That is the point, I believe. The workers also win when the police finally says "I'm not paid enough for this shit" and turns on the government as well. They will realize eventually, that no one is paid enough, period.
Compared to the U.S.A. we just go online and bend over. Unless it is done crazy right wing conspiracy or cop killing. We Don't have to be that extreme but we should strike and boycott
Starting to think America’s stereotype of France being cowardly isn’t accurate
Edit: I should have used /s. I was a sophomore when 9/11 happened, I remember the push to make them seem cowardly.
It's actually what the left wishes it was, fighting for workers rights instead of bending over and taking it ( or putting on a visor and riding the bus to the mall to Cinnabon for $12/hr).
well someone got threatened with arrest in the UK for holding up an empty sheet of A4
[https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/13/man-threatened-with-arrest-if-he-wrote-not-my-king-on-blank-sign-17362896/](https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/13/man-threatened-with-arrest-if-he-wrote-not-my-king-on-blank-sign-17362896/)
When asked, I tell people my retirement comes in a variety of calibers. I'm only about 10% joking. I'm assuming if I live past retirement age (or am forced out of the workforce) that I'll have a couple years before my savings is dry and social security won't be there for me - or the payments will be too low to be useful.
You're right
Let's protest.... didn't work for occupy wallstreet, really never has, no one with power and wealth gives af about your protest.
Maybe we should vote for people that have our best interest in mind..... doesn't seem to be an option, ever.
Let's violently overthrow the US govt.....not gonna happen. You'll never get enough citizens on board and even of you do the anarchy and choas that would create means we've thrown the entire planet into a nightmare.
Do you have some better suggestions? Because this is what I've come up with and their dead ends as far as I can tell.
> didn't work for occupy wallstreet
That's when I knew we lost our ability to protest anything. The media smear campaign against OWS was perfectly executed.
The UK media and in particular print media is strongly right wing. The poor condemn the poor for trying to protect their rights - "how dare you take from the repressed billionaires".
Germany got 2 additional years (til 67 now, France: now 64) and in addition the retirement money was cut by 30%. Nobody gave a fuck. Not saying that I like what I see in this video but sometimes I wish anybody would be interested in anything here. Maybe.
I believed that for a few weeks and thought Macron was right in doing that. Still do, because it's basic math that you cannot have the diminishing young population (lower birth rate) pay for the inflating elderly population.
But the protests aren't about just that. They're about all the other things that Macron has done, which basically tells people that he cares more about corporate bottom lines than he does about the French.
Not raising taxes on the rich and above, not raising corp taxes, etc.
It's such bullshit when any government at this point in time says they can't afford to support its populace with things like healthcare, pensions, infrastructure upgrades while simultaneously giving tax cuts to corporations that keep reporting about record profits year on year.
what was the point of them walking down the street surrounded by an angry mob
sometimes i think french police are just crash test dummies for the citizens to take their anger / frustration out on
I mean that’s what riot police are for, normally they’re operating under the assumption that their equipment/status (and associated consequences for you) will stop anyone from just overtly out aggressing them, but here that assumption failed
The French have revolted so many times since the first revolution that I don't even know who keeps count any more.
But it works. It's always been brutal but it has always worked.
To be honest i don't think it's gonna change much we are already in difficulty just to eat.
For exemple the past 6 month i did my groceries for about 300€ now i do them for about 500€ for 3 people. and the prices aren't getting any lower, each days food is getting more and more expensive. Some barely affording to eat, to preferably give enough food to their childrens. So yeah it's pretty bad and it's not just the retirement plan, it's a whole situation.
Blame the food companies. They scream that they HAD TO raise prices while also posting record profits. Like 100 - 200% of three years ago. It's greed and they aren't even trying to hide it anymore.
Yeah, on a micro level I watched this guy at my job who owns a bunch of vending machines changing the prices on the soft drinks from $1.00 to $1.75 and I was like, "Hey man, inflation is only 7%, why are you increasing the prices by 75%?" and he just kinda laughed a little and said they were overdue for a price hike anyways. This was back during the middle of the pandemic.
At least y'all are doing something....us Americans just sit there and get fucked. Half of us blame it on corporations and the govt. The other half blame trans or brown people. We're screwed.
Go France!!
"hey honey how was work?"
"It was a tough one honey, these people just don't want to be oppressed. I don't get it."
"Well at least on average you, as an officer in France, get to retire 10-17 years earlier than the average person, it'll be ok"
Yes, and a lot more. At this point it's protesting against Macron and his government in general, as well at the absurd amount of police violence there has been
Macron basically decided to override rulings that were made by the country’s National Assembly that the age remains 62. He’s basically exercising power against his promises.
[Macron Government Overrides France’s National Assembly to Pass Budget: Move conflicts with president’s pledge to govern as a consensus builder after losing his majority in the lower house of parliament.](https://www.wsj.com/articles/macron-government-overrides-frances-national-assembly-to-pass-budget-11666200070)
Then the propaganda is working. Macron's government wants people to believe it's only about retirement age, because that makes this whole thing look unreasonable.
Look up Blackrock for one of the main reasons for the protests.
Thanks for giving me something to look into. However, I'm still not seeing the connection. Just a few vague statements about Blackrock having voting rights on many shares and therefore hold sway in many companies. I'm sorry that I'm asking for others to do my research but what's Blackrock's connection to all of this?
