jobless occupy French Socialist party headquarters FWD
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Sat, 24 Jan 1998 15:05:26 -0800 (PST)
FWD: PARIS, Jan 22, 1998 (Reuters)
FRENCH JOBLESS LEAVE SOCIALIST PARTY HQ
Dozens of jobless activists left the headquarters of France's ruling
Socialist Party on Thursday after occupying it for about four hours in
protest against Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
Shouting ``Down with the Socialist Party!'' the protesters left the
building voluntarily, ending the latest in a six-week series of
demonstrations for higher unemployment benefits.
About 40 protesters, some of them masked, filed out of the building near
the National Assembly on the Left Bank of the river Seine. Police had
originally estimated the crowd at 100 and Socialist party officials said 60.
Shortly before they left, the Socialist Party denounced the occupation,
saying the militants had stormed into the building ``without seeking any
dialogue at all'' and said it would hurt the jobless cause.
The occupiers responded by calling Jospin's stand ``a declaration of war''
and complaining he was simply continuing the free-market policies of his
predecessors.
In a long-awaited television appearance on Wednesday evening, Jospin said
he could not give in to their demands for an immediate 1,500 francs ($250)
rise in minimum monthly unemployment benefits.
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