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PROTESTS

Protests erupt across France as anger over pension reform grows

Thousands demonstrated across France on Monday night in protest of pension reform, after the government survived two votes of no-confidence. Police said over 250 arrests were made amid clashes between groups of demonstrators and riot police.

Protests erupt across France as anger over pension reform grows
A damaged bus shelter during a demonstration in Dijon, following the failed votes of no-confidence in France's PM (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)

Protests erupted across France on Monday night after the French prime minister and her government survived two votes of no-confidence following a move to push pension reform through parliament without a vote in the Assemblée Nationale.

The first vote, brought by the centrist Liot coalition, managed to garner 278 votes, just nine short of the necessary 287 MPs needed to topple the government. The second vote, brought by the far-right, National Rally party, was overwhelmingly rejected.

READ MORE: Calendar: The latest French pension strike dates to remember

Following the votes, clashes between police and protesters took place in several French cities.

French police arrested 287 people throughout France throughout Monday night, 234 of which were in the capital, according to Le Parisien.

In Paris, a procession of a few hundred people met at the behest of opposition leaders near the Place Vauban after the results of the votes were announced. As police led protesters away, smaller groups scattered, with some lighting fires to garbage cans and damaging billboards, namely near the Saint-Lazare train station.

More clashes between police and protesters occurred near the Bastille area later in the evening and continued until after midnight with fires being lit throughout nearby streets. Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters with several officers reported injured.

Several videos circulated on social media, leading political leaders and others to call into question law enforcement’s use of force.

Member of the left-wing France Unbowed party, Antoine Léaument shared a video on Twitter on Monday of people being hit by batons near Chatelet. The lawmaker denounced the video calling President Emmanuel Macron “the shame of Europe” and judging the images “worthy of the worst authoritarian regimes”.

Other French cities, such as Lille, Dijon, Rennes, Nantes and Strasbourg, experienced similarly tense scenes.

A protester runs with an umbrella to protect himself from
tear gas during a demonstration in Dijon on Monday night (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)

In Strasbourg, large crowds were recorded and some protesters reportedly smashed the windows of a department store, according to AFP correspondents.

Opposition leaders also spoke out after the two votes of no-confidence failed. Leader of the France Unbowed party (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for a “people’s demonstration” of no-confidence in the government.

Mélenchon said during a press briefing on Monday that he hoped the “people’s censure of the government would be expressed across the country, in all places and in all circumstances, and that this will allow us to have the bill withdrawn”.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said on Tuesday that he would appear on the TF1 television channel at 1pm on Wednesday to answer questions from journalists and broadcasters, after having largely remained silent on the pension changes in the weeks leading up to the stormy parliament session where it was pushed through last week.

Union leaders have also called for another day of mobilisation Thursday, March 23rd. You can find more information about upcoming strike action in France HERE.

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POLITICS

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

France's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill forbidding workplace discrimination based on hair texture, which the draft law's backers say targets mostly black women wearing their hair naturally.

French parliament backs bill against hair discrimination affecting black women

Olivier Serva, an independent National Assembly deputy for the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe and the bill’s sponsor, said it would penalise any workplace discrimination based on “hair style, colour, length or texture”.

Similar laws exist in around 20 US states which have identified hair discrimination as an expression of racism.

In Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued guidelines against hair discrimination in schools.

Serva, who is black, said women “of African descent” were often encouraged before job interviews to change their style of hair. Backers also say that men who wear their hair in styles like dreadlocks are also affected.

The bill was approved in the lower house National Assembly with 44 votes in favour and two against. It will now head to the upper Senate where the right has the majority and the vote’s outcome is much less certain.

‘Target of discrimination’

Serva, who also included discrimination suffered by blondes and redheads in his proposal, points to an American study stating that a quarter of black women polled said they had been ruled out for jobs because of how they wore their hair at the job interview.

Such statistics are hard to come by in France, which bans the compilation of personal data that mention a person’s race or ethnic background on the basis of the French Republic’s “universalist” principles.

The draft law does not, in fact, contain the term “racism”, noted Daphne Bedinade, a social anthropologist, saying the omission was problematic.

“To make this only about hair discrimination is to mask the problems of people whose hair makes them a target of discrimination, mostly black women,” she told Le Monde daily.

A black Air France air crew member in 2022 won a 10-year legal battle for the right to work with braided hair on flights after a decision by France’s highest appeals court.

While statistics are difficult to come by, high-profile people have faced online harassment because of their hairstyle.

In the political sphere they include former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye, and Audrey Pulvar, a deputy mayor of Paris, whose afro look has attracted much negative comment online.

The bill’s critics say it is unnecessary, as discrimination based on looks is already banned by law.

“There is no legal void here,” said Eric Rocheblave, a lawyer specialising in labour law.

Calling any future law “symbolic”, Rocheblave said it would not be of much practical help when it came to proving discrimination in court.

Kenza Bel Kenadil, an influencer and self-proclaimed “activist against hair discrimination”, said a law would still send an important message.

“It would tell everybody that the law protects you in every way and lets you style your hair any way you want,” she said.

The influencer, who has 256,000 followers on Instagram, said she herself had been “forced” to tie her hair in a bun when she was working as a receptionist.

Her employers were “very clear”, she said. “It was, either you go home and fix your hair or you don’t come here to work”.

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