&gt;<i>And they can get away with it only because their unions have created precedents where they create havoc in the streets of Paris with the complicity (or thanks to the weakness) of the political leaders of the time.</i><p>And why NOT (ocassionally) create havoc in the streets of Paris? Because it disrupts business as usual and results in some small scale damages and such?<p>France and Paris, especially, has a long history of championing people&#x27;s rights with street protests. From the Bastille day, to the Commune all the way up to May 68 and beyond. Tons of things we take for granted would be illegal without such ocassional &quot;havoc&quot;.<p>People that think that protests and demonstrations should be &quot;a thing of the past&quot; because now &quot;we live in a full democracy&quot; are just repeating what has been said all the way from the 19th century -- even if blacks had no rights, women had no rights, gays had no rights, there was no social security, immigrants had (and still don&#x27;t) rights, etc.<p>Democracy is not some magic thing that solves from within the parliament. Especially the mockery of democracry we have (with representatives elected once every 4 or 5 years based on a platform that bundles all issues together - so if you agree with them on X and disagree on Y you can&#x27;t get to vote individually on those things), with political influence bought by corporations and big players, and without being held accountable for not keeping on their promises (you just get not to vote for them at the end of their term).<p>Democracy needs active citizen participation, and protests and demonstrations are one such method of making people&#x27;s opinions heard.