French workers strike on despite repression

WSWS reporters in Paris spoke to demonstrators marching against French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension cuts in the national one-day protest organized by the trade unions on October 19: here.

President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to break strikes against his government’s pension cuts and social austerity policies yesterday, sending riot police and army civil service units to disperse picket lines and end oil depot occupations: here.

This video is about a demonstration earlier this year in Marseille by the CGT trade union federation.

From MSBNC in the USA today:

Protesters block Marseille airport

‘We’re ready to continue striking every day and go all the way,’ union member says

MARSEILLE, France — Striking oil refinery and port workers protesting planned pension reform in France blocked access to Marseille airport in southwest

sic; southeast

France, a trade union source said on Thursday as the government grappled with a 10th day of strikes and confrontations.

About 500 workers from the l’Etang-de-Beurre refinery and others including airline and postal workers, blocked the access road to the airport, which serves local and nearby international destinations, from dawn.

“No vehicles can get through to the car parks,” Medhi Rachid of the CGT union chapter at a nearby refinery in Bouches-du-Rhone, told Reuters.

This is a Dutch TV video about the Marseille airport workers’ actions.

Strikers responded to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s refusal to reconsider his detested pension reform Bill today by gearing up for more mass action in defence of their retirement rights: here.

Mark Weisbrot: French Protesters Have It Right: No Need to Raise Retirement Age: here.