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French fishermen keep on striking, blockading and looting!
French fishermen began industrial action against rising fuel prices starting on May 10 and spreading quickly to northern France and the Mediterranean with blockades of fuel depots and other actions.
French fishermen keep on striking, blockading and looting!
May 27, 2008
By @
French fishermen began industrial action against rising fuel prices starting on May 10 and spreading quickly to northern France and the Mediterranean with blockades of fuel depots and other actions.
May 27 - Six fishermen from Ouistreham (Calvados) were arrested by police in Caen after they looted a transport truck of fish and seafood. They are bing held in a Caen jail. (Ouest France)
- Fishermen in Quimper raided a store for fish which they distributed to people outside and motorists. (Ouest France)
- Fishermen occupied a service station in Lorient and gave away free fuel.
May 23 - Fishermen in Caen raided and trashed a fish store. (Ouest France).
- Fishermen give away fuel at Morlaix.
- Fishermen raid supermarkets in Saint-Nazaire, La Baule, Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude) and Saint-Pol-de-Léon (Finistère),
May 22 - Around fifteen fishermen broke the window panes of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs of the harbor of Saint-Quay-Portrieux and took out equipment and files, which they set on fire. (nouvelobs.com)
- About a dozen fishermen freely distributed stolen fuel and frozen goods to motorists at a station in Quimper. (AFP)
- Fishermen of Havre (Seine-Maritime) Honfleur and Trouville (Calvados), organized a "free toll" action on the Normandie bridge, the second such action in less than a week. The fishermen also distributed leaflets to passing motorists. (AFP)
May 21 - Fishermen fought police in Paris. A "rescue rocket" was shot at police. Flares and bottles were also thrown. Three policemen were injured. (Photographer Hughes Leglise)
May 20 - Striking dockers fought police at the port of Marseille. The dockers threw rocks, bottles and chairs from cafés at police. The dockers are striking against "port reform", meaning privatization. (AP)
- Fishermen in Cherbourg stole frozen fish and crustaceans from supermarkets and distributed them to bystanders in the town centre. (Ouest France)
News on disorder (in French):
http://cettesemaine.free.fr/spip/
Pêcheurs en colère !:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hughes_leglise/sets/72157605185606289/
------------------------------------
RIOT POLICE CLEAR FRENCH FISHERMEN FROM OIL DEPOT
Received Tuesday, 27 May 2008 11:25:00 GMT
MARSEILLE, France, May 27, 2008 (AFP) - Riot police Tuesday cleared striking French fishermen from a key oil depot, as fleets resumed blockades of ports and cross-Channel ferries in protest at soaring fuel prices and EU fishing quotas.
Fishermen who have staged a three-week strike over oil prices -- rejecting a government offer of aid -- on Tuesday set up a new roadblock cutting access to the Fos-sur-Mer oil depot near France's biggest port of Marseille.
Riot police were sent in to dislodge the 30 protestors, who left the site without incident, an AFP correspondent said.
Some port workers in Marseille also walked off the job as part of a running strike over privatisation plans.
Along the Mediterranean coast in Sete, fishing fleets decided to continue their strike after a brief pause, while on the Atlantic coast strikes were continuing in Lorient, France's second fishing port, in Guilvinec and in La Rochelle.
In the north, fishermen halted English Channel ferries at Dunkirk by blocking road access to the ferry terminal, unions said, while in Boulogne-sur-Mer they stopped two trucks carrying Norwegian salmon from reaching a local fish factory.
"I have already remortgaged my house to save my business," said one of the fishermen, Emmanuel Descharles, from the Channel port of Etaples.
Some fleets along France's long Atlantic coast agreed at the weekend to head back to sea, after the government promised aid to compensate for diesel costs.
But fishermen from a dozen French ports voted Monday to extend their blockades, as protests by fishing fleets threatened to spread across Europe.
Spanish fleets joined the stoppage on Monday and Italian and Greek fishermen may also join the strike later this week.
In France the cost of a litre of diesel fuel for fishing boats has shot up from 45 euro cents (70 US cents) a litre to 70 in just six months.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country takes the helm of the 27-nation European Union in July, called Tuesday for European countries to agree to cap value-added tax on oil, to help cope with the soaring price.
May 27, 2008
By @
French fishermen began industrial action against rising fuel prices starting on May 10 and spreading quickly to northern France and the Mediterranean with blockades of fuel depots and other actions.
May 27 - Six fishermen from Ouistreham (Calvados) were arrested by police in Caen after they looted a transport truck of fish and seafood. They are bing held in a Caen jail. (Ouest France)
- Fishermen in Quimper raided a store for fish which they distributed to people outside and motorists. (Ouest France)
- Fishermen occupied a service station in Lorient and gave away free fuel.
May 23 - Fishermen in Caen raided and trashed a fish store. (Ouest France).
- Fishermen give away fuel at Morlaix.
