Youth teach the Chirac
International Viewpoint 22 December 1986
FRANCE planned a demonstration some months earlier, and 150,000 turned out, led by the FEN (Federation de l'Education Nationale), a day after the students had put out an appeal for a general •strike against the bill.
The first national student demonstration, on Thursday November 27, government a lesson saw one million students, pupils and trade unionists on the streets in Paris and the provinces.
The
Student
Coordination, national a body of
AFTER THREE WEEKS of massive mobilizations, university occupations, school strikes and street battles, Jacques Chirac's right-wing coalition government was forced into a humiliating climbdown from its proposed reforms of higher education. The government's defeat, just nine months after their election victory in March this year, will have repercussions far wider than the education sector.
HILARY ELEANOR
Alain Devaquet, who as minister for the university sector gave his name to the reform bill, has been forced to resign - and he may be just the first casualty of the affair. The Devaquet bill was an attempt to reform the higher education system in accordance with the demands of French capital and industry. At the core of its proposals were increased selection of students and strengthening of the links between the private sector and the universities.
In a situation where youth unemployment stands officially at 11.5 percent, with nearly 900,000 young people making up 36 per cent of the jobless, such a proposal to put up more barriers to entry into university met with massive opposition.
In France, the question of education has always been a political hot potato. Attempts by the previous
Socialist government to reform private sectors of education were opposed by the right and dropped. Any student who passes their
Baccalaureat examination at school has the right to go to university to try for a degree.
Although this, in practicethe unicreates massive overcrowding versities and a high rate of selection at the end of first year studies, the right to enter higher education is viewed as a democratic right.
Devaquet's bill provided a spark that ignited a massive movement of opposition among youth afraid of unemployment, many of whom had been radicalized through the mass anti-racist movement,
SOS-racisme.
The militancy and tenacity of the students took everyone by surprise.
The media took great pains to describe how non-political it was (with endless comparisons to May 1968), while students occupied the universities, went on strike in the lycees (academic high schools), organized monster demonstrations and appealed to workers for solidarity.
In Caen on November 15, a first coordinating meeting of ten universities was held.
With a petition of just over
2,000 signatures, they called for the withdrawal of the bill, for a national demonstration and for self-organization of the students. In just over a week, the movement had snowballed into a massive opposition to the
Teachers' government.
unions had
Autre Chose, daily bulletin produced by the JCR
QU'ON GAGNE
FVE DEVAQUET:
MIER AVERTISSE
OCHAIN..
LA POI
UTRE CHO:
DECIDONS DEVAQUET
NOS OCCUPATIONG made AUTRE CHOSE
DEVAQUET, LES CRS NE FERONT PASTA
CONTINUONS
JUSQU'AU RETRAIT made A TRE CHOSE...
SAUVE-QUI-PEUT DEVAQUET...
PARIS EST A NOUS delegates elected from each faculty and school, appealed for the occupation of the universities after this magnificent show of strength. They also appealed for a national strike in the whole education sector, and for a demonstration in Paris on December 4.
The occupations and the whole movement set a shining example for the labour movement of democratic forms of self-organization and unity in action. At each faculty, general assemblies (AGs) were held frequently, to discuss the next steps for the fightback, to take reports from delegates to the Student Coordination and to organize to build support among secondary school students and workers. Delegates to higher bodies were instantly recallable, and were mandated to vote by their AG. Commissions were set up to organize leafletting of workplaces, preparation for the demonstrations and so on.
Some faculties also set up commissions to look into other governmental projects, such as the proposed racist nationality code, which attempts to limit rights to French citizenship.
This model of democratic functioning prevented successive attempts to sabotage and defuse the movement, by both government manoeuvres proposing to set up a commission to discuss the bill, and by media attempts to red-bait and divide the students.
The university occupations became a focus for the fightback in the build. up to the December 4 dernonstration. But the strikes by secondary-school students gave an added depth to the campaign, broadening out the struggle and ensuring popular support for the demand for a total withdrawal of the Devaquet bill. Parents of the students organized in support committees, and demonstrated alongside their children. No-one was left untouched by the movement, and the tide began to turn against the government.
The national demonstration in Paris on Thursday, December 4 set in train the events that eventually brought about a U-turn by Chirac. One million people brought central Paris to a standstill, as the demonstrators wound their way for hours upon end between the Place de la Bastille and Invalides. The march itself passed off without incident - an impressive show of strength and unity. But events later
International Viewpoint 22 December 1986 on that evening and the following day put the final nail in the bill's
Chirac had announced earlier in the week that the size of the demonstration would affect the government's attitude on whether or not to press ahead with the bill. On the evening of the demonstration, when protestors were still filing into Invalides, a delegation from the Student Coordination met with representatives Devaquet and Rene Monory (minister of education). The result of the meeting was announced to the hundreds of thousands at the rally in Invalides: the government was going to press ahead with its reforms. washed their hands of the affair, the minister of took over by unleasing the CRS police, water cannons and teargas grenades on the demonstrators.
