La Grève - here and abroad
For some reason RFI wasn't on 91.5 WNYE last night. It's the strike! All of France is on strike!
Just kidding. Today it's only the transport workers, postal workers, teachers, air traffic controllers, and hospital staff... oh, and students. But seriously, I felt lost without my dose of RFI so that I could half-understand what's going on in France right now (and I'm still puzzled as to why it wasn't on), so I resorted to reading about things on the BBC website in English.
Fight, France, fight!
I admire the hell out of the way the French strike. I don't always support their cause, but at least they DO something about it, you know? When I worked as a tour guide in Paris, I loved working in a strike-history-lesson into my walking tours of the Marais. It was appropriate, since we would start off at the Hotel de Ville - formally called Place de Grève.
And here in the US, we have the Writers strike, which I completely support (even though I do miss The Office). In NYC, the stagehands are still on strike as well - at one of the busiest times of year for shows. And today I learned from an industry-type newsletter that "Nearly 300 CBS News newswriters who are members of the WGAE (writers guild of america east) and WGAW (writers guild of america west) voted 81% in favor to authorize a strike against CBS."
Wiredsays today "In a surprise move late Monday, the news writers at CBS voted to honor the Writers Guild of America strike and walked off the job. It's a show of pure solidarity and a shock to the would-be objective journalism world as TV news writers are not covered by WGA rules. With the Iowa Caucus approaching, this is a severe blow to any network news operation."
I really love all of this action. I love seeing people care. I feel bad for all the crew jobs that are affected by the writers strikes, I definitely have sympathy for the Paris commuters, and it's a shame that the show can not go on in New York City over this holiday weekend (unless something is quickly resolved). But it is so refreshing to see people do something. Up next for the writers is the International Day Of Solidarity on November 28, with demonstrations taking place in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Mexico and France. More details here.
Long live the spirit of la grève. Passion is always better than apathy.
Just kidding. Today it's only the transport workers, postal workers, teachers, air traffic controllers, and hospital staff... oh, and students. But seriously, I felt lost without my dose of RFI so that I could half-understand what's going on in France right now (and I'm still puzzled as to why it wasn't on), so I resorted to reading about things on the BBC website in English.
Fight, France, fight!
I admire the hell out of the way the French strike. I don't always support their cause, but at least they DO something about it, you know? When I worked as a tour guide in Paris, I loved working in a strike-history-lesson into my walking tours of the Marais. It was appropriate, since we would start off at the Hotel de Ville - formally called Place de Grève.
And here in the US, we have the Writers strike, which I completely support (even though I do miss The Office). In NYC, the stagehands are still on strike as well - at one of the busiest times of year for shows. And today I learned from an industry-type newsletter that "Nearly 300 CBS News newswriters who are members of the WGAE (writers guild of america east) and WGAW (writers guild of america west) voted 81% in favor to authorize a strike against CBS."
Wiredsays today "In a surprise move late Monday, the news writers at CBS voted to honor the Writers Guild of America strike and walked off the job. It's a show of pure solidarity and a shock to the would-be objective journalism world as TV news writers are not covered by WGA rules. With the Iowa Caucus approaching, this is a severe blow to any network news operation."
I really love all of this action. I love seeing people care. I feel bad for all the crew jobs that are affected by the writers strikes, I definitely have sympathy for the Paris commuters, and it's a shame that the show can not go on in New York City over this holiday weekend (unless something is quickly resolved). But it is so refreshing to see people do something. Up next for the writers is the International Day Of Solidarity on November 28, with demonstrations taking place in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Mexico and France. More details here.
Long live the spirit of la grève. Passion is always better than apathy.