‘Black Friday’: Biggest train strike in France since 2007
Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Paris
In response to President Emmanuel Macron’s widely unpopular efforts to lead a radical austerity rollback to France’s pension system, train unions led the biggest public transport shutdown in over a decade. The day was called “Black Friday” in the press, as half of the capital’s subway system was shuttered for the entire day.
Macron’s pension scheme proposes a universal system, which inherently benefits highly-educated people more than manual laborers who began working full-time as teenagers. Extremely unpopular is the scheme’s plan to deny a full pension to anyone retiring before the age of 64, which effectively raises the retirement age by two years via a back-door method.
The government says savings are needed due to France’s long-stagnant economy and increased public debt. However, for nearly a decade there has been no deviation from ineffective “trickle-down” economics imposed by Brussels, and France’s debt ballooned because governments across the eurozone have been forced to pay for the failed loans of private banks.
Unions said “Black Friday” was just the opening shot. Macron’s insistence on forcing through the changes means that it seems he is content for his term to be defined by perpetual, massive anti-government movements against unwanted austerity measures.
More huge strikes and protests are planned in the coming weeks, and the cycle of social disruption and violence caused by European austerity continues with no end in sight.
29 children die amid medicine shortage in Pakistan’s Shia-majority Parachinar
Russian general killed in Moscow bombing
Khaled Nabhan killed in Israeli shelling of Gaza
President Pezeshkian departs Tehran for D-8 meeting in Egypt
VIDEO | Israel’s policy backfire in Syria
VIDEO | Iran-Syria alliance: Past and present
Iran’s shortcut to progress through localization
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
Senior Iranian diplomat warns of Syria’s disintegration, spread of insecurity to Iraq
Genocide denial: UK-based Zionist ‘think tank’ under fire for disputing Gaza death toll
UN relief chief: Gaza ‘apocalyptic’; almost impossible to deliver aid amid Israeli siege
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
