Notes · FrenchUK · A-Levels

Demonstrations and strikes: who holds the power?

Manifestations, grèves - à qui le pouvoir ? is the second sub-theme of AQA's political-life theme, at A-Level only. It covers the power of the unions, the effectiveness of strikes and demonstrations, and the different attitudes these tensions provoke. The notes explain the French framework precisely - the constitutional right to strike, the notice period in the public sector, the minimum-service law in transport, the five historic confederations, le dialogue social - and give the vocabulary of protest, the reported speech of news coverage, and the balanced argument the question demands.

5 sections~23 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

T·111111 / 15

Exam profile

AO1 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to spoken French on social conflictAO2 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to written French on industrial relationsAO3 · Manipulate the language accurately, using a range of lexis and structureAO4 · Show knowledge of, and respond critically to, political conflict in French-speaking society

Operators:traduirerésumerexpliquerrapporterévaluerconclure

basic level

This sub-theme belongs to the political-life theme and is not part of AS French (7651).

higher level

The full A-Level expects the French system of industrial relations to be explained accurately and the effectiveness of protest to be evaluated with examples, using reported speech and the passive to handle news material.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Demonstrations and strikes: who holds the power?

The power of the unions: le pouvoir des syndicats#

AdvancedAQA 7652 3.2.2 - Manifestations, grèves - à qui le pouvoir ? : le pouvoir des syndicatsDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

France presents a paradox that is the best possible starting point for this strand: union membership is among the lowest in Europe, yet unions are powerful. The explanation is institutional. Their power does not rest on membership numbers but on three things: their capacity to mobilise well beyond their members, their legal role in negotiating collective agreements that cover the great majority of employees whether or not those employees are members, and their representativeness, which since a 2008 reform is measured by results in workplace elections rather than by historic status. State it in French as: la force des syndicats français ne vient pas du nombre de leurs adhérents mais de leur rôle institutionnel et de leur capacité de mobilisation.

The main confederations should be named accurately. La CGT, founded in 1895, historically close to the left and traditionally the most combative. La CFDT, which took its present form in 1964 and is generally more reformist and negotiation-oriented. Force ouvrière (FO), founded in 1948. La CFTC, of Christian trade-union origin, founded in 1919. La CFE-CGC, representing managers and technical staff. Alongside these sit l'UNSA and l'Union syndicale Solidaires, whose SUD unions are prominent in transport and public services. Their opposite numbers on the employers' side are les organisations patronales, chief among them le MEDEF, formed in 1998. Collectively, unions and employers are les partenaires sociaux.

The vocabulary of industrial relations is precise and highly examinable. Le dialogue social is the general term for negotiation between the social partners. Une convention collective is a sector-level collective agreement setting pay and conditions; un accord d'entreprise is a company-level one. Les élections professionnelles elect employee representatives to le comité social et économique. Une négociation can aboutir (succeed) or échouer; parties can rompre les négociations or reprendre le dialogue. A settlement is un accord or un protocole d'accord, and its opposite is l'enlisement du conflit - the conflict getting bogged down.

The right to strike itself is constitutional. It was recognised in the preamble to the 1946 Constitution, which the Fifth Republic incorporated, so it is not a concession granted by an employer but a right of constitutional rank. It is nevertheless regulated: in the public sector a strike requires un préavis de grève of five clear days under the law of 31 July 1963, and the law of 21 August 2007 introduced a form of service minimum in regular land passenger transport, requiring advance notice from individual employees so that a predictable service can be organised. Knowing that the right is constitutional but framed is exactly the balanced knowledge AO4 rewards.