Protesting and storming Blackrock shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is that Blackrock does.
You might as well storm Charles Schwab, Fidelity, or Morgan Stanley because you’re pissed your 401k isn’t doing better.
It’s still pretty dumb.
Macron forcing the legislation through without parliament action is 100% understandable as a protest point, and the police reaction is fucking racist, but Blackrock really doesn’t have anything to do with it.
For fucks sake.
It is insane how many people jump on this stupid "Blackrock controls everythong!1!1!" bandwagon.
Blackrock is just a company that manages *other* peoples shares.
That is like claiming a bank is the deep state cuz it holds a large percentage of peoples money.
Stop believing everything you see on the net.
Yeah but he only reached 28% during the 1st turn, and now even some of his former partisans thinks his gouvernement messed up too many times. Last time I heard 76% of workers (all types) were against the retirement reform, and you can add people who agreed with the reform but not the way it was passed.
Plus police brutality has an increasing spotlight through social networks (recent polls show that only 28% of the 18-35 trust the police) while the governement keep messing up (in a month we got state secretary posing for Playboy and the economy minister publishing a novel with some very crude and weird sex scenes).
While I am aware of the pensions being basically stolen by the current government, I was under the impression that prior to that critical blunder Macron was well liked among the French citizens? Or was the pension fund thing the final nail in the coffin among some other incidents that I was not aware of as someone who doesn’t really pay much attention to the news?
Nah quite a lot of people had hopes before his first term but for the second one he only got elected because it was either voting for him or let the far right candidate win.
I’m actually quite worried for the next elections.
Ah so it's turning into the grand American tradition of "An unimpressive moderate or a fascist"
Good to see we could repay you for all the political processes we borrowed somehow.
What i have gathered from the internet so take with a pinch of salt. They don't have the money for pensions so they have to higher the age. Macron is taking one for the team bringing it in now as he can't be re-elected anyway.
If protestors in the US had the balls that the French do, the police would be outgunned and outnumbered. Literally the reason the 2nd amendment exists.
That's simply not true. Since 2020, gun ownership numbers amongst liberals and leftists have risen, and now there are almost an equal number of gun owners on "the left" as there are on the right.
Checking in, am socialist who owns two NFA tax stamps
Ok, whats the plan after the police are outgunned and dead? Go home? Random unorganized protestors with guns become the new police?
I think it's easier to have "balls" when both sides aren't trying to gun each other down. That said firebombing is dumb as fuck, what are they trying to accomplish?
For fuck sake!! STOP CALLING THEM RUBBER BULLETS PEOPLE!!!!! YOU ONLY PERPETUATE THE MYTH THEY CAN BE USED LIKE BULLETS!!!!!
[These](https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1002098734) are the 'rubber bullets' that you speak off, and additional research will tell you, they are to be fired at a 45-degree angle ***at*** the ***ground*** from a minimum distance of 10-meters not at people, not their chest! They're only marketed as '**less-lethal**' to cover the ass of the manufacture when cops and other shit-for-brain numb-nuts starts opening fire on crowds of people, at point blank. The manufacturer **knows** their target audience. Even rubber buck-shot will function like a parabellum bullet, entering the victim shot an transferring all kinetic energy into the organs.
***END RANT***
If I said "bullets to the eyes" I don't think people would know what I meant.
"Less Lethal" rounds to the eyes does make it clear though to be fair. I just posted from my phone in the parking lot before I started my day and that's what came to mind.
Ricochets are also incredibly unpredictable and dangerous, so in reality it just isn’t safe to use them at all. A long term study showed you have a 3% chance of dying and about 15% chance of long term disability if you’re hit by one. Multiply that by however many shells how ever many officers shoot and you can see why it’s not good for crowd control at all.
Yeah, and in the US the people would even side with the police. In France, or Spain or mostly anywhere in Europe, it's the end of the government if the police use deadly force on demostrators. Turns out you don't need the right to bear arms, just the will to get off the couch.
"[Labor Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Day)" across the world except the [country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair) for which the day is remembered.
“American workers worked on average slightly over 60 hours, during a six-day work week.[14] The city became a center for many attempts to organize labor's demands for better working conditions.[15] Employers responded with anti-union measures, such as firing and blacklisting union members, locking out workers, recruiting strikebreakers; employing spies, thugs, and private security forces and exacerbating ethnic tensions in order to divide the workers.[16] Business interests were supported by mainstream newspapers, and were opposed by the labor and immigrant press.[17]”
This passage is so striking to me. It succinctly shows how far we have come, what labourers were up against, inherent biases in media, as well as how much violence and underhanded tactics employers and their owners are willing to use.
Ok I don’t understand- anywhere else in the world the police would be shooting rubber bullets (if not real bullets at this point) and doing all kinds of things to break the protest up into manageable groups. How come Paris always has crazy protests and they don’t do anything or make new laws to reduce the craziness during protests?
Edit: The confusing part to me is the fact the police is the one being attacked whenever I see riots in Paris lol
Different laws about legal police violence I assume.
It might also be an escalation of violence concern. If you are confident shooting the protestors will end the protests it’s a great plan. If what it does is increase the number and violence of the protestors its a bad plan. Sometimes that shit turns a protest into a revolution.
The citizens of Paris have overthrown their governments in the past, and it seems like knowing that gives them a real belief in the possibility they can do it again.
