Les Greves and Manifestations

Another day in la belle France. A day of strikes (greves), demonstrations (manifestations), riot police, and arrests. In case you haven't heard, today was an all nation strike in France. Post office, teachers, newspapers, radios, public transport, air traffic controllers, tourist offices, etc were all closed today. Even the Eiffel Tower was closed! The workers went on strike to support the student/youth strike against the new CPE law. See more on the day's events here. To the left, a pic of the demonstrations in downtown Marseille, from the same CBC News website.
I wanted to listen to the news on RFI, one of the French internet stations, and got "we're sorry for the interruption in regularly scheduled broadcasting, please enjoy this musical selection in its place". So much for up to date news on the strikes and riots. Humph!
But I did get to see the evening news from home. Between 1 million and 3 million (yes MILLION) took to the streets today all over France. There were about 250 000 in Marseille alone. And silly me, this morning thought "Wouldn't it be exciting to go downtown today and be part of the demonstrations, just to see what goes on." Sure glad my common sense kicked in. From what I saw on TV, Mareille's demonstrations were relatively calm but as the sun sets now, I'm sure the police are getting ready for "les casseurs" (the breakers, or punks as I call them). They are the trouble makers, just waiting for an excuse to burn or break something, or to beat someone up. They're giving the youth protestors a bad image and causing a lot of damage.
Universities and high schools across the country remain closed. Classes are cancelled and many worry about preparing for their final exams. Unfortunately for those students, and those that agree with the CPE law, there is no choice to go back, until this is settled. And who knows when that will be.
I never realized how important protesting, striking, demonstrating is to the French people. It's a complete opposite from most Canadians' laid back, "politically correct" lifestyle. It's good to see so many people coming together for one cause, to support its youth, the next generation. It's too bad though that it had to come to this. That it seems to be beyond the peaceful talk stage. Change doesn't seem to come easily to France, especially when it comes to job security!