nation of professional protesters

https://sh.itjust.works/post/56935952

Do those actually achieve anything? The biggest protests we hard about where the ones against pensions reform and this reform was only delayed when the ruling party failed to form the government several times. It was result of typical politics, not protests.

What I see happening over and over in Spain is:

  • Some union announces a strike and presents it demands
  • They sit and negotiate with the government
  • (optional) They don’t reach an agreement, strike is enacted and services are limited to legally guaranteed 'necessary minimum’
  • They reach an agreement, strike ends.
  • No protests, no grilling on the tram rails. Just negotiating and using legal leverage. Last one was railway strikes after series of accidents. They reached an agreement before the strike. Unions called it “historic” and won better investment in maintenance and personnel.

    So, do the French protest actually achieve anything or does it only look nice in memes? Can someone give some examples of what they won recently?

    Protests and labor strikes increase the leverage workers have when negotiating for better compensation. There is no leverage if there is no protest.

    One of my favorite examples was a mutiny during WWI where they were fed up with charging to their deaths. The tangible results were the commander got sacked and they didn’t have to charge to their death.

    Yes, I even gave concrete example of how rail workers in Spain used this leverage recently.

    I’m asking for concrete examples from France. What did they achieve recently? WWI is not recently.

    How about the gilets jaunes protests? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_protests

    The french, specifically, have a long tradition of putting their foot down and refusing to accept what their government is doing. I don’t have specific links discussing it, but I know that occasionally entire major motorways will be shut down because farmers or lorry drivers have blocked them with heavy industrial machines, and they stay that way until those people decide to move. I also know that there’s an entire region (Brittany) where the motorways aren’t toll roads, unlike the rest of France, because every time they try the cameras and toll booths get destroyed.

    Yellow vests protests - Wikipedia

    Originally, the yellow vests protested because of an increase onfuel tax, to finance environmental measures. They got that tax increase to be halted. Also, agricultors regularly protest and get the reintroduction of harmful pesticides. Basically, the only trade-off the government is ready to accept is giving up on ecological progress.