More than a million French workers took to the streets Thursday to voice anger and fear of job losses during a one-day strike over President Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis.
Billed as a “Black Thursday,” the nationwide day of action caused less transport disruption than expected but the strike was well supported, with a quarter of France’s five million public sector workers downing tools.
The demonstrations were the biggest since the right-wing president arrived in office in May 2007, and came amid mounting public anger at his policies, in particular his plans to cut public sector jobs.
Marchers thronged the boulevards of eastern Paris — 300,000 according to the organisers, 65,000 according to police, but
over 1 million as part of the strike — to demand protection for jobs threatened by the global slowdown.
“It’s not up to workers to pay for the bankers,” read one banner.
clipped from: blog.puppetgov.com