Amid riots and threats, Mitterrand presses a policy of rigueur
The blockade was in place even before daylight broke over the smokestacks of Lorraine. Gangs of workers erected more than 120 barricades of coiled sheet steel throughout that eastern region, sealing off the major towns and shutting the border crossings to West Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. Factories were idled; stores, banks and public offices were closed and shuttered. In Nancy 10,000 marchers took to the streets, in Longwy 15,000, in Metz 20,000. In a dramatic climax to nearly a week of unrest,...
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