December 1995: "The First Revolt Against Globalization"

Abstract

France has just gone through its deepest social crisis in almost thirty years. A three-week strike of workers in the country's rail and public transport networks was the driving force behind a much broader strike and social movement against the right-wing government's economic and social plans. For the railworkers, the immediate cause of the strike was the release of a government plan to cut their pensions and implement a "restructuring" program that threatened the shutdown of six thousand kilometers of railway lines and a corresponding loss in jobs. Seventy-three thousand jobs have already been lost since the mid-1980s, while one hundred eighty-five thousand workers remain.

This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.

Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.