"The pugnacity of the French in a riot has to be seen to be recognized as a native strain in their character," Janet Flanner wrote in May 1968 in her "Letter from Paris" to the New Yorker. "Had the young French soldiers fought like rioters against the Germans in June, 1940, Paris might not have fallen," she added, sardonically.
They are very good at fighting, the French are. They have to be– someone’s always trying to screw them over, whether it’s the bank or the butcher or the government. It’s just that they’re not so good at constructing viable systems after the fighting has calmed.
Looks like we’re approaching a stalemate here, as the government refuses to withdraw the CPE and several student unions refuse to meet with the government to discuss other possibilites. The CPE is set to go into effect in April, which is rapidly approaching.
The university is going into its third week of closure. The two-week long Easter vacation begins April 8th, and it looks doubtful if it will reopen before then.
Flanner wrote that the students of ’68 "have [...] stated that they do not believe in university examinations, since they are repressive."
The students are saying they’d rather have this semester invalidated than give in and go back to school.
Some professors are organizing online courses as ways of continuing this semesters’ work. I’ve received several emails from study abroad programs looking for teachers to fill in part-time until the strikes are over, if ever.
But unlike in May 1968, there seems to be a destructive strain in these riots that the students insist has nothing to do with their cause, attributing the violence to anarchists and extremists of both the right and the left.
Research facilities have had ten years’ worth of research destroyed. The military training grounds of les Invalides have been overcome by the casseurs [French for "people who break stuff"]. Numerous shops and cars have been trashed and burned.
The weird thing is: I haven’t seen any of it firsthand, despite a fairly consistent pattern of movement between the 9th and the bottom of the 5th. I’m glad they’ve stayed away from my neighborhood(s), but I can’t help noting how odd it is that all this can be going on in the center of my city, and if I didn’t watch the news or read the papers and the blogs, I’d have no idea.
So I’m working from home, thinking about nineteenth century French social movements, 1830, 1848, 1871, debating with my boyfriend the extent to which the Communards were Communists, reading the emails I get from French graduate students who are attending the manifestations, and thinking how right Kristin Ross is in her book on the student uprisings of May 1968, where she argues (via Baudrillard, and excuse me for paraphrasing from memory) that an event is not an event until the media tell us it is. And until you tap into the media, you might not even know what’s going on a hundred meters away from your apartment.
“Had the young French soldiers fought like rioters against the Germans in June, 1940, Paris might not have fallen,”
You know what ? They did. But because of precedent moronic government the french army’s equipment was obsolete, the Maginot line useless, etc. Some years before De Gaulle had said the war had to be done with tanks and armored vehicules, planes, moving weapons… The politics were sure the Maginot line was unassailable. They were right. It was. So the Germans moved around with their planes and tanks… De Gaulle was right too. He stopped them for a while with the only modern tank unit the French had.
As you see french politicians are from time to time that stupid. France is still a kind of kingdom whith à republican king: the president. Every french politician’s dream is “to be the president”. Three of them are know playing a machiavelic game on the back of the people rioting in Paris and french towns… to be the next president in 2007. They don’t care a fig anything else, and the french people is in his role: rioting.
Hope you’ll remember everything. You’re in front of the very french political drama.
Maitresse, your analysis is gold. Like you, I have not seen any riot myself (I work in the 9eme and live in the 13eme, and try walk in between almost daily) and all the information is through the media. Well, I did see a couple of “police buses” (yes, like the RATP buses!) that I guess where riding the Invalides-Police Station route…
BBC correspondent Caroline Wyatt in an analysis article compares these riots to those of 1968 noting: “Such odd revolutionaries. No heartfelt cry to change the world, but a plea for everything to stay the same”.
