I’ve had a few people ask me about the student protests here in France (as my sister Allison pointed out, it being on the front page of the NY Times might have something to do with it). So, I figured I’d post a little explainer about what’s going on and how it’s affecting us.
First of all, life has gone on as normal. The streets aren’t on fire here.
But also, these protests are a pretty big honking deal.
So [record scratch] how did we get here? The protests started in a Parisian suburb (Créteil), where High School students (lycéens) started a peaceful protest about their school conditions. The students were angry about large class sizes, open teacher vacancies, lack of school resources, long school hours, and the fact that their schools aren’t properly equipped to handle heat waves.
Honestly? Valid.
French students have some of the largest number of hours in their school year in Europe. They have a lot of vacation days, but some high school students are in class for eight hours a day. At the same time, they’re in a demographic peak (the babies of 2010 are in HS now) and (according to Le Monde), there are 250,000 more students than back in the early 2000, but with fewer teachers. In other words, French students spend a lot of time being taught in large classes by overworked teachers.
As for climate change and the school buildings… Lilian’s school had to close multiple times during the heat waves last spring. It was dangerously hot in the afternoon. We live in the land that has traditionally preferred not to use air conditioning. The buildings here mostly date to when they needed to trap the heat in, not force it out. We need to stop roasting our students like marshmallows.
Which brings us to the student protests. This was an organic movement that started a few weeks ago and has grown to affect almost a third of the high schools here. For the most part, things have been peaceful. There have been some pockets of violence, mostly from provocateurs and opportunists. But they’re really a small part of it. Of course, the images of dramatic clashes are super dramatic, so that’s what you’re going to see.
Which is not to say that everything has been completely calm. Lilian’s school had to shut down for a few days because some of the students were blocking the entrances and causing a ruckus. A few of them set off fireworks (the email we got about this was hilariously understated). They also piled up branches as make-shift barricades (very Les Mis coded) and spray-painted anarchy symbols and protest slogans. It’s hard to tell how many of the students are there to peacefully state their demands and how many of them are there to enjoy watching it all burn. But don’t lose track of the fact that the students have very real and valid demands.
We’ve mostly seen the aftermaths of the protests: some graffiti, some burned out/melted trashcans, etc. But, we did see a minor clash last Friday. I was hanging out with a friend in our apartment when we heard a dull roar outside. We saw a wave of young people running across the plaza, followed by a plume of what turned out to be tear gas. Kristian quickly shut the windows and we watched from the relative safety of our apartment. It was absolutely wild to see gas canisters landing in the road in front of us.
Most of the students covered their faces with scarves and then ran off down the street to gather at a larger plaza just north of us. We saw a few random bystanders walking out of the tram station with their faces covered with makeshift masks. A few minutes after that, the gas was mostly dispersed and life went back to normal. Within 15 minutes or so, it was like it had never happened.
I would say that people are concerned about the violence, but also very understanding of the students’ demands. On Friday, Le Monde published an editorial about how this all went off the rails because authorities should have listened to the students’ concerns and didn’t. A lot of people are also concerned about the heavy police response to all of this. There have been at least two major student injuries as a result of police crackdowns: one student lost a hand because of a smoke grenade, and one student lost the use of an eye from a head injury.
I would say that most people I talk to in my daily life are generally in support of the students’ demands, but also concerned about the chaos. There’s a general acknowledgement that it’s a few opportunists who are causing most of the destruction. Of course, some of that is due to our social circles and who we hang out with. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who are big mad about all of this.
Lilian’s school sent an email today detailing out a meeting that the administration had with student leaders. Said leaders worked together to survey their peers and bring their concerns to the school. They have the same general concerns as the larger movement. One thing that warmed my heart is that they expressed solidarity with lycéens at schools with fewer resources. The school is already considering several proposals put forth by the students. They also acknowledged that most of the damage came from outsiders.
Today, the trade unions joined the students. So, I don’t think this is slowing down anytime soon. The government has signaled that they want to make some meaningful changes for the students. The problem is, where are they going to find the money for it? (one of the students’ concerns is budget cuts to education).
I hope that they’re able to effect some real and effective change.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about all of this.
