Catherwood LibraryILR School

His tough talk not withstanding (see WIT for Jan. 13, 2003), the parallels between current center-right French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's attempts to erode the pension benefits of public sector workers and those by the previous center-right government (see WIT for May 9, 2003), must be increasingly uncomfortable. Public sector workers yesterday held the largest walkout since the three-week strikes over the previous pension reduction attempts in 1995, as between 850,000 and over 1 million teachers, police and fire officers, and utility workers shut down much of France. Mr. Raffarin's government has spent $17 million on publicity campaigns to avoid the public outcry that led to the last center-right government's downfall over pensions (see WIT for Feb. 4, 2003), but close to two-thirds of the public fear their pensions would be next and support the government workers.