la rue [qui] dicte sa loi à la République?

So life in Paris has somewhat come to a standstill. Its a strike again. Nothing unusual about that. I learnt in my student days at Sciences Po that that is the way in which people get the government to listen to them. Anban hui nahin ki streets mein utar aaye juloos ley kar, aur kar di shuru zoron shoron sey naareybaazi! As far as les affaires interieures go, it seems to work fairly well. The country's foreign affairs policy is a different matter though that we shall not go into here.

The topic of discussion is the latest strike that's holding the Villepin government hostage these days. They say its been one of the biggest mobilization du peuple in a long long time. The Guardian quoted a union official saying it was one of the biggest since France's fifth republic was founded in 1958. I thought it was important to tally that with another newspaper. So I turned to le Monde, to be regaled by almost a week's frontpage news on les manifs contre le CPE. I thought I should check how the Indian newspapers were covering the story so I went over to the Hindu website to find them saying similar things as The Guardian and Le Monde. Now you could say that I've been reading only Left-leaning newspapers and so my views may be biased. Fair enough, I don't deny that.

What I do want to point out is something slightly different though. It is not so much about how many people came out in the street this time as compared to the last time or the time before as it is about the dilemmas that it throws up in my head. When I first started reading reports about the strike over CPE, it made me think of the May day celebrations in France. 1st of May is a big thing in Paris, at least that's how I remember it, sitting at a McDonald's window (pardon my political incorrectness at the choice of location) facing the Place de La Republique when I was twelve and thirteen. It is this whole rituel politique of getting out into the streets to clamour for your rights and/or against laws that fascinates me. This is not to say that I have not complained about the many metro strikes when they did happen. Yet there is something about the people in Paris (of course, I don't mean all of them) and the way they are able to pressurize the government enough to get a law passed/ withdrawn. Even if at times it is not in their best interests ( I am thinking of the pensions issue here but it is very very complex and with no easy solutions and so I'd much rather refrain from getting into that here).

The protests over the issue of CPE also made me think of the Rozgar Adhikar Yatra that happened last year in India. It was again a group of young students and an alliance of Left parties and mostly left-affiliated people of various hues who travelled across rural North India (if I am not mistaken), talked to peasants and workers and campaigned for the Employment Guarantee Scheme Bill that was to be taken up by the Parliament. They also had sit-in strikes/ dharnas and mass rallies and marches to the Parliament. It was quite a big thing and newspapers did give it coverage, I'm not saying that they didn't. But somehow it never acquired the proportions that a labour isue like CPE has with young people in France. I wish I could see more young people coming out in the streets in India, in solidarity, or even feeling that such issues matter to them. And why don't they matter to them? Okay, very big question, I'll leave it in question form for now.

It also made me ask myself: is it time to celebrate? While here I am saying things like wow, this is so amazing, look at all these people protesting in the streets, this is real democracy (very very provocative/ loosely framed, I know), la voix du peuple, there are people for whom the battle is not won. My question is: what is the point at which a person separates her roles as researcher and individual with Left-leanings? Or is that all gibberish about researchers needing to have "distance" from the matter of their study. Portelli would say it is. I don't know yet. Then again for someone who mostly sits and reads about such things as people's protests in newspapers or in books or researches on other people's activist activities but doesn't much protest or participate in activist mobilisations herself the issue is perhaps a non-issue. Do you sometimes feel guilty of not getting out and joining the crowd? I think I do.

Okay, in all this brouhaha about activism and politics, in case people haven't noticed enough, what is going on??? Villepin in Sarkozian garbs and Sarkozy speaking Villepin's langage, non mais vraiment, this is the height of political opportunism, who would have thought Nicholas Sarkozy would say lets put the bill temporarily on hold and have a chat with the protestors...and that for Villepin its become a prestige issue, more about the upcoming Presidentielles than anything else, I think. Why does it remind me of Juppe and the near political death he suffered over another such bill that provoked mass protests (different from the scam in which he got caught, of course)? Correct me if I am wrong.


Title of the post inspired by "Il y en a assez que la rue veuille dicter sa loi à la République, nous voulons montrer qu'il y a une légitimité dans ce pays, cette légitimité, c'est la majorité, l'UMP à l'Assemblée nationale", a ajouté Guy Geoffroy (Seine-et-Marne) in Le Monde, http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-734511,36-755445@51-725561,0.html

transience

I think writing a Thesis is like doing an oil painting. There are many many layers of paint, coat after coat, many of which will disappear under other coats sometimes without a sign of their existence until the painting takes shape. Its demanding, it asks for patience.

This one is my first oil painting. I've started going to art class every Saturday, it helps to keep my Thesis anxieties at bay ;)