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Thousands Protest In France Calling For Revolution

Thousands of protestors have taken to the streets of Paris demanding a “general revolution” amid a continued ‘state of emergency’ in France.  A variety of protestors, ranging from parents, students, workers, artists and pensioners,  have set-up camp in around the Place de la République square for over a week – and the government are beginning to panic. Theguardian.com reports: Called Nuit debout, which loosely means “rise up at night”, the protest movement is increasingly being likened to the Occupy initiative that mobilised hundreds of thousands of people in 2011 or Spain’s Indignados. Despite France’s long history of youth protest movements – from May 1968 to vast rallies against pension changes – Nuit debout, which has spread to cities such as Toulouse, Lyon and Nantes and even over the border to Brussels, is seen as a new phenomenon. It began on 31 March with a night-time sit-in in Paris after the latest street demonstrations by students and unions critical of President François Hollande’s proposed changes to labour laws. But the movement and its radical nocturnal action had been dreamed up months earlier at a Paris meeting of leftwing activists. “There were about 300 or 400 of us at a public meeting in [...]