I don’t know how much those of you in the US have been following the international scene over the past few years, but it continues to be extremely volatile, and somewhat scary.

We have the drug violence going on in Mexico, obviously. Now, although very different, there is what appears to be a swine flu outbreak.

Last year, India’s Tata Motors incredibly walked away from more than $300 million in investment in a new factory after local violence there protesting the plant (mostly farmers, I believe) reached a level that was more than Tata could take. It quickly built a new plant elsewhere in the country.

Officials in Britain have warned this could be a “summer of rage” from unionists, anarchists, and who knows who else over the recession and the impact of globalization.

Just to name a few.

Now there is this lovely story from France. Workers at the French electric and gas companies are on strike, upset in part about the partial privatization of those companies last year and outsourcing of some jobs. Initially, the strikers did not gain a lot of public support or interest. So they went further.

In several cases, they have used their ability to access local electric power stations in some communities and turn off the power for hundreds or even thousands of homes, including some businesses.

Last Thursday 66,500 French electric customers in total lost power, some for several hours. In the area near Douai in northern France, two patients in intensive care had to be moved when a hospital lost power for 40 minutes due to similar sabotage.

“The Government is losing control,” one anonymous unionist said. “So now is the moment to push back the capitalist logic which has crept into the company.”

Where will this all go? Who knows. But I view it as very worrisome. Not only might such chaos slow in what seems like some real signs of economic recovery, but supply chain managers need to really be keeping tabs on what is happening globally that could disrupt supply or demand.

There is a lot to monitor, unfortunately.

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