Worked example

Translation into English: a passage on union power

Translate into English: « Les syndicats français ont beau compter peu d'adhérents, ils pèsent lourd : c'est à eux que revient la négociation des conventions collectives, qui s'appliquent ensuite à l'ensemble des salariés d'une branche, syndiqués ou non. »

Handle avoir beau
ont beau compter peu d'adhérents = although they have few members, or for all that they have few members. Do not translate beau as beautiful. This structure is the sentence's hinge.
Handle peser lourd
peser lourd is figurative: to carry a lot of weight, to count for a great deal. A literal to weigh heavily would be wrong in register.
Unpack the cleft with revenir à
c'est à eux que revient la négociation - revenir à quelqu'un means to fall to someone, to be someone's role. Natural English: it is they who are responsible for negotiating, or negotiation falls to them. Preserve the emphasis.
Handle the relative and its agreement
qui s'appliquent ensuite à l'ensemble des salariés - the relative refers to conventions collectives (feminine plural), so the verb is plural. This is a comprehension check as much as a grammar one: knowing what qui refers to determines the English.
Handle syndiqués ou non
An elliptical apposition: whether they are union members or not. Do not translate syndiqués as syndicated; un salarié syndiqué is a unionised employee.

Result: For all that French unions have few members, they carry a great deal of weight: it is they who are responsible for negotiating the collective agreements, which then apply to all the employees in a sector, whether they are union members or not.

Typical mistakes

Assuming French unions are powerful because they are large; membership is low and the power is institutional.
Treating une grève as always illegal or always unrestricted; French law both protects and frames it.

Active revision

Expliquez en français, en 120 mots, pourquoi les syndicats français sont influents malgré un faible taux de syndicalisation.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA) · GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

Are they effective? Manifestations et grèves - sont-elles efficaces ?#

AdvancedAQA 7652 3.2.2 - Manifestations, grèves - à qui le pouvoir ? : manifestations et grèves - sont-elles efficaces ?DfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Le cycle d'un conflit social

Fig. 1The sequence a French social conflict follows. The decisive junction is la négociation: an answer that explains why some conflicts reach un accord and others l'enlisement is answering the question the specification actually sets.

Define effectiveness before answering, because the question is otherwise unanswerable. A movement may succeed in four distinct ways: obtaining withdrawal of a measure, obtaining amendments, shifting public opinion for the future, or simply demonstrating that a constituency exists and must be reckoned with. French history supplies clear cases at both ends. The strikes of November and December 1995 against a plan to reform pensions and social security led to the withdrawal of central parts of the plan. In 2006 the contrat première embauche was withdrawn after weeks of student and union mobilisation. By contrast, the pension reforms of 2010 and of 2023 were enacted despite very large demonstrations, the latter with the use of article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows a text to pass without a vote unless a censure motion succeeds.

The repertoire of action is wider than the word strike suggests, and the French terms are specific. La grève reconductible is renewed day by day by a vote of the strikers and is the most powerful form. La grève perlée slows work without stopping it; la grève du zèle applies every rule so scrupulously that the service seizes up. Un piquet de grève is a picket line; le blocage of a site or a road extends the pressure; une manifestation is the march itself, with son cortège, ses banderoles, ses slogans and ses mots d'ordre. And beyond the workplace, la pétition, le boycott and l'occupation each have their place.

The conditions of success are analysable, which is what lifts an answer above a list of dates. A movement is more likely to obtain something when it is unitaire - the confederations acting together rather than separately; when it enjoys public sympathy, which strikes in transport rapidly lose; when it can be sustained financially, which is why une caisse de grève matters; when it targets a measure that is not yet law; and when the government's own majority is fragile. Conversely, un mouvement s'essouffle - runs out of steam - when it is divided, when it inconveniences the public more than the employer, and when the government simply waits.

The deeper question the sub-theme title poses - à qui le pouvoir ? - deserves a direct answer. The honest one is that power is distributed and situational: the government holds legal and legislative power, including instruments such as 49.3; unions hold the power to disrupt and to legitimate; public opinion arbitrates and can shift rapidly; and the media frame the conflict. Say it in French as: le pouvoir n'est pas détenu par un seul acteur ; il se déplace au fil du conflit, et c'est souvent l'opinion publique qui tranche. Note se déplacer and trancher - to shift and to decide - which are the exact verbs French uses here.

