70 Year Magazine Archive

On the Scene

by John Laughland

Why France Doesn’t Work

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Paris

WHENEVER there are major protest movements in France, memories of May 1968 resurface. Last December saw massive industrial unrest, and the entire civil service is due to strike on October 17. But any comparison with 1968 unfortunately overestimates the capacity of France—as of Europe in general—to undertake radical change in the near future. More probable than a revolution is something far more prosaic: a slump.

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