A battle out of time: The coal-miners’ suit

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — They waited more than half a century for the law to change and cover their claims. And last week, a court outside Paris announced that it will rule in September on the case of 17 coal-miners, fired for their participation in labor strikes — in 1948 and 1952. The [...]

Paris Journal: What a day for a daydream, reprise

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — For six weeks, French mailmen, teachers, train conductors, factory workers and government employees have been rallying the troops, readying banners and stoking the flames of popular discontent here before taking to the streets today in a massive protest.
But on this warm and sunny Thursday morning, you might not have [...]

Paris Journal: Students in the streets

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS – The green trucks and cleaning crews were there well before it was over, waiting in the streets behind the crowd. At 6:15, just before dark, thousands of marchers were asking, “Is it finished?” between cigarette drags. By 6:30, a line of 50 riot police and plainclothes officers in orange arm bands had [...]

The Leftist press a “hostage” of its own ideals

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — The front page was finalized, facts checked and re-checked, last-minute revisions fired off, headlines inspected for the appropriate level of populist bite. The paper even went to print.
But Libération did not hit French newstands last Saturday, except around the eastern city of Lyon.
“With disbelief, the management of Libération has [...]

Corduroy in the streets: The professors’ protest

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — Roused by mounting popular foment and bristling at the government’s proposed education reforms, tens of thousands of French university professors and students, including as many as 50,000 in Paris, took to the streets across the country on Tuesday. Of France’s 83 public universities, only 15 were untouched by the [...]

Paris Journal: What a day for a daydream

– By Scott Sayare –
PARIS — Already you could hear more cars than usual down in the little one-way street, Rue Georges Pitard. Nothing else apparently different about this Thursday morning, though, except the sunlight pouring through the window of the third-story studio, instead of that diffuse, pavement-gray Paris haze.
It was the first day of [...]