"Because they cling to obsolete slogans," thundered Gaullist Minister François Missoffe last week, "the unions will suffer the same fate as the political parties and be demolished." But things did not work out quite that way. In France's northern coal fields, 188,000 miners wore smiles of victory as they trooped back to the pits after their bitter 35-day strike. Defying a government antistrike decree that could have resulted in fines, firings and jail terms, the miners had won an immediate 6.5% pay boost that will rise to 12.5% by next April.
The humiliating defeat for President Charles de Gaulle added...
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