I endorse the quote “Had the young French soldiers fought like rioters against the Germans in June, 1940, Paris might not have fallen”, and in spite what Mr/Ms Anonymous thinks (bearer of a brain polluted by the French propaganda wars that began in 1788 to re-write history and that have lived a Golden Age from 1945 to date), the French cowardy is responsible for making the Germans escalate their expansion war to a worldwide conflict. The French didn’t move a finger! France fell quicker than the Netherlands, not just because of the “obsolete equipment” (hahaha, what a good joke) but because of the anti-American and anti-semitic stance of the media and public opinion of the 30s. France was for most of the war, for 4 years, a member of the “axis”, there was no resistance, there was no widespread public disorder, Hitler would visit Paris to thank Parisians for their help, the cabarets lived a high season entertaining German officers, the Parc des Princes was a detention centre for jews and the very few people who tried to oppose the German rule.
If the French universities are going to continue inserting lies and myths in their History syllabus, they better not reopen next semester.
Probably all those lies are at the bottom of the French arrogance and rioting character.
http://manyyearsinthemerde.blogspot.com
what a great quote from the BBC!
I am so fed up with NY. Despite the crazy greves, I almost bought a plane ticket and ran away to Paris last night. Unfortunately I don’t have $2000. I was happy this morning, however, when I had a serious altercation over my chicken soup and perogies this morning with the delivery boy. It seems as if he didn’t speak English, and couldn’t work the buzzer. This was obviously my fault. That pretty much sums up life in Paris.
PS I’m very into Carla Bruni’s L’amour en ce moment.
@ Uranus.
Ah oui ! French bashing! Childish… let’s have fun: tell us about Napoleon…
@ Maîtresse
Yes great quote from the BBC.
Tonight Sarko is speaking in Douai. Sarko, Villepin, “les jeux sont faits, rien ne va plus”…
In love with Marianne:
http://medias.lemonde.fr/mmpub/edt/ill/2006/03/28/v_8_ill_755481_bordeaux.jpg
Napoleon? Who’s that?
The good thing of living in France is that with clowns like Sarko, De Vil, Chiroc and Le Pan running for presdident, we have no time to look to the past.
Yes Uranus. You’re right. On this point I agree with you. Clowns
And crooks…
hey, anonymous, who the heck are you? you’re quite opinionated! which is cool and all but now you’re posting links to naked French chicks and that’s the point where I ask: who are you??
Anonymous is right about WWII and Flanner and Uranus don’t know what they’re talking about and repeat old lies, which even the Americans don’t accept, at least those in France in 1945 who knew what they were talking about:
” No one – least of all the French themselves – will try do deny the enormity of the defeat and the humiliation France suffered in 1940. French military leadership and strategy was tragically inadequate. But this does not mean that the French did not put up a “real fight”.
In the six week Battle of France, from May 10 to June 22, 1940, the French lost, in military personnel alone, 260,000 wounded and 108,000 killed. A total of 368,000 casualties in six weeks is not something to pass off lightly.
Yes, the Germans gave the French a terrible beating. But it took the combined strength of the United States, Great Britain, Soviet Russia, Canada, etc., to beat the Germans. It’s asking rather a great deal of France to match such strength against hers.”
Published in Paris in 1945 by the ‘Information & Education Division’ of the US Occupation Forces.
http://www.miquelon.org/gripes/78.html
And of course there was the Resistance in France – Melville’s “Army in the Shadows” was shown in London recently and shows how brutally resistance was crushed. Brits and Americans weren’t occupied and have little idea what it was like and should be less ready to judge. There was a Nazi party in the US – quietly forgotten now.
If Baudrillard had been mugged I think he would have considered that to be an event in his life, whether the media covered it or not.
The BBC woman is as wrong as her colleague Mark Mardell, who made the same silly generalization. French students today are opposed to the CPE and US style reduction in workers’ rights (see Barbara Ehrenreich, “Nickel and Dimed”). This does not mean they are against ALL change (“everything to stay the same”) – an absurd claim.
i must say that i’m sort of impressed; both by your post (that should be published elsewhere if you want my opinion) and the comments.
There is truth on both sides, but I think that
“Such odd revolutionaries. No heartfelt cry to change the world, but a plea for everything to stay the same” is a perfect recap of the situation.
