European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 01, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse 1968 the stars and stripes Pago 3 a Comfort Loving French get edgy Rev l. Ryan mid Cam Hartman a if France were Ati h to would so wide sit in strikes most frenchmen Aren t feeling Nih pain yet but nerves Are frenchmen Are people who a highly of their Comfort. Sally All transport is on use but food is still being buted nearly normally. T unions thoughtfully allow str Button of food electricity some gasoline so the people 3 not resent the labor Moye t too much. The unions also have made sure there is plenty wine. If the flow were interrupted it would be a National ? gasoline shortage is be coming More severe every Day but so far crossing a pan Street at Rush hours is still a perilous Paris and other cities big department stores Are closed but Small shopkeepers Are hungry or is the tourist season in the tourist Mecca of the world but there Are practically no tourists. Movies open Heaters All Over France Are closed but nightclubs and bars keep going. Movies Are open but Girlie shows for which Paris is famous Are closed by striking personnel. The buses always jammed Are irregular and few and far be tween. They follow some of the main routes in Paris. Others run Between cities. No trains Are run Ning and goods normally sent by train Are not being the stores some Staples Are in Short Supply such As sugar Olive Oil and Macaroni. In some areas there Are shortages of Beer Salt and Mineral water confronting frenchmen with the terrifying Prospect of having to drink tap water. But the pastry shops and Bak eries Are chock full of tempt no delicacies France s currency is among the hardest in the world but Money is rationed. There is much about France enormous crisis that seems in credible to almost everybody except the French. There Are Only about 2 million workers in organized unions in Ance but 10 million workers Are out. The Union leadership is unsure it can keep control of the strike which billowed out of a rebellion by a minority of Stu in s in Paris against French civilization. Its the students who do these get fighting and the Union leadership even the communist leadership has been trying to hold Down violence. Big provincial cities Are heavily hit by the strike but in towns in the provinces the Impact is less noticeable. Colombey Les Deus Eulises the country Home of president Charles de Gaulle is an still is plenty of gasoline there and nobody is queueing up for it. The children Are still in school and school buses Are run Ning normally. The Only signs of crisis were a few gaullist Leaf a local resident people Don t even bother to pick the up not because they re indifferent but just because for along time everybody Here has been for de Gaulle in other towns there were signs of trouble. A Small unidentified group tried to blow up a television transmitter at Mont the French with All their troubles still can turn a joke on hotel Porter was asked by one of the few visiting Ameri cans if there were any museums or theatres open. He said , there Are at least the girls said the they go of strike said the Porter. Circulation office phone numbers o. Get any Len Civ 739368isaasmmsi,. Banns a a i a vo8elweh 7050sis a Uttel film of. Greece Alt is Civ 9851s9 Italy. Civ Ajooti Spain Civ 2226230, Mil 551j 7230 Mil 28595 subscribe now Wron Howing on a Pinson near Rennes in fired on the group when the smoke cleared one was Nante the manager of the Sud aviation Plant its technical director and its personnel chief held prisoner for nearly two weeks by strikers finally were released wednesday after a vote of the strikers. It was at Nantes that the strike fever began nearly three weeks ago. In Aix in Provence it is impossible to get married. Person Nel of the City Hall Are on strike and no licenses Are being issued. At Lyon motorists took Over number of gasoline stations after chasing away the striking personnel. And near St. Etienne gasoline truck Drivers were at tacked by motorists. Hardest hit by the strikes Arete big industries which have been shut tight and have lost huge amounts of Money. A leading economist Pierr Euri who could be the next finance minister estimated that the strike May be costing about $2 billion a week two per Centof the Gross National product. False feeling on the surface Paris seems Calm and so do the towns and cities in the provinces. Beneath there is much nervousness and gloom. It is reflected in faces of people on the streets transistor radios clutched to the rears to hear the latest news from the seats of government labor and student Power. Even during demonstrations and Street fighting the participants listen to their radios to learn How things Are going in other usually lasts Only a few hours and is confined largely to a Square mile of Paris latin Quarter. People sipping their aperitifs in cafes a few blocks away seem the appearance is Calm everywhere people Are asking one another How will it All end the stolidly patient Middle class is beginning to grumble Are struck. Bus lines Are struck. The subway is things get violent. One Driver was stopped at the Point of a gun. The Holdup Man wanted his victim s gasoline. I he anti strike pro de Gaulle marchers display the French,. And British flags respectively at the Tomb of the unknown Soldier in Paris. Associated press photo Driver tried to get away and gota Bullet wound in the head. Harry s new York bar famous tourist rendezvous still is populated by its resident american regulars and its Large clientele of French steadies but funny things Are happening at Harry other Day fresh from a