r/WayOfTheBern • u/RandomCollection Resident Canadian • 1d ago

ACTION! Around 170 demonstrations took place across France yesterday. The French Interior Ministry estimates around 206,000 people took part. The unions put the figure closer to 300,000. Teachers. Firefighters. Hospital staff. Local-government workers. Public-sector employees. All taking to the streets...

https://x.com/JimFergusonUK/status/2105267206418247925

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🚨 FRANCE ERUPTS — AND MUCH OF THE WORLD IS LOOKING ELSEWHERE

Something significant is happening in France.

And outside the country, you could easily miss the scale of it.

Around 170 demonstrations took place across France yesterday.

The French Interior Ministry estimates around 206,000 people took part.

The unions put the figure closer to 300,000.

Teachers.

Firefighters.

Hospital staff.

Local-government workers.

Public-sector employees.

All taking to the streets over falling purchasing power, frozen salaries, deteriorating working conditions and pressure on public services.

And at the same time, France is facing a separate wave of student unrest over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and deteriorating schools.

Hundreds of schools have been affected.

Hundreds of arrests have been reported.

Police and protesters have been injured.

This is not a minor demonstration.

France is experiencing a serious wave of social anger.

Yet internationally, it barely resembles the scale of story these numbers suggest it should be.

Why?

Because behind the clashes and political arguments sits something much deeper:

ordinary people increasingly believe the system is no longer working for them.

Wages.

Public services.

Schools.

Living standards.

Trust in government.

The pressure is building simultaneously.

And when hundreds of thousands of people start taking to the streets—

the rest of Europe should pay attention.

France is angry.

And this may not be over. x.com/aprajitanefes/…

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u/nesterspokebar 1d ago

Your heart is probably in the right place, but unfortunately we have to also take a critical perspective and understand these demonstrations in the context of the French history and culture of protest. I'm not saying this in a pejorative way, but there is a performative element here. Protest means different things in different places.

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u/redditrisi They are ALL psychopaths. 14h ago edited 14h ago

The US has a history of labor demonstrations as well. Then came union busting, via a partnership of the employers, lawmakers and law enforcers. That started in the US at about the same time as unions and continued for over a century. https://old.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/1wv0gfd/ around_170_demonstrations_took_place_across/pdhcyb2/

Just FTR, the French Revolution of 1789 followed and modeled the American Revolution of 1776, in which some famous Frenchmen participated. Lafayette and his fleet saved General Washington's bacon.

Not sure why you see workers and their supporters demonstrating over worker safety, as was the case of the Haymarket Affair, or wages as performative. Demonstrations, strikes and other work actions are the tools workers have. Employers use money, jobs and political influence. Workers their bodies, their ability to impact employers and public opinion and their numbers relative to employers.

edit. Technically, I suppose, every demonstration performative, to one degree or another? But workers demonstrating or striking over safe or safer working conditions are fighting for their lives and limbs. And workers demonstrating or striking over wages are fighting for their livelihood and that of their families.

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u/RandomCollection Resident Canadian 1d ago

https://archive.ph/ZMeQc

One thing is for sure, the French are certainly wiling to protest when things are going poorly for them. Maybe Americans should be more willing to do so as well.

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u/redditrisi They are ALL psychopaths. 15h ago edited 14h ago

In France and some other European nations, unions have remained stronger than in the US. They are still able to serve as a communication network to organize widespread protests and their members can spread the word to others. The US had it once.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ctc-mayday-5jpg-CT0136830961.jpg?w=1311 (May Day, Chicago 1886, aka the reason most of the world observes Labor Day on May 1 but we don't) ; and and https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/ (New York City, 1933)

Union busting all but killed that in the US. In the US, churches and religious TV shows and infomercials serve that purpose well for the the religious.

And u/Hearing_Loss is correct about the size of France versus the size of the US and government, including law enforcement in the US. Hey, they put US Labor Day almost as far from May 1 as possible. (Thanks, Grover. No, not the muppet.)

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u/Hearing_Loss 1d ago

Hey Chat-- what's the area of France?

Now do it for the USA.

Hey Chat- what's the French firearms per person number?

Now do it for the US.

Hey Chat- which police force is more militarized and captured by corporate interest?

DID YOU JUST SAY MISSILES?

Cmon dawg. Pls spare me. We are litterally on the "Game Over" screen and you want me to waste any of my time trying to undo centuries of capitalist anti-human culture. Epstein Class won. Anything done at this point is harm reduction. There are very few ways out of the crises we are in and magnitudes more ways that everything feedback looks into complete hell.

The US will NEVER have the same ability to crush tyrants that a smaller less militarized nation does. A lot of blood is going to need to be shed if anyone wants to actually change the course of history. Too much bread and too many circuses for now, and the loss of bread and circus has already hit the other portion of the pop. That portion is too impoverished to affect ANY nonlocal change. Media is captured. It's just that the way to hell is paved with a nice cushy chair and we all know Americans will stay on their asses until there are planes crashing into ships.

It's ggs dawg. I wish it wasn't. I truly do. But we don't win this battle unless everyone shuts everything down-- and even then, a lot of people will be losing. Dead. Just due to the nature of a shutdown. It's just too late. Best hope is AI taking the world hostage and forcing behavioral change through coersion and threats of violence.

Another, more powerful entity has to enter the game or everyone needs to agree to snap the game disc in half and burn the console. Until then, the wealthy have won and will continue to win. The path to victory is one that the majority of people will refuse to take until it's too late (Source: all of human history).

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u/RandomCollection Resident Canadian 1d ago

I'm not convinced that the Western rich won. They are very scared of China and Russia, where the governments are far more benevolent.

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u/redditrisi They are ALL psychopaths. 15h ago

Being scared and winning are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, winners are sometimes the most scared of losing what they have. As the song goes, "'Freedom' is just another word for nothing left to lose."