France: We'll Make Them Eat Rats!

A truckers' strike brings chaos and hardship to much of Europe

Without warning, a touch of anarchy brushed against France last week and brought a baffling challenge to the authority of President Francois Mitterrand. French truck drivers, long regarded as amiable if independent-minded companions of the road, erupted in a collective temper tantrum that tied up half a continent for a week—and surprised themselves almost as much as the Socialist government. Using their mammoth vehicles as an intimidating form of protest, thousands of the truckers blockaded almost all major traffic arteries in the...