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France

French press review 16 July 2013

The economy dominates this morning's front pages.

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"Growth in our time," promised the French president, François Hollande, on Sunday in the traditional Bastille Day televised interview.

Steady on there, suggests Le Monde, adding that presidential optimism is somewhat undermined by the main man's refusal to rule out the possibility of further tax hikes next year.

Right wing Le Figaro is having none of it. They talk to the bosses and a swathe of economic experts, but can't find any buyers for the thesis of a rapid return to economic growth. According to the right wing nay-sayers, economic take-off will be a long, slow process and is likely to be preceded by further factory closures, more job losses and general mayhem.

Left-leaning Libération looks at what they call the "anti-crisis," a series of reactions to the current economic turmoil in which ordinary people are increasingly deserting the beaten (and wreckage-strewn) paths of liberal exchange.

What are we talking about? Well, skill-sharing on co-operative building sites, swap meetings, barter are all coming back into fashion. The idea is to step outside the consumerist mentality which encourages ownership, and work in partnership. The benefits are measured in increased well-being, decreased environmental impact, and total independence of the banks and associated badnesses.

Libé visits a village in western France where an entire community has taken responsibility for the upkeep of public spaces, the re-construction of official buildings, and even the running of a co-operative grocery which pools resources to enable bulk-buying with its valuable discounts.

The inhabitants say there's nothing new about the crisis . . . times have always been hard in rural Brittany. And there are only 192 of them, so solidarity is not a major organisational difficulty. But they do point a different way forward, outside the framwork of bank-controlled capitalism.

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