Sarkozy struggles to contain worker unrest

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

The Guardian, Thursday February 21 2008

The French government is working to contain a wave of factory strikes by
private-sector workers not normally known for taking to the barricades,
including ice-cream makers, supermarket staff, hairdressers and L'Oréal
employees.
Factory staff have taken increasingly hardline measures, with some holding
their managers hostage for days over plant closures and job cuts.
This week the tyre giant Michelin continued talks over the closure of a plant
in Toul, eastern France, after a government-appointed mediator secured the
release of two managers whom workers had locked in a room for three days. It
follows an incident last month when workers outraged at planned job cuts at the
Miko ice-cream factory in Saint-Dizier locked up their British manager, Prakash
Patel.
This week, staff at a Ford plant near Bordeaux blockaded their factory and
L'Oréal cosmetics staff took to the streets under the banner "because we're
worth it", asking for pay rises after their company's good financial results.
Unions from plants making products including skis, glass and steel also raised
the spectre of job cuts and closures. One logistics firm in the Landes caused
controversy yesterday by offering staff €1,000 (£756) if they promised not
to strike. Around half accepted, but unions denounced the sweeteners as
anti-democratic.
The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who plunged to a new low in the polls
yesterday, will today travel to Pas de Calais to address workers from France's
north-eastern rust belt over the decline of the industrial heartlands.
He is trying to limit the damage of images of burning braziers and barricades
in the run-up to next month's local elections. The employment minister, Xavier
Bertrand, promised that he understood workers' fears, saying "a France without
industry" was not the way to build a future for French children.
Since 2001, more jobs have been lost than created in French industry, with more
than 500,000 posts scrapped. But although other parts of the private sector
have seen a rise in job growth, workers remain disgruntled.
Targeted industrial action has spiralled as workers including hairdressers,
taxi drivers and printers have downed tools over working practices, low
salaries and a lack of the "spending power", which Sarkozy promised to boost.
The percentage of a low-paid worker's income taken up by necessities such as
food and bills increased from 50% to 75% between 2001 and 2006.
Researchers noted that private-sector workers in areas that did not
traditionally see strike action were now joining in. Photographers have even
threatened to stop taking passport photos and to blockade automatic photo
machines in protest at government plans to issue free photographs for biometric
passports.

Nationalisation of Northern Rock

LEFT ECONOMICS ADVISORY PANEL
CO-SPONSORED BY
New Left Unions, Socialist Campaign Group & Labour Representation Committee


PRESS NOTICE:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Rock in, but where's the Granite? - Labour MP exposes gaping hole in Rock nationalisation . . .
. . . process allows key assets to escape nationalisation leaving taxpayer to pick up loss-making side

In last night's debate on the nationalisation of Northern Rock, Labour MP John McDonnell (Chair of the Left Economics Advisory Panel [LEAP]) highlighted the fact that Granite - an offshore trust - holds the best assets of the failed bank, and the Government will only be nationalising the most risky side

John McDonnell MP, Chair of LEAP, said:

"I have written to the Chancellor asking for an immediate statement on why the Treasury is allowing the most profitable elements of the operation to escape the nationalisation net. As they stand, the proposals will increase the burden on the taxpayer and put at risk the jobs of Northern Rock workers.

"People will be asking, 'how can the Government have got us into this state of affairs?' The sad truth is that by failing to regulate the financial sector adequately, they have been hoist by their own petard. It is scandalous that the participants in this tax dodge should be allowed to walk away with millions, when workers may lose their jobs and the taxpayer risk billions."

-Ends-

Labour's MEP primaries From: Andrew Fisher

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I recently received my ballot to order the London region MEP candidates on the party list.While it looks like one of those appetising contests between the excrement of horses or dogs, does anyone have any strong advice (and reasons)? I felt the will to live ebbing away when I tried to read their statements.

