this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
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Do those actually achieve anything? The biggest protests I heard about where the ones against pensions reform and this reform was only delayed when the ruling party failed to form the government several times. It was result of typical politics, not protests.
What I see happening over and over in Spain is:
No protests, no grilling on the tram rails. Just negotiating and using legal leverage. Last one was railway strikes after series of accidents. They reached an agreement before the strike. Unions called it "historic" and won better investment in maintenance and personnel.
So, do the French protest actually achieve anything or does it only look nice in memes? Can someone give some examples of what they won recently?
Protests and labor strikes increase the leverage workers have when negotiating for better compensation. There is no leverage if there is no protest.
One of my favorite examples was a mutiny during WWI where they were fed up with charging to their deaths. The tangible results were the commander got sacked and they didn't have to charge to their death.
Yes, I even gave concrete example of how rail workers in Spain used this leverage recently.
I'm asking for concrete examples from France. What did they achieve recently? WWI is not recently.
How about the gilets jaunes protests? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_protests
The french, specifically, have a long tradition of putting their foot down and refusing to accept what their government is doing. I don't have specific links discussing it, but I know that occasionally entire major motorways will be shut down because farmers or lorry drivers have blocked them with heavy industrial machines, and they stay that way until those people decide to move. I also know that there's an entire region (Brittany) where the motorways aren't toll roads, unlike the rest of France, because every time they try the cameras and toll booths get destroyed.
Originally, the yellow vests protested because of an increase onfuel tax, to finance environmental measures. They got that tax increase to be halted. Also, agricultors regularly protest and get the reintroduction of harmful pesticides. Basically, the only trade-off the government is ready to accept is giving up on ecological progress.
Yes, but what did they achieve? I know about the protests. The wiki article you linked doesn't mention any gains.
"Participation in the weekly protests diminished and eventually ended entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, although minor protests continued after health restrictions were lifted."
Those were mainly Macron opponents protesting and demanding his resignation. He didn't resign. They had some other demands but the article doesn't mention if any of them were realized by the government.
So yes, the protests looked nice in pictures but besides damaging some property, what did they achieve?
They successfully canceled a gas tax raise.
I think it was more of a delay than cancellation: https://www.connexionfrance.com/news/more-drivers-to-pay-higher-pollution-taxes-on-new-car-registrations-in-france/705889
Gas prices went up everywhere anyway. But yes, I guess that was some concession from the government so it's a good example.
You’ll have to look a decade in the past.
Under former presidents (Hollande, Sarko and Chirac) protests did work.
Now it’s only since Macron that they are less effective as he does not care unless everything is literally burning.
I don’t have examples in mind, I participated in some of them but I was younger and do not really remember the details.
Someone gave example of mass protests against El Khomri law under Hollande and despite the protests the law did pass. But yeah, maybe before that it did work. My point is that in Spain for example worker unions score wins all the time while it looks like in France the government simply learned to ignore the protests. The perception that the French are better at fighting for their rights than other nations is at best outdated or it was just a myth all along.
35 hr work week has been maintained https://apnews.com/general-news-96d7f44de4e44f1ebdc7bf86f5e856e4
This law did pass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Khomri_law
Very curious you claim that they maintained 35 hours work week while only posting a link about the protests. It's like people think that protesting something == getting something.
You seem to be right. I was wrong. I really thought they won that one!
The showing was amazing and inspiring, but if they didn't win the thing they were fighting for, then we need to learn a lesson from that too. Thanks for pushing back.
My example was the French Army. I didn't dig for modern sources for you because I only wanted to post the one I liked.
They achieve a lot less since Macron is in power. He "listen to the street" (to the unions actually) a lot less than its predecessors. The yellow jackets had to go very far, with a lot of victims, just to get a few concessions. Repression is a lot more fierce with a lot of police violence. This had the effect of discouraging a lot of people, protests are generally smaller lately. It makes some think that direct actions is the only way now but not much has happened.
To find national protests with real achievement you'll need to search before Macron. There were some local achievements lately though. And protest are not done alone, there are usually strikes, negotiations and legal leverages at the same time.
This picture is actually from 2018 I think, so the beginning of Macron as president.
