If it takes relatively little to get French workers and students onto the streets to protest, a string of momentous events is generally needed to make the perpetually warring labour movement seem like a united force.
From the turbulence of recent months has emerged such a show of solidarity. When the fractious elements of French trade unionism march shoulder to shoulder in the biggest of the May Day rallies in Paris tomorrow, it will be – in the shrill tones of the Journal du Dimanche – a historic rapprochement, the first of its kind since France was liberated in the summer of 1944.
Sixty-five years on, there are none of the ramifications of world war and German occupation to mull over, no rebuilding of shattered cities to undertake and no collaborators to seek out and punish. What is it, then, that has created this sense of unity, one not even confined to the traditionally disgruntled ranks of the working class?
Returning to France after an absence of 18 months, I find the Fifth Republic in turmoil, the news serving up a diet of gloom dominated by redundancies and belt-tightening.
