International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

France: 50 years of the Veil law: abortion, a right never won

Manon Boltansky , Ju Chiro — 2025-01-24T07:28:00Z

On 17 January 1975, the Veil law was promulgated in France: voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) could now be carried out legally and in a safe environment. The right to contraception and abortion was a victory won by the struggles of the feminist movement in the 1970s, in France as in many other countries.

- IVP600 - January 2025 / France, Women, Abortion and reproductive rights

Separating the man from the work?

Manon Boltansky — 2020-03-07T06:12:11Z

It is being called “France's #MeToo moment”. A walkout at the French Césars as Roman Polanski is awarded best director for the film J'accuse (An Officer And A Spy). Criminal charges brought against writer Gabriel Matzneff.

All this has reopened the ongoing debate “can you separate the man from the artist, the artist from his work?”. [IVP]

- IV542 - March 2020 / France, Women

Notre-Dame: the tragic consequences of an incendiary policy

Manon Boltansky — 2019-04-20T07:55:40Z

Monday, 15 April 2019 will be remembered as the day when Notre-Dame de Paris was ravaged by the flames. At the time of writing [16 April], the fire seems to be under control and only a few residual fires remain contained by firefighters, who fear the risk of fresh outbreaks. It will actually take several days or weeks to know the extent of loss and damage caused by the fire, the collapse of the frame and the spire, but also the consequences of the hundreds of thousands of litres of water pumped out to extinguish the flames, on the structures and the works of art that could not be evacuated.

- IV531 - April 2019 / France