Worked example

Reporting a social conflict in French

You have four raw facts: the unions called for a strike; the government refused to withdraw the text; talks broke down; the movement continued. Write them up as a short news paragraph in French with reported speech.

Choose the reporting register
News French uses the passé composé for events and the present for the current state, plus the passive and reported speech. Avoid the passé simple, which is literary; AQA requires it receptively, not productively.
Report the call with the right verb
Les syndicats ont appelé à la grève - appeler à takes à and no article before grève here. For the reported demand: ils ont exigé que le texte soit retiré - exiger que triggers the subjunctive, and soit retiré is a passive subjunctive.
Report the refusal with the tense shift
Le gouvernement a répondu qu'il ne céderait pas - future becomes conditional after a past reporting verb. céder is the right verb for to give way, and ne pas céder is the standard collocation.
Report the breakdown with the passive
Les négociations ont été rompues dans la soirée. Passive with agreement (rompues, feminine plural). This is exactly the register a reading text will use.
State the current position
Le mouvement est reconduit et une nouvelle journée d'action est annoncée pour jeudi. reconduire is the technical verb for renewing a strike, and une journée d'action is the standard term for a day of coordinated action.

Result: Les syndicats ont appelé à la grève et ont exigé que le texte soit retiré. Le gouvernement a répondu qu'il ne céderait pas. Les négociations ont été rompues dans la soirée. Le mouvement est reconduit et une nouvelle journée d'action est annoncée pour jeudi.

Typical mistakes

Assuming French strikes always succeed; major reforms have been enacted in the face of very large mobilisations.
Confusing une manifestation (a demonstration) with une démonstration (a proof or demonstration of a principle) - a false friend that reverses the sense.

Active revision

Rédigez 150 mots en français répondant à « Les grèves sont-elles efficaces ? » : définissez l'efficacité, donnez un exemple de réussite et un d'échec, puis concluez.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA)

Different attitudes: attitudes différentes envers ces tensions politiques#

StandardAQA 7652 3.2.2 - Manifestations, grèves - à qui le pouvoir ? : attitudes différentes envers ces tensions politiquesDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

There are four distinct positions, and naming them in French is the substance of this strand. Les soutiens see protest as a legitimate and necessary counterweight: la grève est le seul moyen de pression dont disposent les salariés. Les usagers exaspérés are sympathetic in principle but resent being taken hostage - the standard French phrase is prendre les usagers en otage, which is itself contested vocabulary because it frames the strikers as aggressors. Les critiques de fond argue that protest blocks necessary reform and that France's negotiating culture is weak. And a fourth group is simply indifferent or resigned - on a l'habitude, ça passera.

France's reputation as a country of strikes is worth examining rather than repeating, because a candidate who examines it will outscore one who confirms it. Two accurate observations. First, the visibility of French conflict is partly a matter of form: France concentrates protest into large, public, national demonstrations, which are highly visible, while other countries' industrial conflict may be more dispersed. Second, French social conflict often arises because negotiation has failed or was never seriously attempted - la faiblesse du dialogue social en amont explique en partie la vigueur du conflit en aval. That is a genuinely analytical point, and it is well supported.

Public order is part of the picture and needs careful, neutral vocabulary. Une manifestation is normally declared in advance to the prefecture and accompanied by les forces de l'ordre, including les CRS. Trouble is attributed to les casseurs, sometimes organised in what French media call un black bloc, whose actions are distinguished from those of the demonstrators - the standard formulation is une minorité venue en découdre s'est mêlée au cortège. On the other side, debate about la doctrine du maintien de l'ordre and about les violences policières is live in France. Present both, attribute both, and avoid slogans.

