Bubblehammerblog

As disparate but linked militant youth protests simultaneously erupt in a number of countries across the continent, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has retreated on two controversial pieces of domestic legislation out of fear that a spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of 1968.

Mr Sarkozy, the outgoing chairman of the six-month rotating European Union presidency, has dropped plans for changes to high school curricula and Sunday retail opening hours in dread that the "Greek syndrome" - the two-week-long youth riots that have rocked the country with the most widespread unrest since the overthrow of the military junta in 1974 - could spread to France, or even across the continent.

"We can't have a European May '68 for Christmas," the French leader said to his cabinet, according to reports in Le Canard Enchaîné, referring to the left-wing student protests and general strike in France in 1968 that led to the eventual collapse of the government of Charles De Gaulle.

Similar protests took place that year around the world, particularly in the United States and Germany, but the 'événements' of '68 hold a unique place in the French political imagination.

Note my recent post pointing to evidence that Sarkozy might be a longstanding CIA asset.

....

With the current economic crisis throwing up numbers in the order of billions & trillions, almost rendering them meaningless through repetition, these amazing photographs by Chris Jordan offer an antidote to inumeracy.

|