 1983. Since then, worker’s right are fought by successive governments.
- And successfully so: the last time a national worker’s movement won anything was in 1995 (in 2006 there was a student’s victory though).
- Only 10% of the workers are in an Union, same as in the US.
However, it’s not a hell neither:
- French work 1511 hours by year, indeed under the OECD average (1751) or the Americans (1810) but higher than Germans (1340) who have the reputation to be workaholics.
The reputation is however not without basis:
- French have the highest number of strike days by year for 1000 workers (114), far more than Americans (6). But iy should be noted that not everyone strikes in France, generally the civil servants or employees of State owned firms strike for the others. I did not found the exact number, but for private firms’ employees, the number of strike days on average will be far lesser than 114 (but probably more that 6 ^^). And these hours are not paid, thus a lowering of quality of life.
I would add that France is the 7th largest economy in the world. Germany 5th. South Korea 13th.
Working time matters much less than the slave-driving CEOs or workaholics would have you believe. 1 week vs 6 weeks off a year is like a 10% difference. That’s a pitiful variance compared to how much our productivity is affected by liking our job, being motivated, not being overworked, etc.
French: the gayest people according to Europeans, but also the brutalest and the hardcorest.
That’s ironic because I’m friends with a French person and they tell me France is one of the most bigoted countries in western Europe. Particularly towards women.
Ah shit, we got got, they are onto us. He has THE friend that said we are all bigoted especially toward womans !
Noooo!
In all seriousness, having lived in France for 35 years and traveled extensively throughout Europe this is not AT ALL my experience.
Religions has very little impact here and to my delight it seems like it’s on the downward trend.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Europe?wprov=sfla1
As you can see we are not a particularly religious country and I think it doesn’t play as much as in other countries in Europe.
Also, we have fairly stricter than usual laws concerning religious displays in schools and other public spaces.
At least I highly doubt we are one of the most bigoted country considering our laws concerning religions and considering the rather low rate of religious people here.