The news of government's intransigence provoked an angry reaction at the rally. But it was the provocations of the CRS that led to the bloody street battles that went on into that night. At least three tear-gas grenades hit human targets, gravely wounding one student, who lost an ye. knocking another unconsciou nd ripping off the hand of a third it full view of TV cameras.
It was clearly an attempt by the government to smash the movement by repression, and to turn the tide of public opinion against the students by attempt to retake the initiative by tried and trusted appeals to "law and order" dramatically backfired.
Events moved rapidly against the government from this time on. On Friday, the day after the demonstration, they announced that the most controversial points of the Devaquet bill would be put on ice. The national Student Coordination responded by demanding complete and total withdrawal of the bill.
More street the CRS moved in to evict students from the occupation at the Sorbonne university, one of the militancy. Students acting in erected barricades, over buses and fought off the CRS with any weapon to hand.
On the heels of the CRS came the to the police, who specialize in mopping-up operations -dispersing crowds any available means. As a volunteer force, they are right-wingers. Mounted in twos on motor-bikes, the one at the rear carries a long club, and they proceed to chase 4 demonstrators, bystanders and anyone else who gets in their way along the roads and the pavements.
It was they who trapped Malik death. Witnesses to the murder testified that Malik was unarmed. As news of his death emerged the following day, the government began to beat a hasty retreat.
Tens of thousands marched ly on Saturday in memory of Malik. In the afternoon, the Student Coordination called for protest strikes in workplaces on Monday, and another demonstration on Wednesday, December 10. The TV news reports identified an agent provocateur - who turned out to be a member of the transport police - throwing bricks at the CRS with no attempt being made to arrest
They also showed letting crash-helmeted fascists pass a police cordon with the blessing of the Police cover up another murder
Late on Sunday, news leaked out that a young Algerian had been shot dead by police in an incident unrelated pened on Friday, but had been covered up by the police and the government, who feared it would exacerbate opposition to the repression.
spite of declaring that there would be "no retreat" by the government on Sunday, by 1pm on Monday Chirac made a public announcement that the Devaquet bill would be with-
After some confusion, the students decided to go ahead with a victory march on Wednesday the 10th, but given the death of Malik it was, as some of the banners said, "A sad victory". Again, a million demonstrators, youth and workers of all ages, showed their defiance to the government. Even though the union leadercommunist-led CGI, had called support for the demonstration, tens of thousands of workers came out to support the students. The slogan, referring murder and the introduction of education reform without consultathe students, was "Plus jamais ca" - never again.
Following on its defeat, the fragile coalition headed by Chirac in turmoil. It has had to temporarily withdraw its immediate projects, including the new nationality code, privatization of the prisons and criminalization of drug dependence. Although this retreat may be temporary while the government waits for things to cool off, the events of the past few weeks will have far reaching struggle exploded government. Within Chirac's coalition, members of the RPR (Rassemblement pour la republique) and pour la democratie francaise) falling over each other to look for scapegoats for the fiasco. Their fas-
FN (Front national), who they rely on majority, are possible out of Chirac's "capitulation". Chirac not only has to salvage some vestiges of unity out of this mess, but also convince people that the "cohabitation" with Socialist President Francois Mitterrand has not turned into an unequal partnership, with Mitterrand pulling the strings. With an eye on the presidential elections due to be held in 1988, Jacques Chirac has plenty to worry about.
Although the Student Coordination has now wound up, there are plans to hold a new national delegate meeting in March next year. Aside from the immediate problems created for the government, emplary struggle of the students will no doubt inspire others in the future. After years of demagogic hot air and constant surrenders bureaucracies, showed that it was possible to win a head-on confrontation with an agressive right-wing government through democratic forms of mobilization and with determined leadership. It is an example that has already distur-
European bourgeoisies. should re-inspire the workers' moveMay 1968, the movement of December 1986 was marked by the numbers of young women who came to the fore in the leadership of the struggle. Anti-racist consciousness was high, following of the SOS-racisme campaign, and this also added a dimension to the unity of the movement.
Any comparisons between recent events and those of May 1968 must be cautious. France, alongside other imperialist countries in Western Europe, faces an economic crisis as well as a social one. Mass unemployment, austerity and attacks on the workers are the order of the day. The international political situation appears frozen by comparison the turmoil of the late 1960s.
But young people in France have shown that battles can be won, even in this period of defensive struggles for the working class. And if battles can be won, so can the war.
One of the massive student demonstrations in Paris
MONORY • DEVAQUET
PLUS JAMAS E
UULE
Photos (clockwise from top):
Teachers show their opposition to Devaquet
"Never again"
The CRS - moving in for the kill
DEMISSION
International Viewpoint 22 December 1986
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CHIRAC • PASQUA "Chirac, Pasqua, Monory, Devaquet kill students - Resign" fuent les tudlants
FRANCE with the fact that it is
This fits in youth who've suffered from most the repressive measures in general.
The lyceens much quicker were