26 REDS & A BOTTLE OF WINE

… I wrote this post two weeks ago but scraped it because I didn’t feel it was up to 26 Reds’ exacting standards (no, I can’t say that with a straight face). Seriously, it just got out of control and I said “fuck it! I’m going to a bar!” Anyway, there are a few good points in it so I am posting it as is…. AFTER THE JUMP!!!

What’s going on in the Western World these days? There are so many protests and riots these days that I forget who is protesting what.

France has the biggest guns on this one. The French are always a little spiky, even towards other French and they take to the street at the drop of a hat. Sometimes I think they do it just to avoid going to work, or, in this week’s case, finals. There is a lot that could be said about the youth protests this week in Paris. Not the least of which is that they worked (But we’ll get to that)! In response to another set of protests, namely the rioting of angry mobs of unemployed, young French-Arabs, Chirac’s government proposed loosening restrictions that make it nearly impossible to fire anyone in France. Truth be told it was a plan to allow employers to fire employees under 26 for any reason at all. How un-French!

The theory was that with these looser rules employers would be more likely to take on new hires, especially young Arabs, a percentage of the French population that is especially unemployed and especially hopeless. In a broader sense it was an appeal to the Nations of the EU to take on the issues confronting them in a Global economy where they have the wet end of the employee stick. The average age in France is 39. In India it’s 24. Add to the picture an growing national pension program (France has one sweet ass pension program) 20% of the French population is over 65. Compare that to just 4% in India. An aging workforce and uncompetitive hiring and firing practices are part of a formula for disaster. Something has to be done. Something necessary and unpopular.

So when French University students took the cause to the streets they were railing against what they perceived as an unfair changing of the rules. An untrustworthy government striping more of the people’s rights. And they’re right. France, and much of Western Europe have enjoyed pretty cozy labor rules. Nearly ironclad job security and a King’s ransom for a pension. It’s the birthright of every Frenchmen to work very little and get paid very well for it.

Well, every white Frenchmen. There is an underlined hint of racism and classism at play here. University students make an easy hire. They are slightly older, well educated and come from a slightly elevated economic stock. If you had to bet the farm on each new hire you made they rise head and shoulders above the masses of unemployed, poor and publicly educated Arabs. The current system locks out those that need most to be let in, and that’s fine with the University protestors who view French Arabs as little more than a burden. A civil service conundrum. A problem to be solved by city planners and officials down at the welfare office.

Naturally no one is framing the argument this way. The French have always decried racism with one hand and treated the Arabs like shit with the other. It’s the lesson learn at University and it sprawled all over the streets of Paris last week.

But Europe isn’t the only place in the Western World with labor problems. Maybe by coincidence (but maybe not) immigration reform legislation hit Capitol Hill last week as well.
If it’s at all possible America’s labor problems are even more complicated. For starters no one can agree on the language. Are they migrants, felons or guest workers? More important than any legislation were the nationwide protests, particularly in California where thousands of students walked out of school last week in an at of disobedience that was organized on MySpace.com. A la ‘Donna Martin Graduates’ style.

Even as protest continue this week (there was one on Monday by City Hall here in New York) it seems unlikely that they will have much effect on the final legislation. This American protests (One on March 25 in LA was half a million strong) aren’t as sustained as France’s and America isn’t as politically unstable as France. But the point of these protests goes deeper than legislation.

On one hand there is the charge that illegal immigrants are a drain on critical services, that with them comes drugs and crime, and, perhaps most ignorantly, they take jobs away from Americans. Largely this last point seems to have been abandoned in exchange for the battle cry ‘someone else can pick out fruit.’ One Congressman suggested letting criminals pick the fruit. He did so with a straight face. Let’s debunk this crime issue. It’s not true; there, that was easy. It’s true that illegal immigrants make desirable and often willing drug mules but it’s naïve to suggest that without these couriers the drug trade would dry up. Drug transporters are notoriously easy adaptors. On the other hand, illegal immigrants are a strain on public health services, largely because under the current system few of these workers contribute to the tax roll. Every plan currently before Congress would rectify that.

It’s hard to not be stuck by the possibility that there is something more sinister at work here than concern for public hospitals. The real issue with illegal or undocumented workers is an issue of class and race, no different than the one in France.

… so that’s where it ends. This piece was just sprawling out of control and I didn’t know where or how to end it. I’ll leave it up to you in the comment section to take up the conversation if anyone is interested. Maybe you just want more pictures of drunk people and Metallica videos…