Why should French unions employ logic to push their agenda, when they can invoke the spectres of Enron and Worldcom? The fact that neither company is germane to the situation at hand, leftists the world over can speak their names and rally their anti-capitalist shock troops.
This CNN Europe story describes a large rally in Paris, organized by unions upset about the French government's plan to privatize two large public utilities, Electricite de France and Gaz de France.
CNN's Paula Hancocks said the protesters were "bitter towards the French government."
"They say privatisation has been proven not to work in the past. They give the examples of Enron, WorldCom and France Telecom, saying these companies got in trouble because they were privatised," she added.
Enron and WorldCom were never public companies. Enron started out as a pipeline operator, and WorldCom competed against AT&T before deregulation opened the floodgates. (Both companies were considerably smaller until the early 1990's.) Their problems had nothing to do with the government divesting their stock to the public marketplace.
I'm not sure why the unions in France are so concerned; after all, the next time a Socialist government is elected, the companies will be nationalized again. It's not like there will be long-term change. </sarcasm>
posted on October 03, 2002 04:50 PM
