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French Sabotage: The Conspiracy Begins
That didn't take long. Reporting on the sabotage of France's high-speed rail lines yesterday, we predicted that it was only a matter of time before some hard-left conspiracy theorists would blame the government for setting up the attacks to harm the strikers' cause.
Precitably, the leader of France's most extreme rail union got the conspiracy rolling. The Times reports that Christian Mahieux, head of the Trotskyite Sud-Rail union, said "who would profit from the crime?"
Mahieux's gang, which represents only 14 percent of railway workers, leads those still on strike. Its numbers are bolstered by far-left students, of which France has no shortage, and numerous drifting "activists" who are guaranteed to affiliate to any movement willing to take on the "capitalist system."
Though other unions are drifting back to work as their leaders show varying degrees of willingness to compromise with the government, Sud-Rail's leadership and members continue with an extreme hard line which one can't help but feel is going to end badly for them.
Banking on a breakdown in talks between the government and other unions and the chance that the strike will spread to civil servants and student bodies, all of whom are complaining of other unrelated issues. Mahieux, it is reported, has said that his comrades will return to work only when the government backs down on its reform programme - and extends the principle of early retirement as it applies to certain railway workers to the entire working population.
Back in the real world, the strikes are continuing. Despite a majority of workers (80 percent, according to some reports) having returned to their jobs, services such as the Paris Metro are still badly affected as many drivers remain on strike. Only one in three or four trains are running on the Metro - though things are improving for the suburban RER lines and the national rail network.
