LeftWing Fundamentalism ala Francais

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Monday, April 2, 2007 · Last updated 10:13 a.m. PT
Leftists could tip French election

By ANGELA CHARLTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SAINT-OUEN, France -- It took just hours on the Internet for Ronan
Morvan to find a buyer for his studio apartment on Paris' outskirts.
Then his Communist town council decided $50,000 was excessive - and
ordered him to slash the price by more than half.

Shocking? Illegal? Not in France, where the egalitarian flame of the
French Revolution still flickers in politics and intellectual life.

The field in France's April 22 presidential election includes three
Trotskyists, a Communist and Jose Bove, a sheep farmer and anti-
globalization icon calling for an "electoral insurrection" against
free markets. They won't win, but together they draw millions of votes
and have caused upsets in the past.

In the 2002 election, hard-left candidates took a combined 19 percent
of the vote in the first round, weakening the mainstream Socialist
candidate so badly that the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen was able to
make the runoff. Le Pen ultimately lost to incumbent Jacques Chirac,
but his initial triumph was an international embarrassment for France.

That boomerang effect is unlikely to repeat itself so dramatically
this time, but the far-left vote could again tip the balance against
Socialist candidate Segolene Royal and boost centrist Francois Bayrou,
who is eating into her support.

While Russians long ago traded Communist Party cards for credit cards,
and Chinese communism is looking increasingly capitalist, France's far
leftists wield such ideological clout that they logjam efforts to free
up France's state-driven economy.

They proved it a year ago with mass street protests that blocked a
mild government effort to reform the hiring-and-firing laws and make
it cheaper to employ young people.

While mainstream socialists in France, Italy and elsewhere in Europe
are struggling to update the welfare state for the 21st century, the
fringes preach a dictatorship of the proletariat, call each other
"comrade," sing the communist anthem and find a receptive audience in
a society instinctively suspicious of the free market.

Only 36 percent of French people think capitalism is the best economic
system for the world, according to a 2005 survey by Globescan, an
international pollster. In China, that figure soars to 74 percent.

France has long been a spiritual homeland for leftism, from the
revolutionaries of 1789 to Jean-Paul Sartre and other 20th century
intellectuals. France's Communist Party was among the biggest in the
West until the Cold War ended.

Just 8 percent of the work force is unionized, compared with 13
percent in the U.S., yet strikes and mass protests are frequent.
That's because the French don't have to belong to a union to enjoy
generous job protections guaranteed by the state, or to march against
a factory closure.

"There is a deep sentiment, spread out across the nation, of support
for ideas of equality," said Jean-Marie Pernot, an expert on labor
movements at Paris' CNRS think tank.

Six of the 12 presidential hopefuls are left of the Socialists, and
among the most moderate is Communist Party leader Marie-Georges
Buffet. Olivier Besancenot of the Communist Revolutionary League would
abolish the presidency and stop repaying France's debt. Gerard
Schivardi of the Workers' Party would nationalize all French banks.
Six-time candidate Arlette Laguiller of the Workers' Struggle calls
for world revolution.

Candidate Bove preaches "an electoral insurrection against economic
liberalism" and "a social, feminist, democratic, anti-racist and
ecological revolution."

Nicolas Sarkozy, the leading candidate on the right, calls for
reforming runaway executive pay packages and pledges to free up the
labor market - a modest plan by many standards but bold for France.
Even Chirac, a conservative, told a biographer he sees economic
liberalism as a "form of deviance."

But when Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said last year, "I
don't like the rich." The remark came back to haunt him. He and his
live-in partner turn out to be paying a wealth tax applicable only to
the rich. And the partner and mother of his children happens to be
candidate Royal.

Only one Socialist has been elected president of France in 50 years,
but far leftists govern hundreds of towns, and when they get power
they are not afraid to wield it against capitalism's excesses, as the
fuss over Morvan's unsold house demonstrates.

The law entitles any municipality to set a price on a house, but the
town of St. Ouen on Paris' northern fringe is one of only a few that
exercises that right, and if the owner balks he can't sell it. So
after two years, Morvan's apartment sits unsold.

Deputy Mayor Michel Bentolila invokes France's motto of "liberte,
egalite, fraternite," saying: "There is no equality in pushing the
poor into ghettos and becoming a refuge for the rich."

Morvan, who calls himself a member of the "silent right," is fighting
back.

"It is unthinkable that in a modern market economy we should have a
situation like this," he said.

---

Associated Press correspondents Paul Lauener and Marie-Laure Combes
contributed to this report

"PJ O'Donovan" kirjoitti
legroups.com...

Are you homosexual certain all this babble is worth the effort? I suggest
you find an able shrink to consult with. You would benefit more than anybody
else. You are very ill.

"Pajamas O'Donovan" wrote in message news:
...
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Mar 29, 2007
Reuters

A former Australian judge, who blamed a dead woman for a speeding
offence in his car, has been charged by police and could face a hefty
jail sentence over his attempts to avoid a A$77 ($62) traffic fine.

After a long-running investigation that has attracted nationwide
publicity, police laid 13 separate charges of perjury, perverting the
course of justice and other offences against former judge and human
rights advocate Marcus Einfeld.

A Sydney newspaper last year sparked the massive police investigation
into the use of statutory declarations to avoid speeding fines after
revealing a woman blamed for driving Einfeld's car had died three
years before the offence. "It will be alleged that the offences relate
to four separate camera detection infringement notices," chief police
investigator Colin Dyson told reporters.

The police investigation found 240 people had also used a scam to
blame another dead person, or a man living in another state, after
their cars were photographed speeding or committing traffic offences.

A Sydney court last August dismissed a speeding charge against Einfeld
when he provided a declaration that he had loaned his car to an old
friend from the United States on the day of the offence.

A Sydney newspaper which attempted to verify Einfeld's story later
found the woman had died in a car accident in 2003 -- three years
before Einfeld's car was photographed speeding in Sydney.

Einfeld, who has previously denied any wrongdoing, was bailed to
appear in court in April. The offences he is now charged with carry
sentences of up to 14 years in jail.

In article ,
says...

"PJ O'Donovan" kirjoitti
legroups.com...

Are you homosexual certain all this babble is worth the effort? I suggest
you find an able shrink to consult with. You would benefit more than anybody
else. You are very ill.

Well spotted, Markku.

just another side of the evleth sickness
post and post and post again
Old people post old stuff



"Markku Grönroos" a écrit dans le message de news:
.. .

"PJ O'Donovan" kirjoitti
legroups.com...

Are you homosexual certain all this babble is worth the effort? I suggest
you find an able shrink to consult with. You would benefit more than
anybody else. You are very ill.

In article . com,
writes...

The law entitles any municipality to set a price on a house, but the
town of St. Ouen on Paris' northern fringe is one of only a few that
exercises that right, and if the owner balks he can't sell it. So
after two years, Morvan's apartment sits unsold.

Bit of lateral thinking needed.

Get a big black marking pen and draw a circle on the wall in the
hallway. Draw an X in the circle, then sign it.

You then sell the house for $25,000 and the original artwork on the hall
wall for another $25,000. Throw in a can of paint that matches the
original wall in the hallway for free.

Simple really.

--
DM
personal opinion only
The Australian Politics Resource
http://sunnybar.dynip.com/politics