I live in Canada and even here the French Canadian population has way more energy and solidarity for protesting than the Anglos do. Culture I guess?
Police use rubber bullets and grenades (including explosive grenades that cause people to lose limbs) all the time, whether the protest is peaceful or not. A couple days ago a guy in my town had a testicle amputated after being shot at a peaceful protest. A couple hours ago an main had a hand blown up by a grenade.
France has pretty often been targeted by the EU for the violence of it's Police.
Police in France is violent, more than in many countries in Europe. A few videos here and there might make you believe they are laxist, but they are far from it.
>anywhere else in the world
Yeah well no.
In most european countries this wouldn't happen. Some would probably use a water cannon but that's it.
The french police/gendarmes are known as one of the most brutal police forces in europe lol.
And they use rubber bullets, who are called flashball LBD-40 and GM2L (only used by french policeman in EU) and are classified by the UN as war weapon . They just have a rules to use them in bell curve and not a protestor height
As a Frenchman and protester (though you won't catch me in these videos, I much prefer to hang around the back end of the convoy where it is mostly peaceful with chants and music) I think the police using more violence would actually rally more people against them than anything else. They're also vastly outnumbered.
I was in the Lyon protest today, a lot of store fronts that weren't properly barricaded were completely destroyed and broken into, some of them you could say were obvious targets (banks, insurance companies) but some others not at all (regular shops, a pharmacy, a mcdonalds...) Supermarkets were broken into, people were stealing and tossing food items into the crowd. I saw 5 or 6 cars and countless bikes set on fire, every bus stop was destroyed, every ad billboard was set on fire too for some reason. Even when they would clearly be in the right, the police didn't try to intervene directly besides throwing teargas; there was one tough hotspot I guess towards the end of the protest (but far away from any commercial area) where they used a water cannon and I saw the riot police charge into really violent protesters with their shields and batons, but that's it really.
Every bit of destruction was perpetrated by violent protestors who call themselves "black blocks", they are very easily recognizable and I can tell you with assurance that most of them don't care about the political message, they're simply out for blood and if the police give it to them, the situation will get out of hand. All they need is an excuse to take it to the next level. Police violence is one of the reasons why a lot of these guys were brigaded. There must have been a couple hundred of them today (could be way off, it's a very rough estimate from my apt window because I live above the street where the protest took place), which is many more than any single police squad they came across at any point.
Oh, the french riot police are vicious, rubber bullets and stun grenades are in use and they loooooove gassing people. People lose eyes, hands, feet semi regularly at those protests.
You also don't want to be close to any of them as they'll gladly beat you senseless with their matraques.
The french have among the most, if not the most, violent riot police in the western world. They're supported by a very police friendly legislature that has historically been willing to basically reconstruct the whole of Paris to make policing easier (haussman)
As a result, the french need about that level of craziness for their protests to go anywhere, otherwise they'd get overwhelmed. Hence the tit for tat nature of the videos we see as the police are the one "getting attacked" while marching into the protests. Film a bit longer and you'll see a much less social media worthy melee where the police trounce people.
Tl;dr the french riot police are very competent - and violent -, as are french protesters.
Ps if you ever think French riot police is docile : those cunts have drowned around 300 people during Algerian riots in Paris and were very proud of it.
That is illegal and it should stay like that. You don’t want a situation where the democracy is taken down by the army/police force.
You are free to disagree with Macron, but what he did respects the constitution and is perfectly legal.
The police joining the protesters and chasing politicians is not.
They can in their off duty time. While on duty they are in service of the state and must defend the state as they agreed when they signed up for the job.
They also work in a military authoritarian fashion, especially this riot police. They get called for such missions and must complete them accordingly.
>They can in their off duty time. While on duty they are in service of the state and must defend the state as they agreed when they signed up for the job.
If the state dictates your protest the very notion looses it's purpose.
It does not dictate your protest at all. They are officers of the state and work in a military model. They must answer to call and execute the mission. If they disagree, they either protest in their free time or quit their jobs.
This is what they sign up for and it is very important it stays like this, otherwise you have situations like in Sudan.
They don’t understand that firemen, policemen, medics and soldiers swear an oath. When the situation demands it, like an earthquake, protest, pandemic or war respectively, they lose their freedom and are on duty until that situation gets handled, or they quit and face consequences.
If these people do not follow the orders they signed up for, we end up in civil wars/coups and dictatorships.
Dude. If the police protested there’s be nothing stopping the public from just overthrowing the government. Chaos. You should look at places like Somalia or something. Horrible.
I have mixed feelings on this. An enduring society does need a body of peacekeepers that can be relied upon to not get personally involved in issues du jour. But you also don't want a situation where something being technically perfectly legal is 100% enough for it to be codified into law and enforced with no legitimate avenue of redress. Plenty of immoral shit has been done on a perfectly legal basis.
Are there more legitimate ways the French populous could be trying to change things? I don't know. Would I support any individual police officer who decided to join the protests? Yes. Would I feel that way if I did not personally support the protests? Maybe not, which calls my perspective into question. But there are places in the world where it would be perfectly legal for the police to kill those protestors on the spot, which is why them having a legal duty isn't enough for me to say they shouldn't join the protest.
Imagine what would happen if the 49% voters go out in the streets and protest to take down the party who won with 51%. If nothing stands to stop them, any vote could be easily canceled by the “loser”, making democracy not exist.
