Grève!

So, for anyone who has ever studied abroad or lived in France, this post is inevitable. This is not my first experience with a French strike, far from it, but it does come the closest to hitting home. From time to time, it is hard to find rental bikes because all the public transport workers are striking and there are no metros, buses or trams. This could last a day or a month. Classes in Paris 8 (a university) closed down for six weeks last year due to student strikes. I have a few friends here who are very serious about the whole strike/protest scene, and it is very interesting to hear it described. One of my students asked my permission to come to the other section of class so that he could strike on his usual day. I said of course, and then asked him to explain (in English, of course) the philosophy behind the strike. Similar to the current strike, that one was started to protest the government's proposed changes to the educational system. On the one hand, almost everyone I have talked to agrees that the system requires serious alterations, but on the other hand, the ones that Sarco has approved are wildly unpopular, especially with teachers. The last strike had been started by students, but the current one was started by the profs.
In theory, I would love to strike. I really admire the spirit of protest, and the conviction of all my students when they talk about the reforms. I agree that the reforms (somewhat No Child Left Behind comparable, but worse and more widespread across the ages and into the university system) seem wretched, and yet, something stops me from participating. Maybe it was the fact that it was the first week of classes for the second semester, and I am eager to teach again. Maybe it was the fact that none of the other foreign lectrices were striking, nor was my boss, so I somehow felt I didn't have the right. Maybe it's the fact, that not being French, I can't vote on anything here, so I feel I really can't help a lot. But I think I am just too American at heart. I don't understand the passion that makes people refuse to work, to cut their own pay, to descend to the streets, in the hopes that the government will suddenly choose to listen on issues that the general population will never get to vote on. None of the people I talked to truly felt that the strike would do more than prove their unhappiness. I asked some striking friends what they thought would happen as a result of the strike, and they said that of course nothing would change.
In my eyes, the French strike so often that the act has lost the powerful effect it needs for a huge issue like this. Few can offer realistic solutions. My Yankee gut is to call a senator, try to organize a public forum, or vote a public official in or out of office. And so I didn't grève, I didn't put up signs or blocade the entrances to the school. I also didn't mark anyone absent from my classes, but that's a passive aggressive support at best. I do admire the spirit of dissent, but I just don't possess it in enough abundance to take it to the town square with a witty banner. (or maybe it's my French vocab stopping me...) The day I write here about participating in a strike, that's when you will know I have fully gone Gallic.