The media dimension repays attention because comprehension questions target it. Coverage tends to focus on la journée d'action, les chiffres de participation - always contested, since les organisateurs and la police give different figures, a discrepancy French reports routinely state - and on incidents rather than on the substance of the dispute. That is a good, verifiable observation to make, and it lets you say something sharp in French: le conflit est souvent raconté comme un événement plutôt que comme un désaccord, si bien que le public en retient les images et non les arguments.

Worked example

Handling a provocative card question with balance

The card asks: « Les grévistes prennent-ils les usagers en otage ? » Answer without either endorsing or dodging the loaded framing.

Address the framing first
L'expression même de « prise d'otage » n'est pas neutre : elle assimile un droit constitutionnel à un acte criminel. Il faut donc commencer par la mettre à distance. Interrogating the question's own vocabulary is a sophisticated and highly creditable move.
Grant the real grievance
Cela dit, la gêne subie par les usagers est réelle : ceux qui n'ont ni voiture ni possibilité de télétravailler sont les plus pénalisés. Conceding to the people, not to the phrase.
Explain the mechanism
Or c'est précisément là que réside la logique de la grève : elle ne pèse que si elle dérange. Une grève invisible n'obtiendrait rien. This is the analytical core - the inconvenience is not incidental to the method, it is the method.
Name the compromise
C'est pourquoi le législateur a cherché un équilibre, avec le préavis obligatoire et le service minimum dans les transports depuis 2007. Naming the legal compromise shows knowledge of the actual French settlement.
Close with a judgement
À mes yeux, parler d'otages est excessif, mais la question de la proportionnalité, elle, mérite d'être posée. Note the emphatic elle, which marks the contrast neatly.

Result: L'expression même de « prise d'otage » n'est pas neutre : elle assimile un droit constitutionnel à un acte criminel. Cela dit, la gêne subie par les usagers est réelle, et ceux qui n'ont ni voiture ni possibilité de télétravailler sont les plus pénalisés. Or c'est précisément là que réside la logique de la grève : elle ne pèse que si elle dérange. C'est pourquoi le législateur a cherché un équilibre, avec le préavis obligatoire et le service minimum dans les transports depuis 2007. À mes yeux, parler d'otages est excessif, mais la question de la proportionnalité, elle, mérite d'être posée.

Typical mistakes

Repeating the stereotype that the French are always on strike; the analytical answer explains visibility and negotiating culture instead.
Reporting participation figures as settled fact; French coverage routinely gives two figures, from the organisers and from the police.

Active revision

Rédigez 130 mots en français présentant quatre attitudes différentes envers les grèves, chacune attribuée à un groupe et formulée dans ses propres termes.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - subject content (AQA)

Le lexique et les tournures: the language of protest#

StandardAQA 7652 3.2.2 - Manifestations, grèves - à qui le pouvoir ?AQA 7652 3.3 Grammar

The field in blocks. L'action: une grève, une grève reconductible, une grève du zèle, un débrayage (a walkout), un piquet de grève, un blocage, une manifestation, un cortège, un défilé, un rassemblement, une journée d'action, une pétition, un préavis. Les gens: un gréviste, un manifestant, un syndicat, un syndiqué, un délégué syndical, un usager, le patronat, le gouvernement, les forces de l'ordre, un casseur. Le résultat: une revendication, une négociation, un accord, une concession, un recul du gouvernement, le retrait d'un texte, l'enlisement, l'essoufflement, la reprise du travail.

Verbs first, because this sub-theme is about action. Se mettre en grève, faire grève, débrayer, cesser le travail, reconduire la grève, lever la grève. Manifester, défiler, descendre dans la rue, scander des slogans, brandir une banderole, bloquer un dépôt. Revendiquer, exiger, réclamer, obtenir, arracher une concession (a strong idiom - to wrest a concession). And on the other side: négocier, céder, reculer, temporiser, passer en force (to push a measure through against opposition), maintenir le cap.