- Fishermen raid supermarkets in Saint-Nazaire, La Baule, Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude) and Saint-Pol-de-Léon (Finistère),
May 22 - Around fifteen fishermen broke the window panes of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs of the harbor of Saint-Quay-Portrieux and took out equipment and files, which they set on fire. (nouvelobs.com)
- About a dozen fishermen freely distributed stolen fuel and frozen goods to motorists at a station in Quimper. (AFP)
- Fishermen of Havre (Seine-Maritime) Honfleur and Trouville (Calvados), organized a "free toll" action on the Normandie bridge, the second such action in less than a week. The fishermen also distributed leaflets to passing motorists. (AFP)
May 21 - Fishermen fought police in Paris. A "rescue rocket" was shot at police. Flares and bottles were also thrown. Three policemen were injured. (Photographer Hughes Leglise)
May 20 - Striking dockers fought police at the port of Marseille. The dockers threw rocks, bottles and chairs from cafés at police. The dockers are striking against "port reform", meaning privatization. (AP)
- Fishermen in Cherbourg stole frozen fish and crustaceans from supermarkets and distributed them to bystanders in the town centre. (Ouest France)
News on disorder (in French):
http://cettesemaine.free.fr/spip/
Pêcheurs en colère !:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hughes_leglise/sets/72157605185606289/
------------------------------------
RIOT POLICE CLEAR FRENCH FISHERMEN FROM OIL DEPOT
Received Tuesday, 27 May 2008 11:25:00 GMT
MARSEILLE, France, May 27, 2008 (AFP) - Riot police Tuesday cleared striking French fishermen from a key oil depot, as fleets resumed blockades of ports and cross-Channel ferries in protest at soaring fuel prices and EU fishing quotas.
Fishermen who have staged a three-week strike over oil prices -- rejecting a government offer of aid -- on Tuesday set up a new roadblock cutting access to the Fos-sur-Mer oil depot near France's biggest port of Marseille.
Riot police were sent in to dislodge the 30 protestors, who left the site without incident, an AFP correspondent said.
Some port workers in Marseille also walked off the job as part of a running strike over privatisation plans.
Along the Mediterranean coast in Sete, fishing fleets decided to continue their strike after a brief pause, while on the Atlantic coast strikes were continuing in Lorient, France's second fishing port, in Guilvinec and in La Rochelle.
In the north, fishermen halted English Channel ferries at Dunkirk by blocking road access to the ferry terminal, unions said, while in Boulogne-sur-Mer they stopped two trucks carrying Norwegian salmon from reaching a local fish factory.
"I have already remortgaged my house to save my business," said one of the fishermen, Emmanuel Descharles, from the Channel port of Etaples.
Some fleets along France's long Atlantic coast agreed at the weekend to head back to sea, after the government promised aid to compensate for diesel costs.
But fishermen from a dozen French ports voted Monday to extend their blockades, as protests by fishing fleets threatened to spread across Europe.
Spanish fleets joined the stoppage on Monday and Italian and Greek fishermen may also join the strike later this week.
In France the cost of a litre of diesel fuel for fishing boats has shot up from 45 euro cents (70 US cents) a litre to 70 in just six months.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country takes the helm of the 27-nation European Union in July, called Tuesday for European countries to agree to cap value-added tax on oil, to help cope with the soaring price.
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Received Wednesday, 28 May 2008 11:10:00 GMT
LE HAVRE, France, May 28, 2008 (AFP) - Fishermen called off strikes in key French ports on Wednesday, lifting a week-long blockade of France's largest oil refinery, but truckers and farmers stepped up their own protests over soaring fuel prices.
Fleets in France's biggest fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais and Dunkirk voted to lift their strike until a meeting of European Union fisheries ministers on June 23-24 to tackle the fuel price crisis, union leaders said.
Fuel deliveries by truck resumed at the Total refinery in Gonfreville l'Orcher near the Channel coast, blockaded by fishermen since last Thursday. A court in Le Havre issued a fast-track ruling ordering them to clear the site.
Pipeline deliveries -- which account for 80 percent of the refinery's output -- had not been affected by the protest.
In La Rochelle on the Atlantic -- where the three-week strike began -- fishermen lifted a blockade of three oil depots and a third of fleets returned to sea, in a sign the movement could be winding down.
Fishermen and truck drivers have been in the vanguard of a wave of protests across western Europe over rising fuel costs, as oil prices hit a global record of over 130 dollars a barrel.
The French government has boosted a package of aid for the fishing industry, while President Nicolas Sarkozy called Tuesday for a Europe-wide cut in oil taxes to help those hardest hit by the fuel price hike.
But in southwestern Toulouse, a group of 300 farmers used their cars to block the entry to a Total fuel depot, demanding emergency measures to help the agriculture sector cope too.
The depot supplies service stations within a 200-kilometre (120-mile) radius of the city. Farmers' leaders said they would stay put until Thursday night.
And in southwestern Bordeaux around 40 protesting truck drivers slowed traffic to a near-halt on the city's ring road to demand compensation, traffic officials said.
Spot protests by fishermen continued elsewhere, such as in the southwestern city of Perpignan where fishermen handed out the seafood produce from a local supermarket to passers-by.
Fishermen briefly blocked access to several oil depots near Marseille but were evacuated without incident by riot police, officials said.
And in northwestern Brittany, fishermen and ambulance drivers staged a series of protests, setting up roadblocks with burning wood crates, slowing traffic or letting drivers through toll booths for free.