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"Aujourd'hui, dans la rue" --> "Today, on the street"

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The soundtrack is dance music.
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A strong voice: Roughly, "Everybody stop working, Let's have a general strike."
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The ongoing manifestations are being orchestrated by young French people, who believe that CPE would put them in a vulnerable position where they can be hired, but also fired, easily. The labor law was designed to lower the unemployment rate among young people (under 26) in France, currently at a high 23%.

For employers, the law is attractive because it allows them the flexibility to hire young, unexperienced workers without a commitment or attached strings. For the first two years of employment, they can fire the workers with any or no reason. While CPE is favored by the government and industry leaders as a way to lower the jobless rate, it offers no security for young people for those initial two years on the job. If fired, they would lose their income and could have a difficult time finding another job and paying rent. This vulnerability, being imposed on them by the government's CPE, is what's fueling the manifestations.

During the protest, manifestants wore stickers and buttons that depicted young workers being dumped head-first into garbage cans. One banner was marked with a red swoop and the words “Just don’t do it,” playing off of the Nike slogan. Onlookers sitting on top of a bus stop, waved a sign that read "CPE = Blague de l’année" (Joke of the year). The sentiment among the youth is that the government is looking for an easy way to lower the jobless rate, at the expense of young people.

Yesterday morning, my host mother said to me, “the (French) government has been a bastard for months,” by not listening to the people. To get the government's attention, people are engaging in protests, which are mostly peaceful, where they draw power from numbers. An estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million people marched across France in protest against CPE yesterday, in cities like Lyon and Marseille. Here, unlike in the U.S., the people actively and unrelentingly challenge legislation. The matter of CPE has riled up the French enough that it seems the law might be overturned.

Walking around Paris, it’s not that obvious that a major protest is going on. I eavesdrop the word manifestation in nearly every conversation that I pass by on the street, but can’t make out much more than that. Everybody -- young and old -- is talking about CPE, but there are few tangible signs of a major protest. This morning, I saw signs posted at a street market advertising another manifestation planned for this Tuesday at 7 p.m. on avenue de la Republique. I'm supposed to attend a piano concert that my host mother is organizing for the first Journée Mondiale de la Trisomie 21 (she's president of AFRT, the association for Down Syndrome research in France), but I'll try to make it to both.

I think what's going on here is really important and I'm learning a lot about politics and the power of the French people.