PARIS (AFP) - Lundi 19 Janvier 1998 - 21h37 heure de Paris -
In the run-up to a statement from Lionel Jospin, due for Wednesday evening, several signs of movement were apparent on Monday with indications coming from Francois Hollande (PS) of possible gestures towards certain 'social minimums' and the organising of working meetings up to March 2 between public authorities and the unemployed movement.
The unemployed movement, who have increased their actions for 'the means for a decent standard of living' over the last 5 weeks, are encountering support amongst the public, a good part of whom come into contact with unemployment and precarite.
'Today' admits the first secretary of the PS, 'there is no doubt that it is necessary to make efforts to catch up on certain minimal levels of social provision which have been unjustly blocked by the right for the last four years.'
'That can be done within the margins of existing budgets', he is sure.
However, it is out of the question,, according to the Socialist boss, that the governmentwill take up the suggestion of the PCF to 'draw up a bill of supply in order to create a new allocation of thousands of francs.'
According to Maurice Pagat, president of 'l'association Partage', the Prime Minister could 'make a gesture towards the augmentation of RMI and ASS' (Allocation de solidarite specifique).(special solidarity allowance)
The unemployed collectives, AC!, MNCP, APEIS, Partage, and the CGT unemployed committees, who were received at great length on Monday by the head of mission Marie-Therese Join-Lambert, have all confirmed their expectation of a revaluation of social minimums and 'a moratorium on electricity disconnections and evictions'.
A calendar of weekly working meetings has been drawn up, up to March 2, covering social minimums, unemployment compensation, under-25s, and the institutions ANPE, Assedic etc. They will present their conclusions to Jospin on 15 March.
On the ground, there was no sign by last Monday of any weakening of mobilisations by the unemployed movement. They have increased occupations of offices eg Town Halls (Guingamp, Lannion, Brest...) chambers of commerce (Montpellier, Saint-Die...) the communitycentre of social security action of Saint-Nazaire, the offices of the electricity company at Bagnols-sur-Ceze and Limoges, the General Council of Haute-Garonne, a branch of Credit Lyonnais at Pau, and even the departmental office of CNPF at Lyon.
At Angers twenty unemployed were 'invited' to the Festival of Cinema primaries, where they received the support of Claude Chabrol. The forty or so unemployed who have been occupying the Normale Sup School (ENS), rue d'Ulm, Paris since Wednesday, left voluntarily to join the students at Jussieu.
Unemployment, which affects 3.1 million people, is a palpable reality for the more than three out of four French people (78%) who know someone who has lost their job. (Opinion poll: IFOP-Liberation-France Info).
Those who know unemployment at first hand, or who have experienced it at least once, make up 38% of the population, and a third of French people fear being dispatched to the ANPE in the months to come.
One fear inspired by the queues of long term unemployed is that while at the end of November there were almost 1.2 million, making up 37% of the unemployment figures, beyond the 3.1 million officially unemployed, there are 'around 7 million people', not counting the families of the official unemployed, whose living is precarious, according to a report of the General Planning Commission.
And according to the INSEE, 11% of the French population are living on the edge of poverty, with less than 3,200 francs for a single person,, while the charity organisations put forward a figure of 5 million who are socially excluded.
The steady increase of people overburdened by debts proves that poverty is gaining ground. Since 1990, around 600,000 cases have been opened - 100,000 of them in 1997.
Translated by Jane, England
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