(by guest blogger Marc Cogan)

Last Thursday’s general strike and supporting march were big successes, both from an organizational perspective, and as spectacle. Even the weather had already chosen sides, as the newspaper Libération, said, and it was sunny and warm throughout France. The weather swelled the crowds and buoyed their spirits.

The parade was much longer than at the equivalent march in support of the January strike. The organizers were a little cannier, too. There’d be a lull in the marchers, and you’d think, “Ah, that must be the end of it.” But no, all of a sudden new marchers would appear, in large numbers and dense ranks. Parade marshalls were stopping marching groups and holding them while others turned up, concentrating their numbers, and giving a new impetus to the line.

There were groups of every sort, and for every interest and taste, from the always present Lycée Darius Milhaud, to the Cinémathèque nationale, which may not have had the best sign, simply a hand-scrawled ‘Cinemateque francaise en grève!’, but had its own marching band.

There were marchers from Radio France International, protesting cutbacks and ministerial incomprehension of their mission of teaching languages, and especially of spreading France throughout the world.

And then there was a most unlikely labor unit, the public statisticians. Energy levels were high, and I was struck by how much these young people reminded me of the revolutionaries in Delacroix’ Liberty Leading the People as young marchers swept through the Place de la Bastille passing in front of the July Column commemorating that very revolution. Over it all, the Genie of Liberty seemed a benign inspiration, accompanied by this cheerfully low-tech balloon leaflet distribution system.

But behind the public display, there was an edge to this manifestation that had been missing from the January strike and demonstration. The world economy has worsened, and France is coming to recognize that as budget cuts hit home. The unofficial slogan of the January march—worn as a sticker by a good two-thirds of the marchers—was the punning and almost hippy-ish “Rêve générale.” At Thursday the 19th’s march the all-but-official slogan (it appeared on full-size posters as well as on stickers worn by the marchers) had a new, bitter edge. It was Sarkozy’s comment from last year’s agricultural salon to the man who said, when Sarko was working the crowd and extended his hand to be shaken, “Don’t touch me.” Sarko replied, without any hesitation: “Casse-toi, pauv’ con”—“Bugger off, you sorry asshole.”

I now know what it’s like to be caught in the middle of a huge demonstration, and be unable to move. Well, almost. I was walking along the rue du Faubourg St Antoine early this afternoon, on my way to BHV when groups of demonstrators, in support of the national strike, began marching past. They were all converging on the Place de la Bastille of course, and I was headed that way too. I was so intent on taking photos that it was too late by the time I realised I was caught in the middle of the Place, surrounded on all sides by the demonstrators, almost unable to move.

But what a peaceful, amicable affair it seemed to be. Sure, there was chanting and speeches (several simultaneously), but I saw nothing unruly, no pushing or shoving. It took me about an hour to cross the Place de la Bastille. There were no cars anywhere, just a dense throng of people, vans selling food and drink, balloons, people climbing on the Bastille column itself, television trucks, families with children, babies, and dogs.

The General Confederation of Workers (CGT) estimated the crowd at 300,000, and I wouldn’t be surprised, although the police claim the figure to be 65,000 (the unions claim a total of 1.5 million demonstrated all over France).

What struck me especially when I was in the middle of the throng was the atmosphere of calm solidarity, and the passion for social justice, that today’s strike was all about. We don’t see this sort of thing in Australia any more. We’ve long given up any hope that a strike will make any difference to anything. Today’s strike is to protest against the erosion of the standard of living, and also the so-callled ‘workplace reforms’ that we ‘enjoy’ in the Anglophone countries.

I was surprised, though, to hear that what had been reported on UK television, and probably elsewhere, was the conflict and car-torching that happened much later in the day near the Opera, and linked to the ‘dispersion of the demonstrators’. These could not have been the people I saw, and are much more likely to have been professional agitors, or disaffected troublemakers cashing in on the publicity.

I’m very glad I was right in the thick of it for an hour. It gave me a good insight into the passion of ordinary workers for social justice, and the calm and reasonable way in which they express it.