Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of France yesterday, disrupting schools and transport in a nationwide strike to pressure prime minister Dominique de Villepin to withdraw his controversial new employment law. Organizers of the marches claimed that 3 million people joined marches with major demonstrations in Marseille, Bordeaux and across the country. In Paris, there was an estimated 700,000 people in the biggest and 4,000 riot police. Angelique Chrisafis reports.