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France hit by massive grassroots uprising: Commentator

Saturday, 21 May 2016 4:50 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 21 May 2016 4:50 AM ]

French riot police officers arrest a man on the sidelines of a demonstration to protest against the government’s labor reform in Paris on May 19, 2016. ©AFP

Press TV has conducted an interview with Gearoid O Colmain, a political analyst and journalist from Paris, and Sean O'Grady, a finance editor with The Independent from London, to discuss the nationwide demonstrations in France against the government’s controversial labor reforms.

Colmain says the protests against labor reforms are predictable “massive grassroots uprising” providing people with the opportunity to show their anger against the government-proposed reforms.

The uprising is “against deeply undemocratic measures, which will destroy social security and destroy the sense of job security,” says the analyst.

He says the labor unions in France are well organized in their efforts to defend the rights of the worker class; but there is still a lack of coordinated leadership among them and they are not active enough.

Colmain refers to a threat by French unions to stage strikes during this summer’s Euro 2016 games, saying the measure could prove effective, but there are concerns that the French government could resort to force under such circumstances.

Pointing to the police brutality toward protesters in France, he says there have been numerous occasions of police use of force against workers, but they have been rarely reported by media over the past years.

He further refers to the history of workers’ protests in France, saying that there was a major strike in France in 1947, which was crushed by the Socialists who, in collaboration with the US spy agency CIA, tried to break up the Labor movement.

O’Grady, for his part, highlights President Francois Hollande’s incredible unpopularity in France, saying this makes Hollande even more determined to go ahead with the reforms as he may feel he has nothing to lose.

He says the fundamental problem facing the French economy is unemployment, which is affecting the youth population, specially the children of migrants, who came to France in quest of a better life.

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