The French protest in the streets

The French do not complain quietly when their government does not satisfy them or follow on its promises. They may not become as dangerous in their protests a they did during the revolution times but they can and do make life difficult for their politicians. And how they demonstrate their anger? By marches and protests which can go for the dangerous ones of 1968 to the quieter ones but nevertheless quite disruptive ones of our days. Street protest and strikes are their weapon and today, the last day of winter, the French have used their weapon again to show this has been a winter of discontentment. France is showing Sarkozy, their president, that he has to pay attention, that people are worried about losing their jobs, and he must protect workers from the economic crisis. So no, this is not going to turn into something like the revolt of 68 but it has an unprecedented twist to it. Generally there is the public sector -teachers, transport workers and hospital staff- who strike, today workers from the private sector, from banks, supermarkets and even multinationals have join ranks with them in fear of the dreaded unemployment which, as in many countries around the world is rising at a fast rate. But is precisely this fear of losing their jobs which will avoid that the strike becomes a revolt. Tomorrow things might return to normality.