The People's Republic of France

I know my American friends are sometimes having a hard time believing me when I talk about the state of France. I know French and Americans, in general, think I exaggerate when I say France is heading toward a USSR type of country, socialist to the core, the kind of socialism that left a mark in history in numbers of deads. I also know that the hard left is not a French phenomenon. I know America, too, is a target. Yet, France is way ahead in that category.

The situation has been deteriorating more quickly in the last few years, even in the last couple of months. The cult of everything-for-free has devastated the mentalities of most French people. The "State" is to give - sorry... "owe you" a free education, free health care, Christmas benefits if you're jobless, etc. The list goes on and on.

More frightening is the mentality that those who own something must give it to those who do not own this thing they need or simply envy. The reasoning is not based on how to legally and in a just way obtain it (like finding a job, earning a living - it's just an idea, you know) but how to reach a so-called fair "wealth redistribution". A home. A life. As I once heard a railway worker yell: "let's take the wealth where it is! Place Vendôme [famous for its luxury stores and the Ritz hotel] for example".

Below is a video shot on October 4, 2005, during one of France's notorious strikes. The man & woman you can hear were talking about les patrons, the evil boss. What they say: "We own everything. They own nothing. Everything they have is stolen. Let's share the wealth and the working hours or else, it is going to blow up!"

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This weekend, something surreal yet very real happened in Paris. A little less than two hundred people, who described themselves as "unemployed, people in a precarious condition or intermittents [basically, French, part-time, show-biz workers who benefit from a very (too) generous unemployment insurance enabling them to get a year's worth of their unemployment-insurance benefits for just a couple of months actually worked]", and apparently illegal immigrants, rushed at a luxury grocery store on the Left Bank (Bobo Land) of Paris to claim "a couple of provisions to spend a normal New Year's Eve". And they obtained them. Well almost, apparently:

About a hundred unemployed or in precarious situation people and intermittents du spectacle gathered on Saturday [Dec. 30, 2005] in front of the store in Paris.

They asked that the "promise" to give them "provisions to celebrate New Year's Eve" be "kept", claimed the Coordination of intermittents and people in a precarious situation in the Parisian region.

I insist the grocery in question, La Grande Epicerie de Paris, which is part of department store Le Bon Marché (owned by LVMH), is a luxury grocery, kind of similar to Zabar's in NYC. It is no Wal-Mart.

According to the person in charge of the coordination: "We tried to get in touch with the manager... but policemen attacked us and we had to flee."

Yeah, that's what happens when you loot.

About a hundred members of different organizations (...) had invaded this same store on Friday night "in order to obtain the redistribution of the products on the shelves."

"We had obtained to be able to get out with fifteen trolleys, but the management agreed with the police forces who questioned us and confiscated the goods", said the person in charge of the coordination.

Well, maybe the policemen just wanted to celebrate New Year's Eve, too. Daring to call the kettle black?

On Saturday, I had heard about the looters' action the previous day and was horrified at the thought that the store could have possibly agreed to let them steal any amount of goods. If this is true, there is no need to explain the consequences such an act could and will have. Imagine the hundreds of thousands of people in France who think it fair that "the boss pay" or "the rich pay" or "those who have money must share it". Not to mention that it is simply a looting, but this consideration isn't that important in 2006 France. Remember "everything they have is stolen".

Anyway, I looked for information about this piece of news and found out that the very same day (Saturday, Dec. 31), they were going to gather again in front of the Bon Marché.

What I saw is no more than 40-50 young adults, what I would call bobos, members of the limousine left, most of them not dressed like people who need to loot to survive. Below are a couple of pictures. They were also asking for the liberation of one illegal immigrant who had been arrested the day before with his/her comrade-looters.

Scraping the MEDEF, drawing precarity as the winning number

Give us fictitious jobs [sic!] and free accomodation [that goes with the job] - Free [understand that you don't have to pay for]

The MEDEF is playing with fire, burn its wings

Posted by Carine at January 2, 2006 05:21 PM