French Fry

[realFedUp]

http://www.newsforreal.com/

Stephen Pizzo

What do you think is happening in France? If you think the rioting is just further proof that Islamic immigrants to the West are nothing but trouble, you'd be wrong. Well, mostly wrong anyway.

The rioting in France can be explained by two words – cheap labor. France, like most other mature Western economies, has embraced cheap labor from underdeveloped countries. That flood of cheap labor has, at least until now, served both corporations and consumers. Corporate earnings are up across the board, for example.

snip

Second, low wages paid to immigrants, many illegal, create the very conditions that sparked the riots in France. Do the math yourself. If American workers, who have seen their real wages drop like a rock, are beginning to feel the first signs of economic stress, imagine the fiscal conditions that face the average low-wage immigrant family. Such immigrants already live on the economic razor's edge. What they learn -- too late -- is that the deck is stacked against them. They cannot join the mainstream of these societies, because allowing them to do so would require paying them a livable wage. And what purpose would that serve, paying immigrants the same as domestic workers? The French, for example, already don't much care for having all these "ethnic" folk in their country to begin with. The only reason the put up with them is because they work for peanuts.

snip

When that realization sinks in, even dirt cheap toaster ovens at Wal-Mart won't help. That's when the shit hits the fan here. And I strongly suspect it will not be Jose' from Guadalahara throwing rocks at American riot police, but Homer from Detroit..

continued

[savemefromdumbya]

1. You have to ask yourself who is behind the rioting

I think someone is trying to fuel the riots and it is not the Muslims. Political

[realFedUp]

2. any info to add to that comment?

on the face of it, it looks like a religious
and economic problem that France hasn't addressed.

[rogerashton]

3. Not religious.

French Muslim leaders have issued a fatwah against rioting.

[realFedUp]

4. aren't these mostly Muslims rioting?

just looking for info and links.

[savemefromdumbya]

5. my guess right wingers

I'll try to see if there are any links

[savemefromdumbya]

7. Sarkozy - right wing

The provocative language used by Sarkozy against the youth on suburban housing estates has been part of his attempt to mobilise a right-wing and racist movement under his leadership and that of the UMP. He hoped that this would not only secure his succession as president, but also provide popular support for the attacks on the working class required to break its resistance to the destruction of the welfare state and labour rights.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/fran-n04.shtml

[architect359]

10. There are some religious issues though

I don't know if it is one of the main reason or not but not too long ago, didn't France proposed a ban on religious type head dresses and any overt religious ornamentation? This law supposedly covered ALL religions but who knows...

[SujiwanKenobee]

6. In ALL countries importing cheap labor, globalization will undercut???

Are the countries importing cheap labor (assuming factory labor here) finding their products gradually replaced by Chinese imports? If this is the trend not just in the US, there are going to be some permanently angry entrenched immigrants in every host country. It all seems well and good when there are jobs for all, but when the native population sees opportunities shrink and turn around to compete for the jobs that were "unwanted" or lower wage--then comes trouble...

[savemefromdumbya]

8. the opposition is using that

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/fran-n04.shtml

The eruptions are the product of desperate poverty, mass unemployment and a vicious, openly racist law-and-order campaign spearheaded by Sarkozy, who has been considered the main rival to Chirac within the Gaullist Union for a Popular Party (UMP) and the leading contender to replace him in the next presidential election. Sarkozy has sent armed police into the immigrant slums and used terms such as “scum” and “gangrene” to describe their inhabitants.

[SujiwanKenobee]

9. I don't think that changes one underlying issue of my previous post...

I think that regardless of the meanness of opposition parties, that there are real long-term job availability problems that shouldn't be dismissed just because one supports the "other" side. Bringing worker migrants over to any country is to benefit corporate interests obviously. This is one of those things that has the potential for unintended consequences for the whole population when economic circumstances change.

[realFedUp]

11. so a few factors intersecting

do you believe that can happen in this country?