Home
Archive
Columnists
Video
Blogs
Discuss
About
Search
Donate
Advertise
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Register to Vote: Rock the Vote, powered by Working Assets Wireless
  • AlterNetYour turn

Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.


Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.

French Fires

By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real. Posted November 9, 2005.


In the French riots, it's poor immigrants making all the noise. Here, it will be American workers who had a taste of middle-class life, only to have it snatched away.

Share and save this post:
Digg iconDelicious iconReddit iconFark iconYahoo! iconNewsvine! iconFacebook iconNewsTrust icon

In Special Coverage

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
Jim Hightower, Raising Hell
Jonathan Rowe

Democracy and Elections:
Are Feds Trying to Aid Republican Candidate's Election?
Tim Kalich

DrugReporter:
A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom
Lux

Election 2008:
The Real Elitist: Video of McCain's Collection of Mansions Reveal He's Not Your Average Joe
Steven Greenhouse

Environment:
Republicans Have Handed Democrats a Winning Election Issue
David Morris

ForeignPolicy:
Blocking a Gazan's Path to an Education
Fidaa Abed

Health and Wellness:
The Misshapen Mind: How the Brain's Haphazard Evolution Left Us with Self-Destructive Instincts
Sasha Abramsky

Hurricane Katrina:
From the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Not Accomplished
Amy Goodman

Immigration:
Medical Neglect in Immigrant Prisons Reveals America at Its Worst
Kyle Hussein de Beausset

Media and Technology:
What's Going on with the Media's Ballooning Coverage of Celebrity Babies?
Meredith Blake

Movie Mix:
Protest over Use of the Word 'Retard' in Stiller's 'Tropic Thunder' Misses the Target
Annabelle Gurwitch

Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Obama Should Pick Hillary
Lanny Davis

Rights and Liberties:
Stop the Execution: Jeff Wood Faces Death Tomorrow for a Murder He Didn't Commit
Liliana Segura

Sex and Relationships:
Catching the Wrong John: When Are the Media Going to Talk about John McCain's Infidelity?
Drew Westen

War on Iraq:
How Many More Iraqis Can You Throw Behind Bars Without Trial?
Fatih Abdulsalam

Water:
What If Your Tap Water Is Not Safe To Drink?
Elizabeth Royte

More stories by Stephen Pizzo

Get AlterNet in
your mailbox!

 
Advertisement

How do you explain the rioting that is happening in France? Two words: cheap labor. France, like most other mature Western economies, has embraced cheap labor from underdeveloped countries. That flood of cheap labor has, at least until now, served both corporations and consumers. Corporate earnings are up across the board, for example.

But, you point out, wages are down across the board too. How does that serve consumers -- most of whom are working-class folk?

The answer comes as a single, hyphenated word -- Wal-Mart. Cheap labor produces cheap goods. How many times have you bought something at a Big Box store and said to yourself, I don't know how they can make and sell this item so cheaply? Down deep, of course, you really don't care. You're just happy you got the gizmo for so little.

And it's not just cheap labor abroad that we're addicted to. In both Europe and the U.S., legal and illegal immigration has turned ordinary Americans into cheap labor employers as well. Even a working-class stiff can afford a gardener, a housekeeper and a nanny these days. You can quite literally pick them up right off the street corner.

Want an addition built on to your home? It's almost certain that the only reason you can afford one is because the contractor no longer hires union carpenters. Instead, he picks up a few Mexican carpenters down on a corner, or a hiring hall. They are skilled and hardworking, and they put in a full day for a fraction of what a union carpenter would charge. You're happy. The contractor's happy.But some former union carpenter now works at the local Oil Stop, earning half of what he once made. Then again, that one-time union carpenter is still able to make ends meet, thanks to cheap imported goods -- at least for now.

So far, so good for everyone -- at least it would appear. But there is an inevitable price for all this, and the French are paying it now. There really is no free lunch, even in France. Two dynamics are now in play, even if most Western governments still refuse to acknowledge them.

First, Western economies have been busy for the past 10 years or so stewing the golden geese that made them economic powerhouses in the first place --- their working middle-classes. Workers' real wages have plummeted as their homegrown industries turned to cheaper foreign labor. In the short run, those cheap goods coming back into their countries blunted the effect of lower domestic wages. But that can't go on forever. Sooner or later, Western consumers will run out of both disposable income and available credit. When that happens, the middle-class consumer -- the engine that drives every Western economy -- will stop pulling the train. (We should see the first hint of that here during the coming holiday season.)

