Last week the French youth joining in the strikes and demonstrations against the government's efforts to raise the retirement age were chanting:
"We came to demonstrate
And Sarkozy will leave
And the bosses will retreat
It will change our lives
In public, in private
All together we'll win. "
An estimated 3 million were out and the strikes appear to be escalating. It's not easy understanding what is going on given the highly censored US mass media, the most undemocratic in the so-called western democracies.
Sorry we don't have a written accoint from folks on the ground over there but there's some decent acounts here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11563423
and in French, here:
http://www.humanite.fr/13_10_2010-mobilisation-pour-les-retraites-les-compte-rendus-et-les-photos-de-nos-correspondants-455
Some pics here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/oct/18/france-protest#/?picture=367789338&index=1
The movement has taken a bit of a different turn to that offered by US Union leaders who are calling for workers to vote for Democrats in order to save our futures. They are coupling this with some "direct action" though, like wearing pink after work to protest layoffs and e mailing Obama
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