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NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2005Our Life and Times by Kevin A. BerryFrench student revoltFrench high school students have been demonstrating since February against the conservative government’s education "reforms." These measures would move the curriculum further away from critical thinking and toward the requirements of capital. In addition, the new continuous assessment plan, which would go alongside the baccalaureate exam, would put more power in the hands of administrators, who could easily penalize "troublesome" or minority students. Some 160,000 students took to the streets across France on March 8. This demonstration was preceded by two equally large ones in February. This is a new generation of student activists, who became politicized during the protests against the Iraq war and those against the neo-Nazi National Front. The High School Action Committees have been coordinating the protests, taking the leadership away from the traditional student organizations. There is a strong Marxist and anarchist presence in these Committees. By April, the government had not budged and the movement began to wind down. Nonetheless, students began to occupy dozens of high schools. While this movement may have been defeated, it seems to have fostered the growth of a new generation of radicals. |
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