Strike spreads, Marseilles blocked

"The demonstration,” headlines Libération after the fourth day of protests against the pension reforms in France. Somewhere between 1,230,000 (according to the police) and 3.5 million people (according to unions) took to the streets, including a great many high school and university students. The strike is to continue in certain sectors, including the port of Marseille that supplies six big oil refineries in the south of France. "The strikes are now renewable,” reports Libération. “Under the umbrella of a majority-opinion movement, the most determined union activists, although a minority, are trying to block public transport and petrol deliveries. Invented in 1995 at the time of the Juppé reform [also of pensions], the ‘strike by proxy’ is back.” More protests are planned, moreover, but the government has let it be known that it will not backtrack on its decision to raise the retirement age to 62.