In May, after surviving a police blockade designed to starve them out, MOVE agreed, under duress, to vacate by August 1.

A week after that deadline, several hours before sunrise, the police moved in for the kill. Tear gas guns were made ready. More than 300 cops, backed by snipers and mounted police, were poised for action.

At a signal, they began battering the house down. A crane smashed out windows.

Twelve MOVE adults and eleven children, including infants, were barricaded in the basement. High-powered hoses flooded the basement to flush them out like animals. Suddenly, the cops opened fire.

They claimed a shot had been fired from the house. But some eyewitnesses insisted the first shot had come from a different direction. When the smoke cleared, shortly after 8 a.m., one policeman was dead and seven cops and six firemen injured. Two MOVE members and three of their sympathizers were also injured.  
 
August 31, 1953
The mighty wave of strikes which rolled over France for three weeks brought production, transport and the state administration to a standstill, and shook the capitalist regime to its foundations, has temporarily subsided. Last Friday, Aug. 21, after an agreement with the Laniel government, the Socialist and Catholic-led unions called their members back to work. This disrupted the unity of action which had been achieved from below by the ranks in the various unions, localities, and workplaces. The Stalinist-controlled General Confederation of Labor tried to keep the strike going. However, its call did not meet with general response and it had to issue a back-to-work order.

Thus the most potent and promising strike movement of the French working class since 1936 was brought to an inconclusive end.  
 
 
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