Paris has broken out in violent protests over the French government's handling of the economic crisis with 65,000 demonstrators joining a march from the Place de la Bastille towards the center of the city as fires were lit on some of Paris' best-known boulevards and police used tear and baton charges.

The big concern is whether this is just the beginning. Is it just the French, or will this spread to other cities?

Certainly, the warning from Guy Ryder, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) suggests that it might. Ryder says the global crisis, which could result in the destruction of 50 million jobs around the world, could lead to widespread turmoil and urban crime. "We are on the road to serious social instability, which could be extremely dangerous in some countries to democracy itself."

As the Telegraph points out, we have seen riots and bloodshed in Greece, protests in Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary and Bulgaria.

It's the winter of discontent and those with long memories will recall that the economic catastrophe produced the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco.