MR Bernard Neicolier strolled down Boulevard St Denis in his blue worker's smock, the emblem of the Communist CGT trade union sewn over his heart.
The ticket vendor from the St Lazare station could barely be heard above the thousands of voices chanting: "All together. No dismissals. Job security." The marchers carried placards with slogans such as: "The State is Murderous."
Red flags and multi coloured balloons waved above the tide of faces. Three teenage women, one with bright green hair and an earring in her lip, passed a joint between them. Their banner said: "No to assembly line education."
Steaming merguez sausages and lamb schwarma were on offer. But Bernard Neicolier did not share the festive mood.
"We're striking to defend the public sector," said the ticket vendor, who, like 20 per cent of all French workers, is a government employee. "We're defending ourselves against the decisions taken in Brussels. The (French railway company) SNCF is one of the best companies in the world. They want to break it." Mr Neicolier's resentment of European Union headquarters in Brussels is a new development among the French public, which is beginning to equate European integration with a threat to its material well being.
After 30 years, Mr Neicolier earns an average French ticket seller's salary of £1,000 per month. He says the austerity programme of the Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe - a necessity if France is to meet criteria for monetary union - and the EU's desire to introduce competition into France's inefficient, moneylosing railway system, threaten his job and retirement benefits.
"All rotten," said the placard Nicole Lautram had anchored to her bicycle rack. Who was rotten? "Juppe, Chirac, all the ministers. They steal from us. They exploit us. The nurse's aide from La Pitie Hospital has three unemployed nephews and an unemployed brother. She says she is not able to live on her monthly salary of £867. She said angrily: "I've worked for the government for 17 years. We're treated badly, we're paid badly. No one respects us." As shown by cases like Ms Lautram's, President Chirac has not kept his 1995 campaign promise to "heal the social fracture" running through French society.
Education has been particularly hard hit by budget cuts, and teachers responded en masse to the strike call. Trade union officials say 15,000 French teachers are already unemployed and another 5,000 will lose jobs under the Prime Minister's plan. A group of middle class teachers looked out of place among the placard waving demonstrators. "French youth are in crisis and the government wants to slash education. It's absurd," said one.
Despite serious disruptions in rail service and air traffic yesterday's strike did not bring France to a halt. "One day to make your point is fine," said the Labour Minister, Mr Jacques Barrot. "What would not be fine would be if after tomorrow people try to block the country, to paralyse it."
That is what Mr Louis Viannet, the head of the CGT trade union wishes. Mr Viannet called for a social upheaval "even stronger than in 1995" when weeks of strikes incapacitated the country. "Every step the government takes," he continued, "brings more poverty and exclusion."
Only 8 per cent of French workers belong to trade unions. Yet they believe they morally represent many private sector workers who cannot risk their jobs by striking. Public opinion polls indicated a clear majority of French people supported yesterday's strike. The government is praying the movement will not reach critical mass, that there will be no leap into the unknown.