demonstration a group of Youn self proclaimed its admirers marxist Lenin of Mao tse Tung walked in. They debated whether to drink something cheap like Mineral water then decided that would be out of place in Harry s and settled on Beer. They sipped away while earnestly discussing How they hoped to destroy the present form of French civilization. The situation for France i ignoble and disgraceful said a Small merchant surveying his empty store. It All comes from politics just politics. The work ers Are not nearly As bad off As they Gaulle s followers show deep distress. Some even grudgingly blame him at least in part for what is happening. He paid too much attention to other countries business and no enough to ours said one among the workers de Gaull Ehas Many enemies. De Gaulle to a _ /1 .11 in f i est Fini de Gaulle is Fin Colombey if he wants but 10years of de Gaulle is Union officials vowed to holdout to the very end for their expensive demands. As the spoke a Dummy representing the chief of the Plant s internal police dangled from a Gibbet a protest against what the workers claimed was management intimidation. French unions traditionally have Little in the Way of strike funds and the Cash Box is always important in strikes. For this reason strikes in France have tended to be Short and rough. This time the workers say eve their wives will support their holdout instead of nagging the to return to work. The workers live on their Back pay their savings and funds collected in Public governments run by communists of which there Are Many in the Paris area can be counted on for Money from unions abroad also comes in. Buy on credit in most cases the workers liven credit from the grocer the Butcher and other Small Mer chants and since instalment collectors Are on strike there Isno danger of losing the refrigerator or the television set. Ting to work and there were no customers anyway. Not a major department store in All of Parisis open. The Public is becoming irritated. French cigarettes have virtually disappeared from shely Sand even the More expensive British and american brands Are disappearing. Long queues line up at Tobac co shops and Are limited to two packages per customer. Man buy All the cigars and pipe to Bacco the proprietor will electric Power goes off and plunges an Are into darkness for a half hour. The lights May go out at an moment in a movie House dark ening the screen. Radio to hit the state television and radio network is struck. The govern ment owned radio chains Broad cast a single program of recorded music with occasional new bulletins. Television has Only a test pattern except for one new report in the evening. Listeners try to get foreign stations mainly those just across the Borders with studios in worry about laying in food and Staples hoarding Justin Case food should disappear from stores. And they mus worry about getting enough Gaso line to take them to and Formwork if they Are working. Gaso line is rationed by dealers Anda Black Market seems to be High Mark in elegance May have been reached by the Blac Market in garbage collection in the Swank areas. Apartment dwellers who can afford it com Pete for the services of enter prising private contractors who in Normal times Are the Public garbage collectors. Handsome streets in the hear of this Beautiful capital streets which haunt the dreams of tourists around the world Are littered with crates trash and soldering odorous garbage. Garbage piles garbage is piled so High in Les Halles the huge wholesale food Market in the heart of Paris that delivery trucks have Trou ble plunging through it. Other Wise the Market continues to operate. Shed _ has become a slogan for them. But even they Are worried those who want him outwear he May go too suddenly. It would be cowardly for him to quit now said one worker who has no love for the general speaking before de Gaulle announced he is riot backing cowardice is not one of his the citroen automobile Plant in a Paris suburb a spokesman for the communist led general labor confederation snapped we want de Gaulle out. We will carry him in Triumph Back to the owner of a Small Chadnof dress shops on the rim of a popular tourist area exploded in anger business is abominable. We already had enough difficult with our tax troubles but now things Are absolutely the strikes go on i la have to close Down by the end of the he was not alone. All a essential business is suffering fruit and vegetables come int the rate of about 3,000 tons daily and prices Are even com ing Down on asparagus Arti chokes carrots Leeks and potatoes. Meat deliveries Are hold ing up Well and weak demand holds prices Down. The same is True of Over the streets of cities one can see Blue buses loaded with Blue uniformed police to bile guards and members of . The companies re Publ Caines de Security so hated y the rebellious students. They o not Wear their helmets anymore because the sight of the helmets aroused hot anger among demonstrators. Their uses however have Metal Grilles behind All the windows to protect the police from missiles. Army trucks rumble through City streets not on any military Mission but As emergency trans port for citizens. The current joke about the Earmy is that de Gaulle can t de Pend on it because half is in Tahiti waiting for the next nuclear bomb explosion and the other half is Busy collecting garbage. More seriously conservatives Swank shops along the Rue Dufa Bourg St. Honoro and the Rue de la paix have close their help had no Way of get 1vau1 c a a a a Jusay de Gaulle destroyed the army in a purge that followed revolt of generals Over settling the algerian War