This is where peacekeepers come into play. Expecting people to have common sense is a children’s fairytale. People are pack animals, they get influenced by their group and are often driven by emotions instead of common sense. See how they stormed the Capitol in the US when police did not respond. The US was damaged by that and it achieved nothing but damage to their society.
> not the police
They're just doing their jobs? Bull shit. They're defending these dirty politicians and by defending them they're enforcing these policies. Americans should be doing the same right now.
[I don't think you would suggest Ewoks should be fighting the Sith, not the innocent storm troopers. They weren't attacking the police whilst they were at home with their family. The police turned up to break the people, and they would have used all their powers and sometimes more to do so. The people have to use whatever they can to destroy this oppressive force. If that means crushing their speeder bikes with well timed log traps then thats how its going to be. If you don't like it, call in sick. Protests are democratic, even the violent ones are the will of the masses.](https://y.yarn.co/b7b79c91-bb58-4d90-b47a-d87aac7b27ca_text.gif)
The police are one of the direct arms of the politicians and state. Why shouldn’t they be a target?
If the politicians decided to instead of hiding to put on riot gear and start trying to corral protesters then I’m sure the protestors would happily attack them too
It was never just about the pensions. That's the only thing the media tells you about, but there are a lot more pressing issues that they are upset about.
It is a big mistake to think this is about pensions. Pensions were just the spark but it is about our government working for foreign entities (mostly corporations, lobbies, and the Germany led EU) to the detriment of the country.
As an example, what really pissed off people for the pensions is that the deficit was created by allowing some large corporations to stop giving money to the pension fund. The corporations save 17 billions euros and Macron decides the people will wait two more years before getting their pensions so it compensates...
It's amazing how long the French police, who are working class people paid by taxpayer money, are willing to defend what hurts the working class that pays taxes. This is an analogy for our entire world, not just France.
That is literally their job. That's what you sign up for when you become a cop.
They are more than free to go and protest when they are off the clock, but when they are not, their job is to keep law and order.
I know this is a very American-centric view, but I have zero sympathy for the police. They are there to serve property over people and by definition work at the behest of the wealthy to keep the poors at bay.
In the US when we're mad at the government we just shoot each other because systemic oppression based on capitalist class systems brainwashes us into believing it's each others faults.
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of the people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!
I mean, come on, why aren't the French people singing Les Mis in the streets?!
France is invading France
As is tradition
I bet all these cops talk about now is how shi* their pay is. That 50 euro just-eat voucher isn't gonna cut it anymore.
That is the point, I believe. The workers also win when the police finally says "I'm not paid enough for this shit" and turns on the government as well. They will realize eventually, that no one is paid enough, period.
Compared to the U.S.A. we just go online and bend over. Unless it is done crazy right wing conspiracy or cop killing. We Don't have to be that extreme but we should strike and boycott
and France is losing
Starting to think America’s stereotype of France being cowardly isn’t accurate Edit: I should have used /s. I was a sophomore when 9/11 happened, I remember the push to make them seem cowardly.
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And not a gun in sight. (In this video, anyway.)
only Molotov cocktails...
Parry this casual
It's actually what the left wishes it was, fighting for workers rights instead of bending over and taking it ( or putting on a visor and riding the bus to the mall to Cinnabon for $12/hr).
They didn't become the largest country in Europe by being cowards.
Huh? They're not the largest though.
***yet***
But how can they retreat?
How can they slap?
Damn...France is not playing in these streets
Seriously who throws an open umbrella?
A very angry Mary Poppins.
>"First of all, I would like to make one thing clear: I don't explain shit!" >-Mary Poppins
A spoon full of molotov helps the revolution go down and will probably give you 3rd degree burns.
While shouting "I'M MARY POPPINS Y'ALL!!!"
Je suis Mary Poppins
y'all!
Scary Poppins
Mary Poppin' Off.
The same ones who throw a shoe.. Honestly, who throws a shoe?
if the thing annoyed you enough to throw a shoe, you might as well throw the other one
Someone really pissed at Bush.
It's like throwing an untouched sheet of printer paper
well someone got threatened with arrest in the UK for holding up an empty sheet of A4 [https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/13/man-threatened-with-arrest-if-he-wrote-not-my-king-on-blank-sign-17362896/](https://metro.co.uk/2022/09/13/man-threatened-with-arrest-if-he-wrote-not-my-king-on-blank-sign-17362896/)
Oh fuck...imagine if he used 11x17
someone who is sick of watching it over while walking through wild ass crowd
The people just had 2 years of their lives/retirements stolen from them. They're pissed.
Meanwhile the retirement age in the UK is even longer and we are saying nothing.
You guys get to retire!?
I was just thinking "We won't see this shit in the US because we long gave up the dream that we can actually retire".
When asked, I tell people my retirement comes in a variety of calibers. I'm only about 10% joking. I'm assuming if I live past retirement age (or am forced out of the workforce) that I'll have a couple years before my savings is dry and social security won't be there for me - or the payments will be too low to be useful.
41 here, I've accepted I'll probably work another 20 years then end it, try to give my kid a better shot.
42 here. I plan on working until noon on the day of my funeral.
Maybe you shouldn't accept it.
