PARIS, FRENCH REPUBLIC, June 29 (HNS) -- Well over two million workers marched in Paris today, after the major left union federations, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and the Force Ouvrière (CGT-FO), called a one-day general strike and demonstration for today. In contrast to the way they have reacted over the last few days, police stayed largely out of the way, merely directing traffic around the protestors.
Concessions by the government seemed to inflame rather than mollify the strikers, and kicked off sympathy strikes in all major cities, though generally on a much, much smaller scale than in Paris. When the Sorbonne was reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university".On television and over the Internet, Prime Minister Bernard Debré personally announced the release of prisoners taken by the police during the riots that started on June 26, and the reopening of the University of the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Paris at Nanterre.
Protestors continued to chant revolutionary slogans, especially the phrase that has become a byword for the protests: "Magic is not real."
So far, however, today's more organized strikes have been non-violent in nature, contrasting with the earlier protests, though Prime Minister Debré called them "unprecedented in scale".
Representatives from Imperial France have officially expressed their sympathies to the French Republic, though some have commented privately that these sorts of problems would never happen in "true France".
Imperial France, aka "Napoleonic France" or the French Empire, is a Thread ruled by Emperor Napoleon II and split off from main continuity in 1815, with a current year of 1869. Not even counting the Threads it has added to the Empire, Imperial France is larger than the French Republic, covering areas which in the "old world reckoning" would include France, Belgium, some of the German states, part of Austria, and western Italy. In addition, unlike the French Republic, Napoleonic France has a Kellner rating that hovers in the middle of the scale.
The French Republic, aka "De Gaulle France," is a Thread that split off from main continuity in 1968, with a current year of 2009. The Thread stops almost exactly at the political borders of 1960s France, and is mostly self-sufficient, with some trade via sea Gates, which only exist in the Atlantic ports of the country. It has a technology level consistent with 1970s France (Penn State Tech Level 6), and has a Kellner rating of zero.