Second, low wages paid to immigrants -- many illegal -- create the very conditions that sparked the riots in France. Do the math yourself. If American workers, who have seen their real wages drop like a rock, are beginning to feel the first signs of economic stress, imagine the fiscal conditions that face the average low-wage immigrant family. Such immigrants already live on the economic razor's edge. What they learn -- too late --is that the deck is stacked against them. They cannot join the mainstream of these societies, because allowing them to do so would require paying them a livable wage. And what purpose would that serve, paying immigrants the same as domestic workers? The French, for example, already don't seem to care for having all these folks in their country to begin with. The reason they put up with them is because they work for peanuts.


Digg!

Stephen Pizzo is the author of numerous books, including "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans," which was nominated for a Pulitzer.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »


Advertisement

 

Comments Turn comments off sitewide Give us feedback »
Comments closed.
The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.
View:
Pizzo got it wrong - REALLY wrong
Posted by: philame on Nov 9, 2005 1:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
To really understand what is happening in France, read the two articles Alternet posted on November 8th written by two people that actually know something about Europe - Pizzo doesn't understand the dynamics in Europe.

He wrote: "The trouble is that surplus of labor also means that, at any point in time, there are more unemployed immigrants in France than working ones, with more joining that surplus labor pool each day. Tick, tick, tick." That is NOT the problem is France.

The rioting teenagers are the chidlren and grandchildren of workers wo were INVITED to France because France, like the rest of Western Europe, was desperate for labor PERIOD not cheap labor. Things got complicated after the oil crisis crippled Western economies. Suddenly guest workers had overstayed their welcome. So this is NOT a CHEAP LABOR issue.

Moreover, in Europe, immigrant background DOES NOT equal uneducated. As a poster on one of the two credible articles on this issue asked: How do you explain that young people of Middle Eastern decent with advanced university degress from French universities do not get hired? Cheap labor does not explain that.

Pizzo's article simply projects American conditions on Europe but Europe is not the US - his analysis is way off.

Moving along to Pizzo's slips into racial biases. Does Pizzo know anything at all about the immigrants of North African and Middle Eastern decent in Europe? This article shows his knowledge starts and stops with a vague awareness that they are there and some of them are Arab. Until September 11th, post-World War II western Europe was more familiar with terrorism from the likes of the IRA and ETA (in Spain) - not Arab immigrants. Thanks for going out of your way to reinforce a stereotype Pizzo! Great job there...

And as far as Mexicans being docile - have you ever heard of the Zapatista movement?

Pizzo, you were totally overconfident with this article and you are going to mislead a lot of people because of that. I can't believe Alternet would publish this (but then again you guys published that bad bird flu piece too). A rule of thumb to the Alternet staff, if any writer claims they can summarize a complex social issue in two words - beware!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Pizzo got it wrong - REALLY wrong Posted by: Samantha Vimes
» RE: Pizzo got it wrong - REALLY wrong Posted by: Rrose Sélavy
» Define Capitalism, please. Posted by: qrswave
» No Posted by: qrswave
» RE: No Posted by: owleyes
» Join the Club! Posted by: qrswave
» RE: To Radicalizer Posted by: philame
Could Karl Marx...
Posted by: Nigelthebrit on Nov 9, 2005 4:54 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...be waiting in the wings? It seems to me as if, 16 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Marx's predictions about the contradictions of the classical (and neo-classical) capitalist system are being proved right. Both the dispossessed workers and the low paid immigrants have more in common with each other than that which divides them - if only they'd see it.
Both are getting to the stage where they have nothing to lose but their chains - and both have a World to win.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Could Karl Marx... Posted by: monkeywrench
» Rodney was right Posted by: jwg
Pizzo got it wrong
Posted by: qrswave on Nov 9, 2005 5:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I agree that some of what he says is totally wrong (mexican=peaceful; arab=violent; what crap), and some of what he says is incomplete.

But, there are strands of truth in his piece. He is right, there is no such thing as a free lunch; and the working class is the engine of the economy--without them nothing productive is taking place!

Interest is like impure gasoline being pumped into the engine. The impurities start to clog the engine. At first it's slow, showing signs of inefficiency--the nation works but just doesn't accomplish much because most of the budget (taxes)goes to paying back interest.

But, eventually it grinds to a halt.

