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When a Muslim woman was stopped by police for wearing a niqab while driving in Nantes, western France, last month it gave a warning of what may be to come.

When over 200 RMT activists marched out of Lille station in northern France on the morning of 13 April they were greeted by cheers from their French counterparts.

The English Defence League (EDL) has taken to copying the tactics of Le Pen’s Front National (FN) in France.

Workers at a French car accessories plant north of Paris have threatened to blow up their factory unless they are given better redundancy pay-offs.

Air France cabin crew have called a three-day solidarity strike with workers at British Airways (BA).

The first round of the French regional elections last Sunday saw a heavy defeat for the ruling right wing party of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The French CGT union has threatened "fire and blood" after oil giant Total announced the closure of its refinery in Dunkirk.

Total oil refinery workers in France have forced concessions from their bosses with high profile strikes.

The candidacy of New Anti-capitalist Party activist Ilham Moussaïd caused controversy in France because she chooses to wear a hijab. She spoke to Jim Wolfreys about challenging capitalism and Islamophobia

More than half of France’s oil refineries were on strike as Socialist Worker went to press.

1492 – The islands are "discovered" by explorer Christopher Columbus and claimed for Spain as a colony1697 – What is now Haiti is occupied by France and named Saint-Domingue. The French begin bringing in 20,000 slaves a year to grow sugar cane for export1804 – Haiti win its independence following a slave revolt. It becomes the first black republic in the world. A new constitution is adopted, giving people more rights and freedoms1825 – The new country is forced into paying reparations to France for loss of property during the revolt, keeping it locked in a cycle of debt<

The sad litany of deaths of Marxist intellectuals of the 1960s generation has continued. The French philosopher and activist Daniel Bensaïd – one of the great figures to emerge from the students’ and workers’ rebellion of May to June 1968 – died on 12 January at the age of 63.