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vive la révolution
Despite France being routinely mocked for waving the white flag in times of conflict, its teenage population wants all the smoke when it comes to warring its own government.
Tabloid images of Parisian skies thick with tear gas and streets dotted with makeshift bonfires have become an almost bimonthly occurrence. Street protests are so deeply woven into France’s political culture that scenes which would signal an extraordinary breakdown of order elsewhere are practically par for the course across the Channel.
This latest kick-off isn’t about pension reform or another unpopular government appointment though, and it’s too early in the season for the yearly riots led by pissed-up PSG ultras. It’s all about education, and the growing frustration among young people who feel their futures are being compromised by a shit, unfair system.
The demonstrations are now in their third week, and students continue to abandon classrooms, blockade school entrances, and march through city centres in huge numbers. Cutting through the chaos, the grievances are hardly unreasonable.
Frustrations have built over years of chronic underfunding and neglect in France’s education system. Steep teacher shortages mean students regularly have no lessons to even go to, while overcrowded classrooms, crap facilities, and lengthy school days have fuelled a growing sense that students are being screwed out of their futures – all while being held to higher expectations than ever before.
The government has promised to recruit 3,000 substitute teachers to plug the gaps, but education unions argue that temporary staffing won’t solve deeper problems, particularly when shortages vary by subject and region. As of today, some 200 schools are closed which Education Minister Edouard Geffray said is ‘a decline compared to previous weeks.’ What a colossal fucking dub that is, just 200!
Anger towards the establishment has reached such fever pitch, that 57% of French citizens are aligned with the student movement according to recent polls. Imagine being so infuriating that you unite skiving youngens and Greta Thunberg with parents and the wider boomer generation. Impressive.
The authorities have no doubt continued to this sense of solidarity, by using excessive force against, well, minors. Nearly 7,000 have been arrested and several teenagers have reportedly sustained life-changing injuries, including a young man who lost a hand to a stun grenade and another who suffered irreparable damage to their eye.
The damage isn’t completely one-sided, but the images of school children clashing with burley riot squads are, if you’ll excuse my French, fucking stupid.
Inevitably, comparisons are being drawn with May 1968, when French student protests snowballed into a nationwide movement involving millions of workers and brought the country to a virtual standstill. We’re probably some way off a repeat, but with a presidential election looming and wider public frustrations already running high, the timing will have the government sweating.
And rightly so. Those just coming of age are already facing a grim job market, rising living costs, and a slim crack at entering homeownership. If the basic resources aren’t provided for them to even compete in that shite state of play, what is even the point?
