Word: renard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After four weeks of bitter strikes, one man kept Belgium in turmoil almost singlehanded. Andre Renard, 49, deputy secretary-general of the General Workers Federation, held out against the government, against his own Socialist Party, even in apparent defiance of the parliamentary process itself...
...born union organizer, bony, greying Renard is a popular hero in the mold of the late Nye Bevan, and just as militant a Socialist. He grew up in the bitter, capitalist-hating 1930s, fought bravely against the Nazis in the World War II under ground. Now he clearly had much more in mind than simply defeating Premier Gaston Eyskens' economic austerity program. He sought the downfall of the regime. He demanded a new socialized pattern for Belgium, with nationalization of industry and central economic planning. He wanted a division of his country into two federated regions-the Walloon south...
...Mons, a crowd of 15,000 singing first the anticapitalist Internationale, then the anticlerical Down with the Cassocks, filled the city's main square to hear Renard lash out at Eyskens' Loi Unique and shout his creed. With relish Renard pointed out that the strike was costing the capitalist owners of industry a billion francs ($20 million) a day. "Every time you cross off a day on the calendar," he cried, "think, another billion less for them!" Would Renard call off the strike? "A single word!" he shouted. "Persist...
...Renard's bidding, the strikers persisted. Although the Flemish north now was quiet and mostly back at work, the rest of Belgium remained racked with strife. The Cabinet met and decided to order 2,000 more troops back from their NATO garrisons in Germany to help guard factories and mines that Renard's extremists had threatened with sabotage. In many towns gendarmes escorted government-conscripted garbage men on their rounds; as they dumped the cans into trucks, village after village echoed to auto horns that beeped rhythmically "Eyskens au po-teau"-"Eyskens to the gallows." Here and there...
...strike-bound Liège, the Walloons' André Renard, deputy secretary-general of the Socialist-led General Workers Federation, rose to tell 30,000 workers at a union rally that the strikes must go on at any cost. A thousand rowdies broke from the crowd and rampaged through the streets, smashing the glass facade of the railway station, overturning police cars. For the first time, troops opened fire to quell the trouble; by the time they had driven the mob to the banks of the Meuse River, two strikers had been wounded by their bullets...