Suddenly France is veering into one of those dramatic social conflicts to which it alone seems to know the secret.
After two months of rolling but unspectacular demonstrations against the government's contested labour law, in the space of a week the stakes have changed.
Now we have angry queues at petrol stations, citizens unable to drive to work, tyres burning at oil refineries, and the spectre of power cuts if nuclear workers join.
What has happened is that one particular trade union - the CGT - has made a strategic decision.
The use of Article 49-3 (to use the jargon) was a sign that the government was determined to stand firm on its labour reform.
But the CGT - with the Force Ouvriere union and other hardline allies - came to a different conclusion.
They saw 49-3 as a mark of weakness. Why else would the government bypass parliament, unless it was unsure of its own ranks?
Go for broke
They took heart from opinion polls showing that a majority of the population is still opposed to the reform.
And they calculated that President Hollande - an unpopular, unrespected politician whose instinct has always been to compromise - would never have the stomach for a fight.
So they decided to go for broke.
For the CGT, a union with historic links to the Communists, this means applying pressure at those strategic nodes where it has strength: petrochemicals, ports and railways.
The government may well bemoan an illegal abuse of the right to strike.
The CGT's Philippe Martinez retorts that it was the government that first ignored the will of the people: first by introducing pro-business reforms that were never in its manifesto, then by overriding the nation's elected representatives.
It is a highly precarious confrontation, in which the eventual loser stands to lose more than just the battle.
The CGT is engaged - as ever - in a power-struggle with the other union blocs.
French unions are weak in members (the CGT represents just 3% of the workforce), but strongly entrenched in France's institutional structures.
Being the biggest union bloc means more seats on public bodies like the social security authority, more jobs, and more public money.
Face-off with high stakes
Having taken the path of confrontation against a Socialist government, the CGT is now in open warfare against its main rival - the CFDT - which has decided to back the labour reform.
Union elections are due next year. Defeat in this face-off could spell a long period of decline for the CGT - a union regularly accused of being stuck ideologically several decades in the past.
But for the Hollande-Valls tandem, the stakes are even higher.
Two months ago the president was forced to abandon a previous piece of important legislation. This was the bid to change the constitution so that terrorists could be stripped of French citizenship.
Were he also to back down on the labour reform, it would be an admission of total incapacity. Manuel Valls would almost certainly resign, and for the last year of his mandate the president would be a cypher.
Surrender would also be an act of monumental betrayal against the moderate union bloc - the CFDT - which is currently the government's ally.
Today the CFDT is one of the fiercest critics of the CGT's policy of radicalisation. If the government gives in - and scraps or rewrites the labour reform - the CFDT will pay the price.
So where will it end?
The crunch will come in the next two or three weeks - probably around the time that the European football championships start on 10 June.
The hardline unions are banking that the government will do anything to avoid embarrassment over such an important sporting event - and so will back down.
The government is banking that the CGT does not have the troops it says it has and that public opinion will blame the protesters if there are protracted fuel shortages - especially if there is violence.
Ultimately the football may also help, simply by becoming the new national preoccupation.
Between now and then, though, the French are girding for another kind of showdown.
French labour reform bill - main points
The 35-hour week remains in place, but as an average. Firms can negotiate with local trade unions on more or fewer hours from week to week, up to a maximum of 46 hours
Firms are given greater freedom to reduce pay
The law eases conditions for laying off workers, strongly regulated in France. It is hoped companies will take on more people if they know they can shed jobs in case of a downturn
Employers given more leeway to negotiate holidays and special leave, such as maternity or for getting married. These are currently also heavily regulated
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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