As he spoke to the Militant, the giant Elf refinery here in Grandpuits, 60 miles south of Paris, lay silent, its gates blocked by a seemingly endless line of vehicles. There were tractor trailers and heavy equipment transporters loaded with construction bulldozers, small trucks and cars, a dozen ambulances, and heavy farm tractors. One hundred people, mostly local farmers, were there to ensure the refinery stayed shut.

All were protesting the recent hikes in fuel prices. Rising gas prices, aggravated by the sharp drop in the euro, have placed a heavy financial burden on family farmers and small businesses. They were demanding a reduction of fuel taxes and a limit on future price hikes. Over the past year, gasoline prices have risen about 30 percent to about US$3.80 a gallon, of which three-quarters is tax.

The wave of protests started with fishermen in August. At one point fishing trawlers had blocked every French port on the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Channel coasts. Following an August 31 agreement, the fishermen reopened the ports. Truckers and farmers started blocking the refineries four days later.

The protests ended September 10 when the government agreed to reduce gasoline and diesel fuel taxes by 15 percent in the form of a tax rebate. This victory spurred on protests against fuel prices in several other European countries.

During the wave of protests, blockades closed 100 oil refineries and many fuel storage depots throughout France. River and canal traffic was blocked by barges.

On September 5 ambulance drivers joined the blockades around the refineries. The next day drivers of private buses demonstrated. The following day 4,000 taxi drivers, mostly owner-operators, protested in the streets of Paris, with similar demonstrations throughout the country. After that, hundreds of construction crane operators drove their huge rigs through the French capital at a snail's pace.

In Normandy, farmers sent roving pickets to find gas tank trucks still on the road. Farmers also tried to block the Channel tunnel linking France and Britain. The airport at Nantes was blocked as well. Many regions of the country were left totally without gas.

"I'm having trouble staying afloat," said Gilles Huguet, a farmer in his mid-30s. "With 200 hectares, I'm considered a 'big grain farmer' but I work my farm alone. My wife has an outside job to help keep the farm going. My father worked this farm with two hired workers."

Huguet also pointed to the long-term drop in wheat prices, which went from 130 francs per 100 kilos a decade ago to 50 francs today (1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds; 1 franc = 13 cents).

Initially the truckers' action was supported by large fleet owners affiliated to the organization TLF, which along with a second group, the FNTR, is part of the employers association MEDEF. A third trucking group, the UNOSTRA, is not. The FNTR and UNOSTRA include both owner-operators and small truck companies with seven to 12 trucks each.

Officials of the transport workers unions of the main trade union federations, including the CGT and the CFDT--which support the Communist and Socialist parties respectively, and are both part of the governing coalition--denounced the truckers' protests as a "bosses' strike."

On the third day of protests, the fleet owners of the TLF signed an agreement in which the government agreed to reduce fuel taxes for trucks in exchange for ending its blockades. Meanwhile, others continued the blockades as bus, taxi, and ambulance drivers joined in.  
 
SP, CP, Greens, LCR oppose truckers
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, a leader of the Socialist Party, announced that the agreement with the fleet operators ended all negotiations with protesters. He was seconded by transport minister Jean-Claude Gayssot, a member of the French Communist Party. The government also hinted it might eventually use the police and the military to break the protests.

Ecology Minister Dominique Voynet, a member of the Green Party, part of the "Plural Left" governing coalition, denounced the agreement for making "unacceptable" concessions. Reducing the tax on diesel fuel would encourage pollution and "global warming," she argued.

Alain Krivine, a deputy in the European Parliament for the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), denounced "the concessions made by the government" as "a new gift to backward bosses."

On the other hand, Jean-Marie Le Pen, head of the fascist National Front, demagogically called on the government to lift the embargo against Iraq as a way of having cheaper oil. Bruno Megret, the head of the other major fascist organization in France, called the truckers' actions "justified."

The blockade of refineries and the truckers' refusal to accept the initial agreement between the government and the fleet owners received widespread support. A nationwide public opinion poll showed 88 percent supporting the protests.

On September 8, the FNTR and UNOSTRA signed the same agreement as the fleet operators and called for lifting the blockade of the refineries.

Recognizing that they had won a victory over the government, the remaining protesters lifted the blockades two days later. Meanwhile, truckers, farmers, and fishermen carried out or threatened similar protests in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Greece, and other European countries hit by high fuel prices.

Nat London is a member of the CGT at Renault. Jacques Salfati, a member of the CGT at Peugeot, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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