Once again it's time for the Pennies, the prestigious Awards for Excellence in Protest Signage. The occasion was Sunday's giant demonstration in Paris against the CPE, the French Government's own version of "No Worker Left Behind."
As usual and more than usual, the impartial jury was constrained by its stated mission to choose one sign over another, as against its love of egalitarianism. And as usual it was easier to classify signs and chants according to type than to quality. French demonstrators are more skilled at developing slight, subtle variations on a given theme, whereas Americans tend towards raw invention. Among the main categories:
I) Variations on the acronym, CPE:
CPE= "C'est Pire que Tout" (Worse than Anything); "Cercueil Pour Etudiants" (Coffin for Students); "Contrat Première Emmerde" (First Crap-taking Contract); "Constitution En Panne" (Broken-down Constitution); "Champagne pour Elite / Cacahuètes Pour Etudiants" (Champagne for the elites, peanuts for students), etc.
II) Slogans connecting struggles, especially those of the young and the old:
"les vieux dans la misère / Les jeunes tous précaires / On n'en veut pas / De cette société-là" (The elderly in poverty, the young in uncertainty: we don't want that kind of society). This one was a chant led by the two major student unions.
III) Oscenities, often stylistic borrowings from America, e.g. "Baise le system" (mispelled; "Fuck the system"), or "CPE dans ton cul," an inadequate translation of "CPE up yours;" Another sign, closer to the linguistic purity recommended by the Académie Française, read: "Ton contrat tu te le mêts dans le cul" (same meaning).
And now....the Prizes!
Special Award for Subtle Cultural Inversion and Verlaine-like rhythm: "Qui sême la misère / Récolte la colère. De Villepin / Au Karcher" (He who sows misery reaps anger. Mop up Villepin; a reference to Minister of the Interior Sarkozy's threat to "mop up" the suburbs).
Red Badge of Courage: to the many illegal aliens ("Sans-Papiers") who turned out to demonstrate. As Woody Allen put it, sometimes success consists in just showing up.
Best for Use of Professional Jargon (from a group of young psychoanalysts): "Freud, Reviens: Il faut soigner Villepin!" (Freud, come back: Villepin needs help!), along with: "CPE: Castration, Perversion, Exploitation."
Best in the Tradition of French Lyrical Poetry: "Ils auront beau piétiner les fleurs, ils n'arrêteront pas le printemps" (They may well trample the flowers, they can't stop the Springtime).
And (drum-roll please): Best Sign, Best in Show, tha winna iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!
"Le Salaire de la Peur."
Et tout le reste n'est que littérature...