Hundreds of thousands of French workers are going on strike this afternoon as unions and opposition leaders protest their government’s handling of the economic crisis. Train drivers, air traffic control operators, teachers, postal workers, bank employees and ski lift operators, to name a few, will refuse to work.

These protests will cause massive disruption. In some places, only one in five trains will be operating. Despite this, the general strike is very popular. One poll found that almost 70 percent of those surveyed support, or sympathize with, the strike.

Many fear this could be the beginning of more than just one day of strikes. “I feel a violence being born,” said Member of Parliament Philippe Cochet. “In schools, for example, there’s a very strong mobilization.”

Those on the far left are hoping the strike will be the first step toward a French revolution. “We want the established powers to be blown apart,” Olivier Besancenot, the young leader of the extreme left, said in an interview with the Financial Times. “There is a torrent of industrial disputes and social protests,” he stated. “But they all remain separate from each other. What we need to do is bring all this together in one massive movement of dissent.”

Besancenot is no fringe politician. The FT calls him “one of the most popular opposition politicians” and says that he “is often regarded as the most effective adversary of Mr. Sarkozy.” Polls suggest that 10 percent of the population would vote for him in a presidential election.

The FT also believes that today’s strike could lead to something much bigger. “The strike on Thursday, if widely followed, could mark the beginning of a broad-based anti-government movement,” it warned yesterday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis is not popular. Many are frustrated that the government appears only to be bailing out the rich bankers. In January 2008, Sarkozy told the people that the “coffers are empty.” Then, 10 months later, his government bailed out banks with €320 billion (us$424 billion) in loan guarantees.

“Everybody is aware that we are experiencing a worldwide crisis that hasn’t been seen for 70 years,” said Bernard Thibault, head of one of France’s biggest unions. He went on to say that the wage earners did not create the crisis, and “We can’t accept that workers are the only ones to suffer the consequences.”

On Tuesday, French opposition leader Martine Aubry proposed a motion of “no confidence” against Sarkozy, the second no-confidence vote he has faced since coming to power. He survived comfortably—his party has an absolute majority—but it shows there are strong feelings against the government among the opposition.

More and more, the economic crisis is causing civil unrest, especially in Europe. This is an important trend to watch—in the past, such a trend has led to the rise of extremist groups, like in the 1930s. For more details, see our article “Did the Holy Roman Empire Plan the Greek Crisis?”