The French students and unions won!

Amazing! After a full-on struggle, which at times got very violent, the French students, youth and unionists have succeeded in defeating the French government's planned youth employment laws that would have made it so easy for employers to fire and hire under-26-year-olds.

It is heartening to see that despite all its bluster that it would never back-down in the face of the protests, and insisting that it, the government, made laws, not protesters/thugs inthe streets, the French government has finally backed down. But for now. (They will probably come back with something else odious.)

This should hearten those of us in Australia who are really worried – outraged, even – at how the Howard government's truly unfair industrial relations regime will hurt so many workers, and wonder if we can succeed in a decent campaign to wind it back.