I know what you are all thinking: 2 blogs in one day! That's crazy! Nobody is going to take that much time to read Courtney Burnside's ramblings! Yeah yeah. Oh well, I've been inspired, I'm going to write.
So the title of this blog is a song from The Newsies in case you are not enough of a Disney fanatic to catch the reference. The Newsies is a movie about the paperboy strike of 1899. The paperboys are getting cheated out of wages and they go on strike, and sing a lot about it. I love that movie.
Anyways, that was my frame of reference for strikes. Strikes are full of passion, standing up against the unjust, fighting for what you believe! Such a romantic idea. But now that I am in the country that strikes as a national hobby I've been changing my mindset. Here is a little background information on the situation here in France: By 2050 there will be 2 retired people for every 1 working person in France. That is not a good statistic at all because the working people's taxes are paying the retired people's salaries, and 1 working person cannot support 2 retired people. The retiring age here in France is 60 years old. President Sarkozy has proposed changing it to 62 in order to avoid a serious problem in the coming years. And the nation has responded with 4,5,6 I've lost count, nation-wide strikes. When I say nation-wide I mean that the banks, the post offices, trains, planes, buses, schools and more are shut down or delayed. It is getting really irritating.
I see nothing wrong with letting the government know how you feel about something, but it is already a law, and nothing is going to change. This is a serious issue, and there aren't many other options. People are not really being treated unfairly, this is just the way it has to be. The Communist Party who has been leading most the strikes and rallies has not even proposed an alternative solution.
The concept of striking is overused here in France. They are so common that there are a set of striking rules. The majority of strikes happen on Tuesdays or Thursdays and you must let your employer know in advance if you are going to strike. For example, there is going to be ANOTHER strike Oct. 23rd. There are signs up the day before at the bus stops predicting delays and cancellations, and everyone just sighs and tries to find another way to school. If they want to really make an impact, they cannot go on strike over everything that makes them unhappy, because nobody even pays attention to the strikes anymore. The strikes really only irritate the common citizen who is trying to take the bus to work, or wants his mail to go through on time. Strikes in the US have so much more meaning because they are a last resort. The people here need to decide what is important enough to demand attention for the government. Then they can go on strike and make the strike big and drastic, but they can't do that for everything.
Finally, the student strikes. I looked out the window of my classroom today to see the entrance to the high school across the street blocked of with a huge stack of DUMPSTERS. There were a bunch of kids sitting outside by this mountain of plastic hanging out. Our teacher explained to us that the STUDENTS were on strike, because of the retirement age. Whatever. I don't believe that for a second. They wanted to be dramatic, like their parents, and go on strike. They wanted to attract attention, they wanted the day off school. I looked at that pile of dumpsters and thought "that would never fly in the USA." I feel that if the students want to act like adults, they better have adult reasons. They way it is because of retirement age, but I don't think they have a clue what they are doing. They don't understand the meaning of their actions.
This being said, I've only ever heard French people complain about the strikes. Nobody seems to like them, yet they continue to go on. It is a weird paradox, it is so much a part of French life and culture that it is accepted, but I can't acceptt it. I may just be a 19 year old college kid, but I think that these strikes have really gone far enough. I hope they end soon. This whole thing really killed my romantic ideas about injustice and striking, I'll never look at The Newsies the same again.
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