American apathy vs French activism during times of turmoil

France is my kind of place. The French have been a rebellious people throughout their history. If you look at their history, it has been one rebellion, protest, riot after the other continuing to this day.  

In 1229 there was a 2 year strike by students at the University of Paris. What's interesting about this is it started during a festival in which students got drunk at a tavern, there was a fight over a bill and the students were beaten up  and thrown out. They came back the next day and beat up the owner and destroyed the tavern. Students were not subject to penalties under regular law because the university was controlled by the church. This incident angered the towns population which led to authorities arresting may students and some were killed in the process. The strike started after that. 

Through the centuries here there have been riots, strikes, violent civil unrest, guerilla warfare. A lot of it was about taxes, food shortages, cost of bread. In 1789  the monarchy was overthrown in the 1st French Revolution. What followed were power struggles to get control of the government leading to the dictatorship of Napoleon. A couple revolutions later and a republic was established.

In May a period of civil unrest occurred with large demonstrations against capitalism, consumerism and American Imperialism (!). There was severe repression leading to a general strike by unions involving 11 million workers. Violence by the police and the government only spurred the movement leading to riots in the streets. There was fear that the government would be topppled and de Galle left the country for a short period.  An agreement was reached with unions for wage increases. The parliament was dissolved and new elections were held.

Very recently, there was a demonstration of thousands of Parisians on October 15, a couple weeks before we got here, about  cost of living increases. There have been strikes on oil rigs and in nuclear plants. Some strikes were settled. The cost of living is only going to go up no doubt leading to more demonstrations. Meanwhile U.S. citizens sit around, apathetic about the same situation, with little inclination to do anything about it. 

  

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November 04, 2022 at 01:08PM