French police bans trade union demonstration

This 26 May 2016 video from Toulouse in France shows a policeman brutally attacking a woman at a demonstration for workers’ rights.

See also here.

The French government of Big Business-loving, xenophobic Blairite Prime Minister Valls tries to ram its anti-worker policies down the throats of the people.

With more and more violent and undemocratic methods. The differences between Valls, Turkish apprentice dictator Erdogan and the late Spanish dictator Franco are getting smaller and smaller. The state of emergency, supposedly only against Muslims … errrr, supposedly only against a small minority of violent Muslims, turns out to be more and more against environmentalists, against workers demonstrating for their rights, etc. Reminding me of a famous saying by anti-nazi German Pastor Niemöller.

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

French police enraged by gory trade union poster

19 April 2016, 14:18

French police are furious over a poster of one of the largest trade union federations in the country. On it we see a bloody police baton. The picture has as its caption: “The police should protect citizens, not beat them up.”

And also: Stop the violence.

From Reuters news agency:

Wed Jun 22, 2016 12:08pm BST

French police bans Paris demo, unions furious

PARIS | By Brian Love

French police on Wednesday banned a Paris protest march 24 hours before labour unions were set to lead tens of thousands into the streets, setting the scene for a potentially violent standoff if the demonstration goes ahead.

Left-wingers condemned what they said was the first ban of a union-backed protest since the early 1960s when protesters died in clashes with police during a march banned by the Paris police prefect of the time, Maurice Papon.

Wikipedia writes about Mr Papon:

Maurice Papon (French pronunciation: [moʁis papɔ̃]; 3 September 1910 – 17 February 2007) was a French civil servant, leading the police in major prefectures and in Paris during the Nazi Occupation of France and into the 1960s. Forced to resign because of allegations of abuses, he became an industrial leader and Gaullist politician. In 1998 he was convicted of crimes against humanity for his participation in the deportation of more than 1600 Jews to concentration camps during World War II when he was secretary general for police in Bordeaux.

The Reuters article continues:

The decision followed a breakdown in negotiations between the government and the leaders of the CGT and Force Ouvriere (FO) unions, who refused proposals that they hold a rally in a large square but not march through the streets of the capital. …

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve set the stage for a ban this week …

But in a sign that efforts were still being made to find a way out of the standoff, Cazeneuve met Philippe Martinez and Jean-Claude Mailly, respective leaders of the hardline CGT and FO union at their request.

“It’s better to talk with one another than speak through statements,” Martinez told reporters after the meeting.

Asked whether he was confident a compromise could be found, Mailly said he was “neither optimistic, nor pessimistic.”

Other union officials took a tougher stance.

“This is a declaration of war,” Benjamin Amar, a CGT official, told BFM TV. “We’re going to go ahead and protest tomorrow in any case.”

The unions have been protesting since early March against planned reforms to make hiring and firing easier.

Under French law, protesters risk up to six months in jail if they defy a ban. The ban means police may end up having to deploy in numbers in any case to enforce the government order if unions ignore it.

(Reporting by Simon Carraud, Gerard Bon; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Richard Lough and Richard Balmforth)