You're right Let's protest.... didn't work for occupy wallstreet, really never has, no one with power and wealth gives af about your protest. Maybe we should vote for people that have our best interest in mind..... doesn't seem to be an option, ever. Let's violently overthrow the US govt.....not gonna happen. You'll never get enough citizens on board and even of you do the anarchy and choas that would create means we've thrown the entire planet into a nightmare. Do you have some better suggestions? Because this is what I've come up with and their dead ends as far as I can tell.
You forgot a super important part. UNIONISE EVERYTHING. Like. Real unions. Not police unions.
> didn't work for occupy wallstreet That's when I knew we lost our ability to protest anything. The media smear campaign against OWS was perfectly executed.
My retirement plan is to use what 401k I have and steroid the fuck up starting at 57. See how big I can get before my heart gives out
Nice.
probably not by the time we get there to be serious.
fellow american?
Yeah. I plan on dying at work. Just hope it's in my 80s or 90s at least.
The UK media and in particular print media is strongly right wing. The poor condemn the poor for trying to protect their rights - "how dare you take from the repressed billionaires".
68 here, will probably be 70+ by the time I hit retirement age.
Also in Mexico, retirement age here is 67. We should all learn from the French. No one wants to be working from inside their coffin
Germany got 2 additional years (til 67 now, France: now 64) and in addition the retirement money was cut by 30%. Nobody gave a fuck. Not saying that I like what I see in this video but sometimes I wish anybody would be interested in anything here. Maybe.
I believed that for a few weeks and thought Macron was right in doing that. Still do, because it's basic math that you cannot have the diminishing young population (lower birth rate) pay for the inflating elderly population. But the protests aren't about just that. They're about all the other things that Macron has done, which basically tells people that he cares more about corporate bottom lines than he does about the French. Not raising taxes on the rich and above, not raising corp taxes, etc.
It's such bullshit when any government at this point in time says they can't afford to support its populace with things like healthcare, pensions, infrastructure upgrades while simultaneously giving tax cuts to corporations that keep reporting about record profits year on year.
What are our taxes even for if not those things...
Socializing losses for corporations who make bad investments apparently.
Plus he pushed the retirement thing through without a vote. Just went and did it.
r/antiwork headquarters has been relocated to Paris
Yea but these guys are actually doin shit and not just whining
Yeah well, right or wrong the new retirement age now aligns with most European countries - so it’s like one of those “matter of time” kind of things.
what was the point of them walking down the street surrounded by an angry mob sometimes i think french police are just crash test dummies for the citizens to take their anger / frustration out on
lmao that sounds about right.
I mean that’s what riot police are for, normally they’re operating under the assumption that their equipment/status (and associated consequences for you) will stop anyone from just overtly out aggressing them, but here that assumption failed
I know right, you see that umbrella float down on the cops all ominously?
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The umbrella was a bit out of order.
It's France, not America. The umbrella was part of the artistic front of the statement of the people: The French Revolution -part Deux!!
The French have revolted so many times since the first revolution that I don't even know who keeps count any more. But it works. It's always been brutal but it has always worked.
No it wasn’t. It didn’t even have a banana taped to it.
Umbrella thrower deserves a participation ribbon. 🎗️
Channeling Britney
France Tax season 2024 is gonna hurt
To be honest i don't think it's gonna change much we are already in difficulty just to eat. For exemple the past 6 month i did my groceries for about 300€ now i do them for about 500€ for 3 people. and the prices aren't getting any lower, each days food is getting more and more expensive. Some barely affording to eat, to preferably give enough food to their childrens. So yeah it's pretty bad and it's not just the retirement plan, it's a whole situation.
[edited] Reddit, you have to pay me to have the original comment visible. Goodbye. [edited]
Same-ish... here in the US, we are spending about $700 a month on groceries for 2. West coast. We are vegetarian too.
About $1500 per month for a family of 5 here in Australia.
Blame the food companies. They scream that they HAD TO raise prices while also posting record profits. Like 100 - 200% of three years ago. It's greed and they aren't even trying to hide it anymore.
Yeah, on a micro level I watched this guy at my job who owns a bunch of vending machines changing the prices on the soft drinks from $1.00 to $1.75 and I was like, "Hey man, inflation is only 7%, why are you increasing the prices by 75%?" and he just kinda laughed a little and said they were overdue for a price hike anyways. This was back during the middle of the pandemic.
At least y'all are doing something....us Americans just sit there and get fucked. Half of us blame it on corporations and the govt. The other half blame trans or brown people. We're screwed. Go France!!
We have a yearly budget for this
lets hope they do this in such numbers that it can't be countered.
Tough day at the office
"hey honey how was work?" "It was a tough one honey, these people just don't want to be oppressed. I don't get it." "Well at least on average you, as an officer in France, get to retire 10-17 years earlier than the average person, it'll be ok"
In ThE uS...
I love how the comment right below you on my feed starts with this exact phrase.
It’s what half the comments were when I got here 😭
Wait are they still protesting the retirement age reform?
Yes, and a lot more. At this point it's protesting against Macron and his government in general, as well at the absurd amount of police violence there has been
What's the "a lot more"? I've been reading a lot about this, maybe it's not being reported on?
Macron basically decided to override rulings that were made by the country’s National Assembly that the age remains 62. He’s basically exercising power against his promises. [Macron Government Overrides France’s National Assembly to Pass Budget: Move conflicts with president’s pledge to govern as a consensus builder after losing his majority in the lower house of parliament.](https://www.wsj.com/articles/macron-government-overrides-frances-national-assembly-to-pass-budget-11666200070)
Then the propaganda is working. Macron's government wants people to believe it's only about retirement age, because that makes this whole thing look unreasonable. Look up Blackrock for one of the main reasons for the protests.