Eventually, the engine burns out

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Did I Say Impure? Posted by: qrswave
» Huh Posted by: jwg
» Great question Posted by: qrswave
Superficial resemblances
Posted by: dkm on Nov 9, 2005 5:53 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
On the surface, the problems in Europe (they appear to be not just French now) strongly resemble what the US went through in the 60's minus MLK and his program of civil disobedience. I seem to remember that Watts came apart as did Detroit and several other places to one degree or another. The basic problem was racism from which stemmed a host of other economic and social problems. The same thing seems to be happening in Europe. I don't know if this is just a superficial resemblance or an identical twin, but I suspect the latter.

A solution to the European problem will depend on resolving the racial inequities as the US has tried to do with varying degrees of unsuccess.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Well put Joshua H Posted by: philame
» One Major Difference Posted by: AdamSelene11726
JH: No doubt Society's Problems are Complex
Posted by: qrswave on Nov 9, 2005 8:52 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
But, there is one common denominator--money.

Currently, the dollar is the defacto global currency because petroleum is being traded in dollars only, and the dollars are controlled by a small collection of people.

If you solve the monetary system, you will not make people perfect, but you will mitigate the extreme inequities and resulting social friction that we are witnessing today.

When you are strapped for cash, the color of your neighbor's skin begins to irritate you, and so does your wife or husband or children...hence, racial and family discord...

If you think what I'm say makes sense visit The Truth Will Set You Free

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» please, read my latest entry Posted by: qrswave
France invented Club Med; now it is pioneering "Club Mad."
Posted by: monkeywrench on Nov 9, 2005 9:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Just wait and see what happens when 100 million formerly-middle class americans wake up and realize that they can no longer pay their bills or the finance charges on their credit cards or their children's increasingly-worthless college educations or their mortgages – and then realize that they will NEVER be able to again. The result will make the riots in France look like a Club Med vacation.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The Paris Uprising
Posted by: malcolmartin on Nov 9, 2005 11:57 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
American capitalism steeled itself throughout the Cold War and emerged with possibilities for world domination most immediately grasped by the so-called Neo-cons. So since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 has the US has accelerated toward a failsafe point, a Rubicon of sorts.

There is no turning back now! Unchecked by a revolutionary struggle based on the idea of sharing the world’s resources, capitalism will by its very nature turn the world into a giant slave labor camp. Capitalism's appetite for profit simply can not be satisfied! For example U.S. oil corporations realized world record profits last year and this year as gasoline prices race past $3.00 a gallon they will rake in an even greater bounty. But unless Big Oil makes ever greater profit into the indefinite future, ExxonMobil and Chevron will whither and die. There is only so much technology can boost production and only so low wages can be depressed until a slave system must be created. Even at that, the system will then stare into the eyes of its fatal contradiction. Slaves can not buy the products they produce.

Much like Charles Darwin's science-based explanation of the origins of life, Karl Marx guided us through the reasons capitalism was born, why it would thrive and dominate for a time, and how its inherent weaknesses condemned it to be replaced by a superior economic system. But will there be a world for socialism to inherit? Problem is capitalism in its final throes, irrational and increasingly insane, has now armed itself with doomsday weapons and created an immune system for itself. It influences culture and controls the mass media and education across a growing part of the world, places its servants in seats of political and military power, and creates philosophy and myth to glorify its own existence. It will take advantage of war, disaster, disease, terror, and slavery to feed itself but it can not call off the inevitability of its own death.

The working and poor people of the world can feel this growing threat to their existence and they will respond much as Paris is now. Capitalism's defense mechanisms, the smoke and mirrors, have confused many and its formidable coercive powers have driven others to despair. Certainly the people do not yet realize their collective strength. In time they will!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

French Fires and American slavery
Posted by: Dianka on Nov 9, 2005 12:21 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Americans of all political leanings have been loathe to discuss how our celebrated welfare "reforms" have put our poor in the same boat as immigrant labor. Welfare recipients, as well as disabled (on SSI/SSDI) parents of dependent children, have been subjected to required labor, and American businesses have been more than happy to hire these people---often at subminimum wages. For the disabled, this often means being assigned to "sheltered workshops". While doing routine assembly and packing chores, these people can be paid as little as $1.75 per hour (and I am writing from experience), while usually having to meet average-to-above average production rates. Our own government created a tangle of policies that have turned many of our poor into grossly-inadequately subsidized labor, where aid recipients are often paid less than immigrant labor, only to have most of those earnings cut from what is left of our "reformed" benefits. Of course, this saves corporations the complications of hiring non-English speaking people and saves them billions in labor costs. It spares them the expense of having to build factories in foreign nations, and having to ship materials/products.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