What an enjoyable read, which is quite rare when it comes to politics in the blogosphere.
The BBC woman’s comment isn’t a “perfect recap”, it’s a silly over-generalization – see my previous comment. Do you seriously think all the students against the CPE think everything else in France is perfect and nothing needs changing ? Like to put money on it ?
“I ask: who are you??”
I was just too lazy and tired to register everywhere. I didn’t notice I could choose the center button off the comment interface. Shame on me
I like history and I think it can help us to understand our time. So when I read this “old lie” as said sybariter I decided to tell the truth. I have felt you were curious of the actual situation in France but nobody can have a clear reflection based on inaccuracy. I could have said nearly the same thing sybariter told us (thanks to him) but didn’t want to be involved in a unproductive “bashing contest” so I cowardly ran away from the conversation on the subject.
I’m a musician and involved in webdesign, webmastering (one of my site’s URL close to my first name).
About the situation. I don’t think the CPE is the real problem. It’s the spark that set the prairie on fire, fed by Villepin and Sarkozy fighting to be the next president. Each one try to take advantage of the situation but at least the two may loose the game.
The country has to change. Sure. But the people do not accept the current way to do it. Since he is in charge Villepin has been delighting himself in “dialogue social” and such laws are voted without any consultation. People are not completely stupid. They are fed up with this behavior and it’s impossible to build solid things on distrust. From time to time we use to say we have the stupidest “right wing” of the whole world. See them at work.
The girl in Bordeaux is an astonishing allegory and I think it has sense. Despite we are not living a revolution, passed revolts are always in our minds. Such a picture is far too violent for CNN and Fox News making a bunch of money on a burning France with advertising. Remember Janet Jackson at the Superbowl.
)
Sybariter,
Your 1945 document is as good as that speech of George W Bush talking about the “coallition of the willing” supporting the US in Iraq, a “coallition” that included Armies of such big superpowers like Costa Rica and the Army of the Republic of San Marino…
The only battle the French have won, only happened in the pages of Asterix.
Uranus – stop talking through your anus – if you don’t have anything intelligent to say – butt out.
Sybariter,
Your postings provide further evidence to scholars like Dr Lynn (see link):
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18626841%255E2703,00.html
Uranus, why don’t you try using what little IQ you have to put forward some semblance of a rational argument. If you really think the US info and educational services were wrong in 1945 about the French defeat, say why – silly dismissals of evidence prove nothing.
Waiting for Chirac’s speech. Hope he read this once in his life.
« Quand je considère cette nation en elle-même, je la trouve plus extraordinaire qu’aucun des événements de son histoire. En a-t-il jamais paru sur la terre une seule qui fut si remplie de contrastes et si extrême dans chacun de ses actes, plus conduite par des sensations, moins par des principes ; faisant toujours plus mal ou mieux qu’on ne s’y attendait, tantôt au-dessous du niveau commun de l’humanité, tantôt fort au-dessus ; un peuple tellement inaltérable dans ses principaux instincts qu’on le reconnaît encore dans des portraits qui ont été faits de lui il y a deux ou trois mille ans, et en même temps tellement mobile dans ses pensées journalières et dans ses goûts qu’il finit par se devenir un spectacle inattendu à lui-même, et demeure souvent aussi surpris que les étrangers à la vue de ce qu’il vient de faire ; le plus casanier et le plus routinier de tous quand on l’abandonne à lui-même, et lorsqu’une fois qu’on l’a arraché malgré lui à son logis et à ses habitudes, prêt à pousser jusqu’au bout du monde et à tout oser ; indocile par tempérament, et s’accommodant toutefois de l’empire arbitraire et même violent d’un prince que du gouvernement régulier et libre des principaux citoyens ; aujourd’hui l’ennemi déclaré de toute obéissance, demain mettant à servir une sorte de passion que les nations les mieux douées pour la servitude ne peuvent atteindre ; conduit par un fil tant que personne ne résiste, ingouvernable dès que l’exemple de la résistance est donné quelque part ; trompant toujours ainsi ses maîtres, qui le craignent ou trop ou trop peu ; jamais si libre qu’il faille désespérer de l’asservir, ni si asservi qu’il ne puisse encore briser le joug ; apte à tout mais n’excellent que dans la guerre ; adorateur du hasard, de la force, du succès, de l’éclat et du bruit, plus que de la vrai gloire ; plus capable d’héroïsme que de vertu, de génie que de bon sens, propre à concevoir d’immenses desseins plutôt qu’à parachever de grandes entreprises ; la plus brillante et la plus dangereuse des nations de l’Europe, et la mieux faite pour y devenir tour à tour un objet d’admiration, de haine, de pitié, de terreur, mais jamais d’indifférence ? »
Alexis de Tocqueville, “L’ancien régime et la révolution”, 1850.