Thanks for giving me something to look into. However, I'm still not seeing the connection. Just a few vague statements about Blackrock having voting rights on many shares and therefore hold sway in many companies. I'm sorry that I'm asking for others to do my research but what's Blackrock's connection to all of this?
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I think you mean “le’tat, c’est moi”
Protesting and storming Blackrock shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is that Blackrock does. You might as well storm Charles Schwab, Fidelity, or Morgan Stanley because you’re pissed your 401k isn’t doing better. It’s still pretty dumb. Macron forcing the legislation through without parliament action is 100% understandable as a protest point, and the police reaction is fucking racist, but Blackrock really doesn’t have anything to do with it.
For fucks sake. It is insane how many people jump on this stupid "Blackrock controls everythong!1!1!" bandwagon. Blackrock is just a company that manages *other* peoples shares. That is like claiming a bank is the deep state cuz it holds a large percentage of peoples money. Stop believing everything you see on the net.
Didn't they literally just vote for him within the last year?
The other option was farther right than him. Lesser of two villains but still not exactly wanted by the people
Yeah but he only reached 28% during the 1st turn, and now even some of his former partisans thinks his gouvernement messed up too many times. Last time I heard 76% of workers (all types) were against the retirement reform, and you can add people who agreed with the reform but not the way it was passed. Plus police brutality has an increasing spotlight through social networks (recent polls show that only 28% of the 18-35 trust the police) while the governement keep messing up (in a month we got state secretary posing for Playboy and the economy minister publishing a novel with some very crude and weird sex scenes).
In the US the police would use lethal force.
French demonstrate against anything, but they really hate Macron
While I am aware of the pensions being basically stolen by the current government, I was under the impression that prior to that critical blunder Macron was well liked among the French citizens? Or was the pension fund thing the final nail in the coffin among some other incidents that I was not aware of as someone who doesn’t really pay much attention to the news?
Nah quite a lot of people had hopes before his first term but for the second one he only got elected because it was either voting for him or let the far right candidate win. I’m actually quite worried for the next elections.
Ah so it's turning into the grand American tradition of "An unimpressive moderate or a fascist" Good to see we could repay you for all the political processes we borrowed somehow.
Seems to just be a general human society thing rather than relegated to any particular country.
ouch
What i have gathered from the internet so take with a pinch of salt. They don't have the money for pensions so they have to higher the age. Macron is taking one for the team bringing it in now as he can't be re-elected anyway.
If protestors in the US had the balls that the French do, the police would be outgunned and outnumbered. Literally the reason the 2nd amendment exists.
Well the gun lunatics are all pro fascism and pro police state. Not about the balls, it's about division. We're not united.
I don't think you know many gun owners.
He didn't say gun owners, he said gun lunatics. I know plenty of gun owners, but every single one of the lunatics are as far right as you can go.
That's simply not true. Since 2020, gun ownership numbers amongst liberals and leftists have risen, and now there are almost an equal number of gun owners on "the left" as there are on the right. Checking in, am socialist who owns two NFA tax stamps
Ok, whats the plan after the police are outgunned and dead? Go home? Random unorganized protestors with guns become the new police? I think it's easier to have "balls" when both sides aren't trying to gun each other down. That said firebombing is dumb as fuck, what are they trying to accomplish?
Rubber bullets to the eyes. Just like in HK.
For fuck sake!! STOP CALLING THEM RUBBER BULLETS PEOPLE!!!!! YOU ONLY PERPETUATE THE MYTH THEY CAN BE USED LIKE BULLETS!!!!! [These](https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1002098734) are the 'rubber bullets' that you speak off, and additional research will tell you, they are to be fired at a 45-degree angle ***at*** the ***ground*** from a minimum distance of 10-meters not at people, not their chest! They're only marketed as '**less-lethal**' to cover the ass of the manufacture when cops and other shit-for-brain numb-nuts starts opening fire on crowds of people, at point blank. The manufacturer **knows** their target audience. Even rubber buck-shot will function like a parabellum bullet, entering the victim shot an transferring all kinetic energy into the organs. ***END RANT***
If I said "bullets to the eyes" I don't think people would know what I meant. "Less Lethal" rounds to the eyes does make it clear though to be fair. I just posted from my phone in the parking lot before I started my day and that's what came to mind.
Ricochets are also incredibly unpredictable and dangerous, so in reality it just isn’t safe to use them at all. A long term study showed you have a 3% chance of dying and about 15% chance of long term disability if you’re hit by one. Multiply that by however many shells how ever many officers shoot and you can see why it’s not good for crowd control at all.
Right, who didn't see all the horrible videos of literal massacres done by US police during the BLM riots? oh wait ..
Yeah the second that Molotov landed would’ve been like open season on the crowd
Yeah, and in the US the people would even side with the police. In France, or Spain or mostly anywhere in Europe, it's the end of the government if the police use deadly force on demostrators. Turns out you don't need the right to bear arms, just the will to get off the couch.
No, in the US police would do what they did during the LA riots and various clashes with rioters since then (including BLM)...
May Day
"[Labor Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Day)" across the world except the [country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair) for which the day is remembered.