No cheap labour in Europe
Posted by: ciccio on Nov 9, 2005 2:31 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
With the exeption of England, most of Europe had relatively closed markets, they protected above all their farmers, not for a particular love of them but for the horrible experience during their wars, without a guaranteed food supply you are
bound to loose. The Allies did Germany the great favour of
bombing most German industry, as a result they had to build
new modern, up to date and efficient factories. I know this sound facetious, this was an explanation given to me by the
director of a major British manufacturer from whom I had had
to stop buying, his price and quality was no longer acceptable.
He told me that his plant was built in 1930, his competitors in
Holland was built in 1960, It used half the labour and was twice as productive.This was about 40 years ago, the start of
massive immigration to both France and Europe. Industry was
booming, farm workers were flocking to the factory, the pressure on wages was extreme. The unions were opposed to immigration and were adamant that under no circumstance was anyone allowed in the country working for less than prevailing wages or working conditions. When labour has a choice of jobs, they will take the better paid one, leaving the
lower paid/dirtier one for the immigrant, who was more than happy to take it. As long as Europe was prospering, so did the
immigrant, but as in the United States, the flood of outsourcing, cheap imports and free trade hurt the ones at the bottom of the ladder, whosoever is above them does not
mind seeing them drowned as long as they can survive. It is
and it is not racism, it is survival, it just happens that the
muslims were the last on the ladder to prosperity.Had the immigrants been Poles or Russians or Spaniards, the situation
would be the same today. In the United States the last groups
to get on the ladder of prosperity were the Blacks followed by
the Mexicans, the worse the ecconomy gets the worse they
will they suffer. When the US unemployment rate hits 10%
you are going to see the most massive effort to deport all
illegals followed by howls of agony by the working classes to
curtail benefits for the lazy bums on welfare. That is nature
red in tooth and claw and that is what we are seeing.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Illegal labor
Posted by: eastcoker on Nov 9, 2005 7:42 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am glad this for article. I tend to stand apart in 'christian communities' for my dislike of 'illegal labor'. Folks say I have a 'legalistic' mind. So be it. And this article illustrates why.

I can not stand low ballers, people who employ people under the table, 'christians' who justify this. It is a fundamentally different point of view then the one I hold.

People can justify what ever they want Imagine if everyone, now I mean everyone, followed the rules. What a nice world we would have.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

These are neither American-style race riots nor a Muslim rebellion.
Posted by: qrswave on Nov 9, 2005 8:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
According to Gwynne Dyer at Common Dreams.Org

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Americans Should Learn from France's Mistakes
Posted by: blacksheep on Nov 10, 2005 3:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In order to understand the riots in France you need to know about the history behind it, such as the French occupation of Algeria and the brutal War for Independence. Since Americans scarecely ever read, maybe you could catch a glimpse of the issues in the 1965 film by Gillo Pontecorvo, "The Battle of Algiers." The Pentagon has screened this film in order to educate the military in ways of dealing with 'insurgents' in occupied lands, showing that we do not learn the correct lessons from history, but perpetuate whichever deplorable methods worked, regardless how evil.
Even if you hate learning history, the film is masterful.

The rioters who dwell in Paris's banlieus are not defined by religion. Many are not Muslim. They are second and third generation French whose parents and grandparents are mainly from Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria. They have been systematically abused by the police, with over 300 "mortal blunders" (a euphemism for youth deaths in police custody) since 1990. The riots were sparked by yet another two mysterious deaths of youths who were fleeing the police. We need to question why police are to be so feared that youths must run away. We must also ask why the government has not disciplined any police officers over these "mortal blunders" and why the police officers continually use the informal and insulting "tu" when addressing the youths in the banlieus.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

how do you explain what's happening in france?
Posted by: aedwards on Nov 11, 2005 5:49 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
one word... globalization. what France is experiencing is the result of the push towards a one world government that has been the trend in europe for a while now. This will not be the last occurence of this kind of thing. More countries are going to start experiencing riots in europe and its not going to stop its just going to get worse. The problem with France is that they have to many laws that, while ment to protect its citizens, take away thier freedoms. This is what happens when you have a government that become to large and starts to control the economic and personal lives of its citizens. Always with the best intentions, but never with good results. The youth in France just happen to be taking the brunt of their parents and grandparents stupidity.

This will not end in France. The violence will spread to every other european country in the near future. Its best to start watching how our government will respond to this. See what they impelment on us as a result of whats happening there.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]