Grammatically, news material means the passive and reported speech, both required by AQA at A-level. The passive in all tenses: le texte a été adopté, sera examiné, aurait été modifié. Reported speech with the sequence of tenses: le ministre a déclaré qu'il ne reviendrait pas sur la réforme; les syndicats ont affirmé qu'ils poursuivraient le mouvement. Note also the conditional of report, used constantly in news French for unconfirmed information: selon plusieurs sources, un accord serait en préparation. Recognising that conditional is a genuine comprehension skill and using it is a genuine production skill.

Finally, the language of quantity and comparison, since this sub-theme is full of contested figures. Learn: selon les organisateurs... selon la police...; une mobilisation d'ampleur; un mouvement suivi (well supported) or peu suivi; le taux de grévistes; en hausse, en baisse, en recul, en progression. Because the figures are contested, the safe and accurate formulation is comparative rather than absolute: la mobilisation a été plus forte que lors de la journée précédente, or les chiffres divergent selon les sources. That formulation is both honest and idiomatic - two things the mark scheme rewards together.

Worked example

The conditional of report in news French

Rewrite these three assertions so that you report them without vouching for them, then explain the device: (1) Un accord est en préparation. (2) Le gouvernement a modifié son texte. (3) La mobilisation faiblira la semaine prochaine.

Understand the device
French journalism uses the conditional to mark information as reported but unverified. The present becomes the conditionnel présent, the passé composé becomes the conditionnel passé, and the future becomes the conditionnel présent as well - context and adverbs disambiguate.
Convert (1)
Un accord serait en préparation. Add a source marker for clarity: Selon plusieurs sources, un accord serait en préparation. This is exactly how a French reading text will present a rumour.
Convert (2)
Le gouvernement aurait modifié son texte. Conditionnel passé, because the underlying claim is in the past. Note that this is formally identical to a type-three conditional main clause - only context tells you which reading applies.
Convert (3)
La mobilisation faiblirait la semaine prochaine. Here the time adverbial la semaine prochaine makes the future reading clear despite the conditional form.
Use it yourself
This device is your safest tool for any claim you are not certain of - in an essay, a summary or a speaking test. Selon certains commentateurs, cette réforme aurait été mal préparée commits you to nothing while still supplying content.

Result: (1) Selon plusieurs sources, un accord serait en préparation. (2) Le gouvernement aurait modifié son texte. (3) La mobilisation faiblirait la semaine prochaine. The conditional marks the information as reported rather than verified, and it is also the safest way to introduce a claim you cannot fully stand behind.

Typical mistakes

Writing faire une grève; the fixed expression is faire grève, with no article.
Translating to demonstrate as démontrer; démontrer means to prove, and to demonstrate in the street is manifester.

Active revision

Rédigez un compte rendu de 120 mots d'une journée d'action fictive, en employant deux phrases passives, deux phrases au discours indirect et un conditionnel de rumeur.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - grammar (AQA)

En épreuve: news material and balanced argument#

AdvancedAQA 7652 4.4 Paper 1 - Listening, reading and writingAQA 7652 4.6 Paper 3 - Speaking, part one

Listening material on this sub-theme is typically a news report or a set of interviews at a demonstration, and it will use a fast, formulaic register: à l'appel de l'intersyndicale, le cortège s'est élancé, les organisateurs revendiquent, la préfecture recense, le trafic sera perturbé. Learn these formulas as blocks, because recognising a block is far faster than parsing it word by word. Also expect ambient noise, several voices and interruptions - which is precisely the authentic communication AQA specifies.

Reading texts may present opposing viewpoints in the same article, so the comprehension questions will test attribution. Track the reporting verbs and their loading: déclarer and affirmer are neutral, soutenir and faire valoir signal an argued case, prétendre suggests the writer doubts the claim, dénoncer and fustiger mark strong opposition, and concéder marks a concession. Reading those verbs correctly tells you not only what each side says but how the writer positions them.

