France
France: Opportunist “lefts” unite with CGT to derail fight for jobs
By Pierre Mabut, September 24, 2009
A demonstration of auto industry workers provides an object lesson in how the trade unions, aided and abetted by the middle class opportunists of Lutte Ouvrière and the New Anti-Capitalist Party, are...
France: parliamentary mission against burqa promotes anti-Muslim prejudice
By Antoine Lerougetel, September 19, 2009
The French parliamentary mission of inquiry on the burqa held its second session September 9. It is widely assumed to be preparing a law banning women from wearing the body-covering burqa in public.
France: Socialist Party, “far left” signal support for right-wing alliance
By Kumaran Ira, September 17, 2009
Proposals for an alliance between the Socialist Party and the right-wing MoDem signal preparations for a rightward lurch in French bourgeois politics.
France’s “national subscription” prepares massive handout to big business
By Pierre Mabut, September 14, 2009
On August 26, French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched a commission to establish “strategic priorities” for the investment of money to be raised in a giant “national subscription” (i.e. gover...
France: What is the significance of the falling-out between the NPA and the trade unions?
By Anthony Torres, September 8, 2009
The French media have made much of the refusal of some trade unions to attend Olivier Besancenot’s New Anti-Capitalist Party’s summer school. What is the political significance of the disagreement...
France: What is behind the Socialist Party’s plans for a presidential primary?
By Kumaran Ira, September 5, 2009
The Socialist Party (PS) has endorsed the principle of a US-style open primary system, allowing all self-described left-wing voters to vote on who should be the PS presidential nominee.
Economic recovery in Europe: Rhetoric and reality
By Ulrich Rippert, August 20, 2009
Politicians, economists and sections of the media in Germany and France are speaking euphorically of an end to the recession.
France: Near win for neo-fascists in Hénin-Beaumont by-election
By Antoine Lerougetel, July 27, 2009
The Front National had a near-win in the municipal by-election in Hénin-Beaumont July 5. Under conditions where masses of people see no credible alternative to the discredited Parti socialiste and th...
France: Third fatal accident at Total this year
By Françoise Thull, July 24, 2009
An explosion at Total’s Carling plant during the manual re-ignition of a boiler killed 2 workers and injured 17 more.
France: Workers facing mass layoffs threaten to blow up plants
By Alex Lantier, July 20, 2009
Workers at several plants slated for closure are fighting to obtain higher severance packages by threatening to detonate explosive devices at their factories.
France: Union thugs, police evict undocumented workers from union hall
By Pierre Mabut and Antoine Lerougetel, July 16, 2009
Masked CGT security forces and CRS riot police joined forces to expel undocumented sans papiers workers from a trade union hall in Paris, which they had occupied in an attempt to force the state to gr...
France: Racist campaign against burqa threatens democratic rights
By Antoine Lerougetel and Alex Lantier, July 14, 2009
President Nicolas Sarkozy and a commission of parliamentarians from across the political establishment are moving ahead with plans to ban conservative Muslim dress for women in France.
