This is Marseille today – 55,000 trade unionists marching alongside yellow vests for the CGT strike, one of many huge demonstrations across the country. 30,000 have marched in Paris, and the smaller (but generally more militant) Confederation Solidaires have also supported the strike, as have school and university students’ unions. Teachers have gone on strike alongside their pupils at a number of schools; a lot of major universities are shut down; the port of Bayonne was shut down by 250 demonstrators, as was the huge Rungis market in Paris; the Eiffel Tower has been unable to open properly; binmen are on strike in Toulouse, joining around 17,000 other demonstrators on their trucks.
While not being anywhere near a general strike (which was never on the cards today), this is another significant step forward. At the beginning of this movement, the yellow vests were generally very suspicious of trade unions; today they are taking direct action and marching alongside workers from the second biggest confederation in the country as yellow and red vests become one.Students, organized workers and yellow vests uniting and fighting: Macron’s nightmare scenario might just be starting to happen.