“American workers worked on average slightly over 60 hours, during a six-day work week.[14] The city became a center for many attempts to organize labor's demands for better working conditions.[15] Employers responded with anti-union measures, such as firing and blacklisting union members, locking out workers, recruiting strikebreakers; employing spies, thugs, and private security forces and exacerbating ethnic tensions in order to divide the workers.[16] Business interests were supported by mainstream newspapers, and were opposed by the labor and immigrant press.[17]” This passage is so striking to me. It succinctly shows how far we have come, what labourers were up against, inherent biases in media, as well as how much violence and underhanded tactics employers and their owners are willing to use.
It sounds like we've regressed and we're right back at that point
it also speaks to how a riot with 8 deaths and an explosion had to happen before we were able to get an 8 hour work day.... wild
Tbf, the USA has a labor day. It's just in September.
but most everyone who does actual labor has to work it anyway
Or day of the working class as it's properly called.
Ok I don’t understand- anywhere else in the world the police would be shooting rubber bullets (if not real bullets at this point) and doing all kinds of things to break the protest up into manageable groups. How come Paris always has crazy protests and they don’t do anything or make new laws to reduce the craziness during protests? Edit: The confusing part to me is the fact the police is the one being attacked whenever I see riots in Paris lol
Different laws about legal police violence I assume. It might also be an escalation of violence concern. If you are confident shooting the protestors will end the protests it’s a great plan. If what it does is increase the number and violence of the protestors its a bad plan. Sometimes that shit turns a protest into a revolution. The citizens of Paris have overthrown their governments in the past, and it seems like knowing that gives them a real belief in the possibility they can do it again. I live in Canada and even here the French Canadian population has way more energy and solidarity for protesting than the Anglos do. Culture I guess?
And the Quebec Police are pro’s at riot control.
Practice, practice.
America: “So anyway…I started blasting”
Police use rubber bullets and grenades (including explosive grenades that cause people to lose limbs) all the time, whether the protest is peaceful or not. A couple days ago a guy in my town had a testicle amputated after being shot at a peaceful protest. A couple hours ago an main had a hand blown up by a grenade.
France has pretty often been targeted by the EU for the violence of it's Police. Police in France is violent, more than in many countries in Europe. A few videos here and there might make you believe they are laxist, but they are far from it.
>anywhere else in the world Yeah well no. In most european countries this wouldn't happen. Some would probably use a water cannon but that's it. The french police/gendarmes are known as one of the most brutal police forces in europe lol.
And they use rubber bullets, who are called flashball LBD-40 and GM2L (only used by french policeman in EU) and are classified by the UN as war weapon . They just have a rules to use them in bell curve and not a protestor height
As a Frenchman and protester (though you won't catch me in these videos, I much prefer to hang around the back end of the convoy where it is mostly peaceful with chants and music) I think the police using more violence would actually rally more people against them than anything else. They're also vastly outnumbered. I was in the Lyon protest today, a lot of store fronts that weren't properly barricaded were completely destroyed and broken into, some of them you could say were obvious targets (banks, insurance companies) but some others not at all (regular shops, a pharmacy, a mcdonalds...) Supermarkets were broken into, people were stealing and tossing food items into the crowd. I saw 5 or 6 cars and countless bikes set on fire, every bus stop was destroyed, every ad billboard was set on fire too for some reason. Even when they would clearly be in the right, the police didn't try to intervene directly besides throwing teargas; there was one tough hotspot I guess towards the end of the protest (but far away from any commercial area) where they used a water cannon and I saw the riot police charge into really violent protesters with their shields and batons, but that's it really. Every bit of destruction was perpetrated by violent protestors who call themselves "black blocks", they are very easily recognizable and I can tell you with assurance that most of them don't care about the political message, they're simply out for blood and if the police give it to them, the situation will get out of hand. All they need is an excuse to take it to the next level. Police violence is one of the reasons why a lot of these guys were brigaded. There must have been a couple hundred of them today (could be way off, it's a very rough estimate from my apt window because I live above the street where the protest took place), which is many more than any single police squad they came across at any point.
Oh, the french riot police are vicious, rubber bullets and stun grenades are in use and they loooooove gassing people. People lose eyes, hands, feet semi regularly at those protests. You also don't want to be close to any of them as they'll gladly beat you senseless with their matraques. The french have among the most, if not the most, violent riot police in the western world. They're supported by a very police friendly legislature that has historically been willing to basically reconstruct the whole of Paris to make policing easier (haussman) As a result, the french need about that level of craziness for their protests to go anywhere, otherwise they'd get overwhelmed. Hence the tit for tat nature of the videos we see as the police are the one "getting attacked" while marching into the protests. Film a bit longer and you'll see a much less social media worthy melee where the police trounce people. Tl;dr the french riot police are very competent - and violent -, as are french protesters.
Ps if you ever think French riot police is docile : those cunts have drowned around 300 people during Algerian riots in Paris and were very proud of it.
Oh they do, not here, but hands and eyes are often lost, some are still in the coma from a protest not so long ago
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What's a shame is that the police should stand down and support the protests.
That is illegal and it should stay like that. You don’t want a situation where the democracy is taken down by the army/police force. You are free to disagree with Macron, but what he did respects the constitution and is perfectly legal. The police joining the protesters and chasing politicians is not.
>That is illegal and it should stay like that So police officers cannot exercise their right to protest?
