From London to Warsaw, a truckers' protest against sky-high fuel prices spread relentlessly across northern Europe Wednesday, paralyzing key cities and ports and introducing motorists to underground transport, cycling and walking.
In Belgium, the protest for the first time spread to the country's three busiest northern ports, Antwerp, Ghent and Zeebrugge, as the hauliers' effective park-and-walk tactic tied up key access routes.
"All major roads to the port are blocked," preventing both workers and cargo from reaching or leaving the docks, Antwerp Port Authority spokeswoman Ann Wittemans told AFP by telephone.
"It started as a sort of wildcat action at 7:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) and it's been spreading," added Robert Restiau of the Antwerp Port Federation, which represents the harbor's private-sector operators.
Ships continued to enter and leave freely, despite the ease with which they too could be stopped if trucks were parked on a drawbridge over the waterway that links the docks to the North Sea.
The looming problem was pilots and stevedores unable to get to work, and deliveries to the huge General Motors plant at the port, for one, were threatened.
A Zeebrugge port official said the two major highways serving the port, from Antwerp and Brussels, were blocked, threatening "sensitive" flows of auto parts and chemicals, both in-coming and out-going.
In Britain, which boasts Europe's highest fuel prices, police acting on orders from Prime Minister Tony Blair escorted fuel tankers re-stocking emergency service depots to ease the nationwide chaos caused by crippling blockades.
Police in London blocked a convoy of trucks from reaching parliament, and a caravan of 60 to 70 lorries, which had been trying to reach Parliament Square, was forced to a stop about a mile and a half away, police said.
Unlike the rest of Europe, where the protests started by French protesters last week were largely over diesel fuel needed by hauliers and farmers, private British motorists joined the fray over high pump prices, with long lines, waning supplies, and no relief in sight.
Much of the country remained at crisis-point, with major retailers reporting the vast majority of their filling stations out of fuel.
Shortages were wreaking chaos on hospitals and ambulance services, schools, businesses, transport, supermarkets, sport and other areas reliant on regular supplies.
In Brussels, the usually packed Schuman Circle that serves as a hub for the many European Union bodies based here was converted to a pedestrian mall, its half-dozen feeder roads blocked by cross-parked trucks.
Smiling cyclists and pedestrians took full advantage as police politely directed motorists to sidestreet detours and deftly reversed directions of key one-way streets to ease congestion.
The major arteries to and around Belgian government buildings also remained blocked.
Talks in Brussels to end the protest continued Wednesday at the offices of Transport Minister Isabelle Durant, a Green member of Beligum's Liberal-led coalition government.
Back at the table, after walking out overnight, was the most militant of the truckers' groups, the Professional Highway Transport Union, which represents small, independent Walloon truckers.
The Professional Highway Transport Union (UPTR), which kicked off the blockade in Brussels on Sunday, reacted angrily to what a spokesman called government "scorn" for its demands.
"The idea of professional fuel prices, our key demand, is only broached in the eighth point" of the government's framework accord, said Serge Adriaens, the UPTR president after storming out of the talks overnight.
More action is on its way, after the German federation of cargo transporters (BGL) called Wednesday for a national protest against high oil prices.
In Oslo, Norway's road transport union (NLF) warned the government it would call its members to strike if diesel fuel taxes were not cut. Union officials are to meet with the government Friday.
And in Warsaw, Polish truckers warned of a nationwide highway slowdown from Friday unless fuel price relief was forthcoming, and farmers and taxi drivers pledged their support -- BRUSSELS(AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
