Guest columnist: Vive la greve

The strikes, marches, fuel shortages and scattered riots of the past weeks in France seem to be cooling down.

Though I’ve been living in Paris during all this activity, I have barely felt the effects of protests. Yes, the garbage in Marseille was disgusting. Yes, I had some classes cancelled on strike days. But thanks to guaranteed minimum service on public transportation, I could still go about my business.

Though unions brought out millions to demonstrate, they lack either the power or the will to cripple the country as in the past.

The issue at hand is retirement reform. Nicolas Sarkozy’s unpopular administration, seen as too American and pandering to the right, proposed a bill that would raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 years. The measure has now passed the legislature, and the unions seem to have more or less conceded.

For an American, the issue at hand might seem trivial: why so much bother about two years? After all, the French enjoy some of the most generous labor standards in the world: a 35 hour work week, six weeks of vacation per year and a relatively low retirement age.

The French see things differently: they view their protections as civilized and the triumph of their republic. And what the French lack in quantity, they make up in quality: their productivity is one of the highest in Europe.

What interests me, however, is not so much the details of domestic policy issues in France, but the lesson in all this for American students.

Despite the widespread mobilization for Obama in 2008, cynics still accuse our generation of apathy. The common wisdom goes that we are a “Me” generation and can’t stop texting long enough to think about activism. But as we search for something to fight for and the way to go about it, we might consider: are the French a good model for activism in the twenty-first century?

Historically, students have always made up the most vigorous segment of French demonstrators. The legendary revolts of 1968 still inspire legions of students to take to the streets at the least valid excuse.

In the particular case of the past month, high school students marching for pensions almost constitutes a proof by irony that young people are just getting swept up in the spirit of rebellion.

In the overheated climate which led Jon Stewart to call for a little sanity, we must remember that activism can never be for its own sake. Unchecked enthusiasm without a clear objective can be destructive.

There are times to take to the streets. With a goal in mind, exercising the right to assemble peaceably is still the most active and powerful tools of the people to change our society. And at those times, I hope we can steal a page from the French manual.
But the recent events in France, where fighting a reasonable law with incendiary activism still failed, should teach us to pick our battles.


John Brown is a junior majoring in mathematics and English.