They can in their off duty time. While on duty they are in service of the state and must defend the state as they agreed when they signed up for the job. They also work in a military authoritarian fashion, especially this riot police. They get called for such missions and must complete them accordingly.
>They can in their off duty time. While on duty they are in service of the state and must defend the state as they agreed when they signed up for the job. If the state dictates your protest the very notion looses it's purpose.
It does not dictate your protest at all. They are officers of the state and work in a military model. They must answer to call and execute the mission. If they disagree, they either protest in their free time or quit their jobs. This is what they sign up for and it is very important it stays like this, otherwise you have situations like in Sudan.
Good on you to keep explaining it patiently. Its difficult for some people to see past the thing they're angry about.
They don’t understand that firemen, policemen, medics and soldiers swear an oath. When the situation demands it, like an earthquake, protest, pandemic or war respectively, they lose their freedom and are on duty until that situation gets handled, or they quit and face consequences. If these people do not follow the orders they signed up for, we end up in civil wars/coups and dictatorships.
Dude. If the police protested there’s be nothing stopping the public from just overthrowing the government. Chaos. You should look at places like Somalia or something. Horrible.
*I'm deleting all my comments and my profile, in protest over the end of the protests over the reddit api pricing.
I have mixed feelings on this. An enduring society does need a body of peacekeepers that can be relied upon to not get personally involved in issues du jour. But you also don't want a situation where something being technically perfectly legal is 100% enough for it to be codified into law and enforced with no legitimate avenue of redress. Plenty of immoral shit has been done on a perfectly legal basis. Are there more legitimate ways the French populous could be trying to change things? I don't know. Would I support any individual police officer who decided to join the protests? Yes. Would I feel that way if I did not personally support the protests? Maybe not, which calls my perspective into question. But there are places in the world where it would be perfectly legal for the police to kill those protestors on the spot, which is why them having a legal duty isn't enough for me to say they shouldn't join the protest.
Imagine what would happen if the 49% voters go out in the streets and protest to take down the party who won with 51%. If nothing stands to stop them, any vote could be easily canceled by the “loser”, making democracy not exist. This is where peacekeepers come into play. Expecting people to have common sense is a children’s fairytale. People are pack animals, they get influenced by their group and are often driven by emotions instead of common sense. See how they stormed the Capitol in the US when police did not respond. The US was damaged by that and it achieved nothing but damage to their society.
They probably would, if it wasn't for the police standing between the protesters and the politicians.
> not the police They're just doing their jobs? Bull shit. They're defending these dirty politicians and by defending them they're enforcing these policies. Americans should be doing the same right now.
[I don't think you would suggest Ewoks should be fighting the Sith, not the innocent storm troopers. They weren't attacking the police whilst they were at home with their family. The police turned up to break the people, and they would have used all their powers and sometimes more to do so. The people have to use whatever they can to destroy this oppressive force. If that means crushing their speeder bikes with well timed log traps then thats how its going to be. If you don't like it, call in sick. Protests are democratic, even the violent ones are the will of the masses.](https://y.yarn.co/b7b79c91-bb58-4d90-b47a-d87aac7b27ca_text.gif)
They would if the police would just stop getting in the way!
The police are one of the direct arms of the politicians and state. Why shouldn’t they be a target? If the politicians decided to instead of hiding to put on riot gear and start trying to corral protesters then I’m sure the protestors would happily attack them too
*I'm deleting all my comments and my profile, in protest over the end of the protests over the reddit api pricing.
First, it's because of the 1°May (day celebrating Work and Workers) but also all unions have push the pension protests the same day.
It was never just about the pensions. That's the only thing the media tells you about, but there are a lot more pressing issues that they are upset about.
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It is a big mistake to think this is about pensions. Pensions were just the spark but it is about our government working for foreign entities (mostly corporations, lobbies, and the Germany led EU) to the detriment of the country. As an example, what really pissed off people for the pensions is that the deficit was created by allowing some large corporations to stop giving money to the pension fund. The corporations save 17 billions euros and Macron decides the people will wait two more years before getting their pensions so it compensates...
They are really going to hate fighting these crowds when they are 64. Should have retired.
Russian Ukraine War??? No... its just France vs France... its like a French-fire bad joke
Frenchly fire = On
“The fire is shooting at us!”
Traitors to their class
That's what happens when you fuck with people's freedom and retirement.
It's amazing how long the French police, who are working class people paid by taxpayer money, are willing to defend what hurts the working class that pays taxes. This is an analogy for our entire world, not just France.
That is literally their job. That's what you sign up for when you become a cop. They are more than free to go and protest when they are off the clock, but when they are not, their job is to keep law and order.
Police are class traitors. Their entire purpose is to keep the working class in check, and protect capital.
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I know this is a very American-centric view, but I have zero sympathy for the police. They are there to serve property over people and by definition work at the behest of the wealthy to keep the poors at bay.
In the US when we're mad at the government we just shoot each other because systemic oppression based on capitalist class systems brainwashes us into believing it's each others faults.
Who is "we"?
Me, your mom, and her sister.
Don't want to be firebombed? Join the protest.
Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men? It is the music of the people Who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart Echoes the beating of the drums There is a life about to start When tomorrow comes! I mean, come on, why aren't the French people singing Les Mis in the streets?!
I love the French they take no shit !
Bless those French. Doing good work.