Day 11 of demonstrations in France over President Emmanuel Macron’s cutback in pensions saw demonstrators occupy the Paris headquarters of BlackRock, the world’s biggest money manager. Protesters entered the Centorial office block holding red flares and chanted messages denouncing the so-called pensioin “reform.” (Macron did not risk a vote on the “reform,” pushing the hated “reform” through while avoiding such democratic niceties.) Videos of the protest also evidence the presence of smoke bombs.
The spokesman for the trade union group SUD, Jerome Schmitt, told a CNN affiliate BRM-TV: “The meaning of this action is quite simple. We went to the headquarters of BlackRock to tell them: the money of workers, for our pensions, they are taking it.” Reuters reported, citing school teacher Françoise Onic, that the unions had targeted BlackRock because of its work with the private pension funds.