Police and Tasers: Hooked on Shock by Naomi Klein

The past couple of weeks have been rocky on the stock market, but onecompany that hasn't been suffering too much is Taser International. At theend of January, its stock jumped by an impressive 8 per cent, and it'seven higher today.Matthew McKay, a stock analyst at Jeffries & Co. in San Francisco, cites asimple cause: news that the Toronto Police Services Board plans to buy3,000 new Taser electroshock weapons, at a cost of $8.6 million for gearand training. If the deal goes ahead, tasers would become standard issueweaponry for all of Toronto's frontline officers, right next to theirhandcuffs and batons.On Wednesday night, I participated in a public forum about the prospect ofa fully taser-armed police force, organized by the Toronto PoliceAccountability Coalition. One speaker, who had a history of psychiatricillness, told the room: "We're worried because we're the people who aregoing to get shocked."It's a concern grounded in experience. According to Toronto Police ChiefBill Blair's own analysis, in 2006, city cops deployed the devices in 156incidents. In all but nine, the subject appeared "to have a mentaldisorder" or was in some sort of "crisis."Several speakers at the forum pointed out that $8.6 million would bebetter spent keeping people out of crisis - by opening more beds andproviding better mental health and addiction services. Instead, fourhomeless shelters were closed last year, at a loss of 258 beds.But the most troubling remark of the evening was this: "Why is thishappening now?" The timing is indeed baffling. It was only three monthsago that video of the death of Robert Dziekanski at the VancouverInternational Airport caused an international furor. The tragedy exposedthe most prevalent misconception about tasers: that they are usedprimarily as an alternative to guns. As former Toronto mayor John Sewelltold me, "the taser is not the thing that replaces the gun, it's whatreplaces all the other things that police might do other than use a gun,like talk to you."That certainly appears to have been the case with Mr. Dziekanski. When theRCMP approached him, they made no attempt to calm the unarmed Polish man,or to discover the source of his extreme agitation. Within 25 seconds, hewas getting zapped.Mr. Dziekanski's death also put a spotlight on the other post-taserdeaths, the ones not caught on film. According to Amnesty International,310 people in North America have died after being shocked with a tasersince 2001.Were these deaths caused by the device or by something else? Taser'saggressive lawyers make it tough to know. The company has been hit withroughly a hundred wrongful death and injury lawsuits and claims it hasn'tlost one yet. But in August, Bloomberg News reported on "severalmysterious dismissals" - instances where the plaintiffs asked for thecases to be thrown out. Though Taser denies paying off all its accusers,it admits to paying in some, "where the settlement economics . weresignificantly less than the cost of litigation."Taser has consistently claimed that something else is causing the deaths.The company points to a report saying that that death by electrocutionhappens within seconds. Yet in many cases, subjects have died minutes,even days, after being shocked.A recent study may explain the discrepancy. Trauma researchers atChicago's Cook County Hospital conducted an experiment on 11 pigs, zappingeach for 40 seconds; then zapping them again 10 or 15 seconds later. (Thismimics how tasers are actually used, since Amnesty reports that those whohave died after being Tasered were frequently "subjected to multiple orprolonged shocks.") The study found that all the pigs exhibited heartproblems after the shocks and two of them died of cardiac arrest, onethree minutes later.Taser CEO Rick Smith has brushed off the study, saying human research ismore relevant. However, according to Bob Walker, one of the leadresearchers, it shows "that the effect of the taser shot can last beyondthe time when it's being delivered."So back to that question: Why now? In addition to the troubling newscientific evidence and the disconcerting lawsuits, there are severalpublic investigations in Canada that are still ongoing. In addition tothose sparked by the Dziekanski death, New Brunswick, Newfoundland andNova Scotia are all conducting taser reviews.Surely it would be wise for Toronto's police chief to wait for thosefindings before ordering a seven-fold taser increase. But something morepowerful than reason appears to be at play here, and I believe it has todo with the seductive promise of no-touch policing.No other method of controlling unruly suspects offers police the same kindof all-encompassing, instant effect. Talking, calming, negotiating are allmessier and take time. Other physical techniques put officers' own bodiesat risk.Then there is the taser. The company boasts that its technology, whichallows electrified darts to be fired from more than 10 meters away,"temporarily overrides the command and control systems of the body." Atthe push of a button, even the strongest, angriest subject drops to thefloor. In a way, firing a taser is the maximum power one person can exertover another. As an Ottawa Police officer reportedly said after taseringprotesters at the ministry of immigration back in 2003: "Less mess, morefun."Few would argue with an officer's right to use an electroshock weapon whenlives are in danger and the only alternative is a gun. Many Toronto policeofficers, particularly those on the Emergency Task Force, clearly use themwith restraint.Yet there is also plenty of evidence that some officers get hooked onshock. In Edmonton, in 2001, reports of taserings averaged less than oncea week. Three years later, they were coming in daily. In another part ofthe country, a mother in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia called police when she andher 17-year-old daughter were having an argument. Three officers showed upand tasered the teen in her own bed. In a recent court ruling, the judgecalled these actions "very disturbing and disconcerting."It may well be possible to prevent shock-happy policing with tightercontrols. Yet, despite repeated calls for stricter regulations for police,Taser International is racing to get its devices in the hands ofcivilians, marketing the product as not just safe but fun. In the UnitedStates the company has been aggressively pushing its line of C2 "personalprotectors" - available in pink, leopard print, and in holsters withbuilt-in MP3 players. (The weapon is nicknamed the "iTaser.")Tupperware-style taser parties are springing up in the suburbs of Arizona.Taser International is a company whose executives present themselves asserious experts in public safety. Yet it has launched this foray intofashion at the very moment when the safety of its devices is beingquestioned on multiple fronts. Valentine's Day is coming and Taser'swebsite is busily hawking the C2 in flaming red. "Love her? Protect her,"goes the slogan.This is what corporations do: whatever they can get away with to sell moreproduct. From Taser International, we should expect nothing less.From our police we have a right to expect much more.

Deja Moo:

The feeling that you've heard this bullshit before.

Stress-Relieving Prayer

Lord,
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I cannot accept, And the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill today because they pissed me off. And, help me to be careful of the toes I step on today as they May be connected to the ass that I might have to kiss tomorrow. Amen.

Boycott Lilets by MarshaJane Thompson

Women are being urged to boycott Lil-lets sanitary products as part of a campaign to save workers' pensions.Around 150 people lost their jobs when the company - now owned by private equity - shut its last UK factory, "exporting" the work to Taiwan and Poland.Now the Unite union has made a "period drama" highlighting the plight of 46 members they claim will lose a third of their pension. The union is posting the film on YouTube and its own website in an effort to shame Lil-lets' new bosses into a more generous settlement.Unite leader Derek Simpson claimed that it would cost the company £1.7million to let the workers "retire with dignity" on a full pension.He said: "The power of the internet lets unions reach out to millions of people and influence their choices."