What's the matter with France's young people? Last November, they took to the streets by the thousands, burning cars and schools in protest aginst the chronically high unemployment amongst their ranks. So now the government comes up with a measure to encourage employers to hire more youth, and what do they do? Take to the streets again, this time in the hundreds of thousands. Well over 1 million students and workers demonstrated against the government's plan on Saturday, including at least 100,000 in Paris. As usual, the mostly peaceful marches turned violent as night fell, when the "casseurs"--people who like to break things--took over and made the French police earn their salaries.

The measure in question is the "contrat première embauche" (CPE), loosely translatable as the "first employment contract." Its principal provision is to allow employers to fire anyone under 26 for any reason whatsoever during the first two years after they are hired. The protesting students, demonstrating that their educations have not been for nothing, have already come up with alternative interpretations of the CPE acronym, including "chomage, précarité, exclusion" ("unemployment, precariousness, exclusion") and "chemin pour l'esclavage" (" road to slavery"). The movement seems unstoppable: Many French unions have joined together to threaten a general strike if the government does not repeal the CPE by Monday. Once again, the conservative government of president Jacques Chirac and prime minister Dominique de Villepin have shown themselves capable of doing something no one on the left has succeeded at in years: Uniting students and workers in one vast movement.

Readers of my comments in this space about last November's riots will recall that I usually approach these situations with mixed feelings. There is little doubt that the government's approach--creating jobs by making it easier for employers to exploit workers--is nothing more than a provocation in a country that prides itself on its social protections. Few people here look with admiration on the American model, in which employers have a nearly free hand in keeping wages, benefits, and employment protection to a minimum not only for young people but for a significant percentage of the nation's workforce. Wal-Mart would have a hard time making it in France, even if some Americans--usually the better off ones--think that workers should be grateful to have jobs at all.

On the other hand, as I have said before, the French model also leaves much to be desired. Certainly, job creation has to involve a lot more than pandering to the capitalist class's natural desire to increase its profits. And here is where the social protections, when interpreted rigidly--and that is exactly how most French unions do interpret them--often stand in the way. The French economy is stagnant and lacking in dynamism, and the unemployment figures--more than 10 percent amongst all workers and an average 22 percent among workers aged 15-24 years--are just one of the most important symptoms of this malaise. The primary reason is that neither employers nor workers in France are encouraged nor helped to take risks, to make changes, or to invest in new businesses. In this regard, French unions can be counted on to oppose any increase in economic flexibility; rather, the typical union sees its role as protecting the workplace from any and all changes that might help the nation's economy create new jobs as part of a program of economic expansion.

So while the student-worker alliance may stoke revolutionary imaginations right now, in the long run it could turn out to be a loser for France's youth. In the meantime, look for the government to abandon the CPE this coming week, most likely under the guise of suspending it while calling for a "national debate" or "national dialogue." But don't expect the French youth unemployment rates to come down any time soon.