For translation, the vocabulary set is fixed and worth over-learning: a strike = une grève; to go on strike = se mettre en grève or faire grève; a demonstration = une manifestation; a demonstrator = un manifestant; a trade union = un syndicat; a union member = un syndiqué; a pay rise = une augmentation de salaire; working conditions = les conditions de travail; a pension = une retraite; to withdraw a bill = retirer un texte or un projet de loi; disruption = les perturbations. Note that une retraite is a pension and la retraite is retirement, while une pension is usually maintenance or board and lodging - a genuine trap.

For the card, the strategy is symmetrical presentation followed by a personal position. Prepare: one clear French example of a movement that obtained something and one that did not; the legal framework in one sentence; the exasperated user's case stated fairly; and a conclusion that distinguishes legitimacy from effectiveness - une grève peut être parfaitement légitime et pourtant inefficace, et l'inverse est également vrai. Two questions for the examiner: Estimez-vous que le service minimum soit un bon compromis ? and Dans votre expérience, les mouvements sociaux changent-ils vraiment les décisions politiques ?

Worked example

Distinguishing legitimacy from effectiveness

The examiner asks: « Une grève qui ne change rien a-t-elle encore un sens ? » Build a 45-second answer around the distinction.

Split the two ideas immediately
Il faut distinguer deux questions : la grève est-elle légitime, et la grève est-elle efficace ? Ce ne sont pas les mêmes. Naming the distinction is the whole answer's architecture.
Handle legitimacy
Sa légitimité ne dépend pas de son résultat : c'est un droit de valeur constitutionnelle, et un droit ne cesse pas d'exister parce qu'on ne l'exerce pas victorieusement. Note ne cesse pas de - a compact negative infinitive construction.
Handle effectiveness with nuance
Quant à l'efficacité, elle ne se mesure pas seulement au retrait d'un texte : un mouvement peut modifier le contenu d'une réforme, ou préparer une victoire ultérieure. se mesurer à means to be measured by.
Concede the real cost
Cela dit, une grève longue coûte cher aux grévistes eux-mêmes, et un échec répété peut décourager durablement. Conceding cost prevents the answer from sounding abstract.
Conclude by joining the two
En définitive, une grève qui ne change rien garde un sens, mais elle en perd si elle devient un rituel sans effet. Note the pronoun en, replacing du sens - an elegant compression that would impress any examiner.

Result: Il faut distinguer deux questions : la grève est-elle légitime, et la grève est-elle efficace ? Sa légitimité ne dépend pas de son résultat : c'est un droit de valeur constitutionnelle. Quant à l'efficacité, elle ne se mesure pas seulement au retrait d'un texte : un mouvement peut modifier le contenu d'une réforme ou préparer une victoire ultérieure. Cela dit, une grève longue coûte cher aux grévistes eux-mêmes. En définitive, une grève qui ne change rien garde un sens, mais elle en perd si elle devient un rituel sans effet.

Typical mistakes

Confusing une retraite (a pension) with une pension (maintenance, or board and lodging).
Presenting only one side on the card; AO4 requires evaluation, which requires two sides fairly stated.

Active revision

Trouvez un reportage francophone sur une journée d'action. Relevez cinq formules figées, puis rédigez un résumé de 95 mots qui n'en réutilise aucune telle quelle.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level French (7652) specification - scheme of assessment (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Demonstrations and strikes: who holds the power?

5 sections~23 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

Demonstrations and strikes: who holds the power?

Key points

Translation into English: a passage on union power

Key points

Reporting a social conflict in French

Key points

Handling a provocative card question with balance

Key points

The conditional of report in news French

Key points

Distinguishing legitimacy from effectiveness

Sources

Demonstrations and strikes: who holds the power?

Key points

Translation into English: a passage on union power

Key points

Reporting a social conflict in French

Key points

Handling a provocative card question with balance

Key points

The conditional of report in news French

Key points

Distinguishing legitimacy from effectiveness

Sources