| things are unravelling fast. |
Rioting youths are turning the Paris suburbs into a war zone. But the French communist daily l'Humanité this week reports front-page coverage of another struggle: "La révolte des stagiaires."
Stagiaires -- interns -- also took to the streets. Wearing white masks and bearing banners ("no contract, no salary, no rights"), they marched on Tuesday for steady wages and benefits in their internships, claiming companies were getting around labor laws by taking so many of them on. In other words, they want a proper job, as opposed to, well, a stage, which they choose to take, presumably voluntarily. A nationwide strike of interns is scheduled for November 14.
In the spirit of the day, this social movement came to life on the Internet. Exasperated by serial unpaid internships that produced no permanent employment, "Katy" created a blog in September. "At 32, I am stuck in adolescence," wrote the holder of two university degrees. "I don't even have the right to unemployment insurance." Imagine. It turns out that thousands share her fate. A movement -- and of course a Web site -- soon followed: Génération précaire (the precarious generation).
So the revolt of the well-educated, middle-class youth is on. By definition, internships give young people a taste of the working world. In France, an "intern strike" thus makes perfect sense because the country's workers have made an art out of striking. Meanwhile, French police were bracing yesterday for an eighth consecutive night of violence in the poor projects of Sainte-Denis.
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