Rad May Day demonstration. You don't see them here, but there were also giant communist-themed flags all about and an anarchist contingent that I chatted with before the march. In Paris, May Day is an occasion for varying groups to assemble together and collectively demonstrate for their various issues and causes. Such groups include legal and illegal (sans papiers) workers alike and highlight concrete contemporary social problems like the recent sky rocketing of housing costs, access to working papers, the recent moves under Sarkozy to re-privatize the healthcare industry, and the state's attempt to cut education budgets throughout France (which has led to a number of recent student strikes over the past few months). Being the 40th anniversary of May '68, of the few people I talked to, almost all of them seemed ambivalent toward its contemporary legacy--the idea being that when conservatives today attempt to disparage the history of French radicalism, you know that it still serves as a touchstone for today's militancy. However, on the other hand, even more important than this is the rejection of nostalgia in favor of the will to create new strategies and alliances that work towards solving the contemporary crises mentioned above.

One such tactic that has become important is the move on the part of the sans papiers to seek work permits, as opposed to the traditional movement towards naturalization. With work permits, asserting the right to exist in French territories without naturalized status or a visa becomes much easier and it provides an alternative to the citizen/non-citizen binary that tends to make immigrant struggles difficult. More on this later...

Quoted: http://www.humanite.fr/Un-premier-Mai-de-ripostes-sociales

click to play

A twelve part feature on the history of the Tour de France. I saw a repeat of this on late night british television last week. It was done in 2003 for the 100 year 'anniversary' of the Tour. It's pretty sweet and it's filled with fun facts. Like, did you know that the first winner of the Tour won by car sharking his way to the finish?

Quoted: Presented by Sean Kelly, narrated by David Duffield, and commentary by Phil LiggettThis official history celebrates an inc...