Millions Of Workers Join Paris Strike

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31678, 14 May 1968, Page 17

Millions Of Workers Join Paris Strike

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PARIS, May 13.

A paralysing general strike hit France today as millions of workers joined students in a nation-wide protest at alleged police brutality against Paris students demonstrating for university reform.

Despite Government concessions on the students’ demands, unions representing more than 10 million workers launched the strike as scheduled at midnight.

Students and workers also plan a massive demonstration in Paris today which observers say will present President de Gaulle with the biggest challenge to his authority in 10 years of rule.

With the first full-scale session of the Vietnamese peace talks due to open this morning, an estimated 100,000 demonstrators plan to march through the city’s Latin

Quarter—scene of savage student battles with police last week.

Attempts by the Government to head off the demontration have failed in spite of week-end concessions made by the Prime Minister, Mr Georges Pompidou, on his return from official visits to Iran and Afghanistan. Although Mr Pompidou announced that the Paris University’s faculty at the Sorbonne would reopen today and that all students gaoled for their activities during the riots would be provisionally released, student leaders said they planned to go ahead with the march.

They also demanded complete amnesty for their imprisoned colleagues and the

withdrawal from the student quarter of all armed riot police.

They are being backed by the Communist supported C.G.E. (General Confederation of workers), the politically moderate C.F.D.T. (French Democratic' Confederation of Workers) and the Socialist-led "Force Ouvriere.”

Support has also come from Pablo Picasso. French film actors and directors will go on strike and the Cannes Film Festival programme for today has been cancelled. Union organisers have called for a "calm and dignified” march today and student leaders also have told their stewards to do everything possible to avoid violence. Police also have made concessions, withdrawing riot squads from the immediate vicinity of the Sorbonne and deploying ordinary gendarines In-the area, as opposed to the carbine-carrying police who provoked the student protest. . The general strike itself threatens to disrupt business and communications. ,Ih Paris few trains will run and the Government has announced it is providing 200 army lorries to help stranded commuters get to work. There is a possibility of power failures.

Gas pressure will be low, telephones will be affected, there are no newspapers and employees of the State-run radio are also on strike. Student claims that police used brutal and unnecessary force last week were backed last night by Professor Francis Kahn, a university professor of medicine. He said he had examined canisters thrown by the police to disperse demonstrators and had analysed their contents as chlorobenzalmalononitrile. More commonly known as C. 8., it was a gas used by American troops it Vietnam. Professor Kahn said. It could be very dangerous, and it was serious that it had been used in Paris without medical authorities being informed, he said. Police deny using the gas but an N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reporter in thp Latin district saw a canister marked C. 8.”.

The Associated Press reported that students at most universities throughout. France, demonstrated through out yesterday to show their support for their fellows in Paris. ' ■

University buildings were occupied yesterday morning by students at Strasbourg, Toulouse, Rennes and Caen Elsewhere, they parade through the streets.

New Heart For Priest.— France’s, third heart transplant patient, a 45-year-old priest from Marseilles, was reported th good condition early today after a five-hour Operation at the Broussais Hospital in Paris. Neither the priest nor the 39-yearold donor of the heart was named.—Paris, May 13. -- '