In some cases I think it does help to protest and take to the streets and not only strike. For example striking dock workers and metal factory workers is one thing. Having them march on the capital is another still... There's definitely overlap between these groups of workers and soccer hooligan groups for example. A large protest of certain groups imply the promise of non-state controlled violence if agreements aren't reached.
Other case is when the protests is just really really big. A few hundred thousand does work to get the message spread more clearly how 'willing' they are to keep striking. While striking and just sitting at home during strike sends rather mixed signals.
It also enforces the "we're in this together" in the workers.
It all sounds nice in theory but does it work in practice? I'm asking because I really don't know what the effects are in France. We see a lot of marching but what are the actual results? As I said, the biggest recent protests I heard about were those against pension reform and those didn't achieve anything. Did they the unions also strike to abolish this reform? From what you're saying the protests would indicate there was a will to strike and the "we're in this together" message was definitely there. The government didn't budge. Did it work in other cases?
One example where I know mass protests worked were coal miners protests in Poland. Any time the government tries to reform the unprofitable mines the mines go to Warsaw, block the streets, burn some tires, punch some politicians if needed and get what they want. This only serves the interest of this very small group and every one else loses. Other groups like teaches and nurses that don't want to punch politicians never get anything.
In Spain the government is way more scared of big scale disruption over long period of time that one time traffic problems in the capital. You limit the railway network capacity to 60% (legally you can't limit it more) over couple of days and the whole country feels the pain. You organize a protest in the capital and one city suffers for couple of hours. I wonder how does this compare to France. Do they also strike? Do they achieve anything?
I'm not very familiar with situations in every country ;) A bit in Belgium and Germany. In Belgium it is like the Polish miners: if certain groups are involved, I think the effect is felt in agreements in the end. But that is still what is needed after all: agreements. No union wants to strike forever, there is money to be made after all, striking is expensive for the workers (which is a main reason unions exist at all). Workers and owners share similar goals, don't forget: work, make money, be wealthy. Strikers generally aren't disputing that, all they are disputing is how much % of the wealth goes to whom.
If the Metallurgy takes to the street, politicians are scared. If farmers/truckers block highways, politicians are scared. If dockers go to Brussels, they bring fireworks (also literally), politicians are for sure scared of them. These do happen to be some of the best paid 'low education' jobs. Is it a coincidence?
The magic is, and it happens rather rare indeed, that all of them strike together, you need the dockers supporting the nurses etc. Unfortunately I think the battle against the pension age is lost everywhere. The EU serves as a divider by the way: we're always told we need to earn less of pension later or ... because "all our neigbouring countries are more competitive in this field!". Then you tune in to the media in the neighbouring countries: it's the same fairytale. The capital succeeded in dividing the workers across Europe, unions across EU-inner-borders extremely rarely join forces, and it has become a major weakness of the unions in EU today.
In my experience the general public transport strikes do more bad than good to the workers, for sure in the long run. These strikes are just way to common, general opinion outside the profession is that they are already generously treated for pensions, holidays, etc.
Then there are a few groups of workers... they barely have to announce a strike and they'll get what they want. One group is the train drivers (not all public transport, just the drivers). Another are the maritime pilots. If these strike, nothing moves. All ships/trains are blocked and the entire economy bleeds like crazy immediately.
But no, I can't provide you with any concrete evidence of protests actually having forced a better deal than if no protest would have been held. It's a gut feeling i guess. I don't think there has been a lot of A/B testing on this, tricky to organize ;) And between countries cultures and striking traditions are just a tad too different to be able to compare it easily.
I don't expect you to know the situation in France. I was hoping someone from France will answer that :)
I agree with you 100% on the rest. This is what it looks like in most countries. Some groups have bigger leverage and win confrontations easily, other groups never win. Some groups protests to get something, other groups don't have to.
I'm just wondering why Internet is promoting France as some masters of protesting. As you said, people also protest and strike in Belgium and Germany and get things done. I see news about mass protests in France but not much news about deals being made. Friend that worked in France for some time claimed that they simply irrationally oppose any changes, even small improvements and eventually nothing gets ever done. From my visits to France I have a picture of a country where everyone is frustrated that nothing works. If you look at some actual data like actual hours worked, paid holidays or maternity leave France is doing OK but not better than other countries. So I'm absolutely not saying that protests and strikes don't work. I'm asking if they work in France? Are they actually good at getting concessions from the government or do they just march a lot?