All this is well. But over-simplistic indeed ! The French people is way more complex than you describe. The French are not communist, as a matter of fact, the communist party scored an all time low at a mere 3% during the last presidential elections while the conservative Sarkozy collected 53%. Enough of these cliches of the French wearing beret hats, driving Citroen 2 CVs, accordeon music playing in dirty smoke-filled bars and women not shaving arm pits. France is very capitalist.
What's true though is that a tiny minority has the means to bother the entire country for backward reasons. And the entire country is outraged at that situation because they feel they work hard while a bunch of protected, unharmed civil servants are so rigid.
Now, regarding France sheltering Bocassa and other dangerous individuals, have a look at England protecting Immams preaching Holy War against that very country providing them with social security, lodging, money, etc...
Now the pilots' side of facts. Pilots at Air France retire at the age of 65 while pilots at KLM retire at the age of 56/58. The French retire with much lower pension premiums than their Dutch collegues. The SNPL had been considering the implementation of a reform that would have helped improve this situation. The government, in their admirable will to put everybody back to work, has decided to pass new laws without even talking to the SNPL, voting at night when everybody's asleep, like shameful cheating husbands.
I did not strike as I feel recession requires strong standings and involvment from employees. But I think the gov't's methods are cr.p.