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French police face-off with protesters and activists
by Joseph Ernest October 21, 2010
Newscast Media -- More protesters continue to flood the streets of France in protest over plans by the government to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. Thousands of students took to the streets of the southwestern city of Bordeaux, carrying banners such as: "We would have burnt this reform but there's no petrol left."
Protesters and activists blocked access to Marseille airport for several hours before being cleared by police, causing tailbacks of several kilometres.
Troops have also been sent in to clear trash from the streets of the Mediterranean port where collectors are on strike.
"By taking the French economy, businesses and daily life hostage, you will destroy jobs," Nicholas Sarkozy, the French president, said on Thursday.
He also accused trade union leaders of undermining France's fragile economic recovery.
"We can't be the only country in the world where, when there's a
reform, a minority wants to block everyone else. That's not possible.
That's not democracy," said Sarkozy.
Bernard Thibault, the head of the CGT union, said that faced with government "intransigence", there was "no reason to stop these protests" and "we recommend further action from next week".
"We have to continue with the most massive actions possible," he told local radio.
Unions are to meet on Thursday to decide on holding further mass
rallies, possibly on Tuesday, a week after the last main protest.
More
than a million people took to the streets then, the sixth day of action
since September, to protest against the unpopular plan to raise minimum
retirement from 60 to 62 and full pension payments from 65 to 67. Add
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