I tried to find it in english but I failed.
USA: the New Republic cover with the “american Marianne”.
Jean, thanks for that.
Uranus and Sybariter: that’s enough of the ad hominem attacks on each other and on the French…
Sorry I don’t have much to add on the debate over military tactics during WWII… the way I see it, my job as a literary/cultural critic is to write about what people thought about what happened, rather than what actually happened (leave that to the historians). Hence the Flanner quote. Of course whether her comment was historically accurate or not is a perfectly valid question for consideration– but I don’t have the training to debate that.
Just wanted to add a little somethig to this debate.
I agree with a previous poster who said, BBC has over generalised. The French students who are fighting for job security and such, to me are revolutionaries. Simple. Against all the “realist” who says that is impossible in the face of the so-called market/capatilist force are dreamers after all. They are fighting for something that “realist” see us unattainable.
A Tibetan in Paris
“Uranus and Sybariter: that’s enough of the ad hominem attacks on each other and on the French…”
Ah acting like a true maitresse – the flourish of the whip
Actually it’s a reflection of another cultural difference; Brits tend to be rather more um direct with each other than Americans in such discussions.
Re literature/culture and history – don’t you think you’re taking the division of labour and specialization a bit far ? If a novelist systematically distorted history for political reasons, wouldn’t that be rather more important than say, stylistic influences ? So the critic needs to know about the history of the period a novel/film, etc. deals with.
Maitresse,
The unionist ambivalence in adopting the CPE reflects a gnawing lethargy by an inflexible labour market. An illness that grips and bedevils many a European nation.
The bleu blanc rouge government`s recent bowing to corporate pressure and adopting the CPE smacks of showmanship to score brownie points with the international business community that France, despite erecting ecocmic national barriers, the energy sector bears testimony to this, still caters to a dynamic marketplace with a flexible workforce.
PS- your site made me deeply reminiscent of Paris…. I miss the place…anyways you may drop me a line at http://ozerkhalid.blogspot.com/
Maitresse,
The unionist ambivalence in adopting the CPE reflects a gnawing lethargy by an inflexible labour market. An illness that grips and bedevils many a European nation.
The bleu blanc rouge government`s bowing to corporate pressure and adopting the CPE smacks of showmanship to impress the international business community that France, despite erecting ecocmic national barriers, the energy sector bears testimony to this, still caters to a dynamic marketplace and flexible workforce.
PS- your site made me deeply reminiscent of Paris…. I miss the place…anyways you may drop me a line at http://ozerkhalid.blogspot.com/
Maitresse,
The unionist ambivalence in adopting the CPE reflects a gnawing lethargy by an inflexible labour market. An illness that grips and bedevils many a European nation.
The bleu blanc rouge government`s bowing to corporate pressure and adopting the CPE smacks of showmanship to illustrate to the international business community that France, despite erecting ecocmic national barriers, the energy sector bears testimony to this, still has a dynamic workforce and an open marketplace.
PS- your site made me deeply reminiscent of Paris…. I miss the place…anyways you may drop me a line at http://ozerkhalid.blogspot.com/