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French students movement

papidan | 17.03.2006 02:04 | French CPE uprising 2006 | Analysis | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World

On the 16th of march, 64 french universities, out of 84, were on strike.
This huge movement has started in january. Why ?

The french government, and its primer minister Dominique de Villepin, has imposed a new law: the “loi sur l’égalité des chances” (equality of chance law !!).
The law was passed in a way that sidestepped the debate and discussion that is a traditional part of the legislative process in France, a special procedure known as Article 49.3 of the French Constitution.
This law:
- creates a “parental responsability contract” (your children are not going to school regularly, well, pay a fine and say goodbye to your family allowances),
- lower the legal compulsory age of school (16 to 14) to allow 14 years old teenagers to become apprentice,
- allows night-work for 15 years old teenagers.
- creates different shit working contracts. One of them is called CPE (Contrat Première Embauche, or First Employment Contract).

To understand what is the CPE, you have to know that, in France, there is, legally speaking - not in the real world obviously, two main working contracts: the CDI (Undetermined Length Contract, a contract with no specified end date) and CDD (Determined Length Contract, a contract with a specified end date). Under French law, the employer has usually only one to three months to terminate the employment of a new employee without having to provide a reason. After that, French labor law provides protection for the employee so that employment isn’t ended without objective cause.

The CPE applies to those under 26 years of age who find a new job. It gives the employer the right to terminate the new hire’s employment within TWO YEARS without having to give any reason. This means that during this two years probational period, every morning, you don’t know if you will still have the job the next day.

Last August a similar law was put into effect that applied only to employers with less than 20 paid employees. There are many instances of workers protesting they lost their jobs unfairly under this law: they were late for 5 minutes, pregnant, or they claimed their money for additional work... Those contracts take us back before 1973, when it was voted that layoff has to be justified.

Unstable work, unstable life...
The unemployment rate in France is an estimated 10 percent of the French population. This includes at least 20 percent of young people who do not have jobs. Needless to say that it is impossible, for example, to find an appartment with shit working contracts as the CPE/CNE

You have probably heard about other riots in France a couple of months ago, mostly by young workers in the poor suburbs. Everything is connected. Because people and youngsters in the suburbs are the first ones to suffer from this type of politics and reform.
Because they, and we, know that for governments and companies we are nothing, we are dust, the kind you brush away and notice only to get rid of it.

Because we know that unemployment and unstable jobs are very powerful tool to control us, to force us to accept shit jobs, low incomes and bad working conditions. You don’t want this job? No problem, there is a reserve army waiting for you position, with an even lower salary! Even stable jobs are “precarious”, because we are so afraid of loosing them (and then find ourselves together with the servicemen and women of the labor reserve army), because the only idea of happiness we have been educated for is having a big car and house, expensive clothes, and for that we have to pay our bank credits.

At the moment, the movement is a students movement, supported by some trade unions.
Some people claim for a concrete union of this movement and the people involved in the suburbs riots few months ago. We can only hope this will happen.
Universities are on strike, are blocked, and days of actions alternate with days of marchs and protests. The next big days of action will be March 18th and 23rd , though the fight is going on every day.

As in 68, the Sorbonne in Paris was occupied, but the CRS (the riot police = specialised in kicking the faces of activists, also specialised in collaborating with fascists groups to provocate and attack the youngsters) kicked them out. Anyway, this was just a symbol, and plenty of universities are still occupied.

French students are organised in a National Coordination, gathering every one or two weeks in a different university. The last one, in Poitiers on March 11th, was composed of more than 250 delegates from more than 60 schools (universities and others). As during the previous coordinations, they demand the abrogation of the CPE, the whole “Loi sur l’égalité des chances”, and the CNE as well !

This is not the revolution, but at least, like during the former riots, people are fighting together, people feel they are breathing, they communicate, they are doing something for themselves.

Papidan, a former french student now in London
If you have any comments, or if my english is not clear, contact me.
 papidan@no-log.org

To follow, in english, what is happening in France, see the very up-to-date website  http://libcom.org/blog/

papidan
- e-mail: papidan@no-log.org

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

embrace capitalism

22.03.2006 00:20

give up these backward socialistic practices and develop a free(r) market system. Your unemployment will certainly go down, socialism doesnt work, socialism is like chopping down the fruit tree that feeds you.

chris gordon
mail e-mail: jorge_610@hotmail.com


Embrace Socialism

06.04.2006 03:16

In reply to Chris Gordon's comment I would like to point out that this protest has nothing to do with embracing Capitalism. I am a Socialist Pacifist but good old traditional Capitalism wasn't hypocritical. It was simply a situation where the rule of capital enabled some people to do better than others and often there was exploitation but today the situation is much worse. Today there is undemocratic State intervention in favour of large, unaccountable globalised companies. The deals between these companies and the government are not subject to parliamentary scrutiny. It is a clear situation where governments DO intervene to help corporations but when trade unions or students ask for help they are told there is no money.This is not Capitalism. It's worse. It's blatent corruption which helps the strong over the weak. It doesn't even help the good old "capitalist" small businessman. The French people are right to defend decent work contracts so long as this is done by peaceful protest which is a democratic human right. If not we will end up with the situation in Spain (where I live most of the time) where even people with University degrees find it impossible to get secure employment. The new Spanish government is better than the previous one but due to bad legislation in the past the majority of people are given "rubbish" contracts and with the excuse of a trial period are dismissed from bars restaurants etc when the employer doesn't need them any more. This is unfair. Good luck to the French students in trying to preserve decent work contracts.

Paul

PS: Whatever happened to Lionel Jospin? He wasn't too bad as modern politicians go.

Paul Simon
mail e-mail: totelquesigui@yahoo.es


Embrace Socialism

06.04.2006 03:17

In reply to Chris Gordon's comment I would like to point out that this protest has nothing to do with embracing Capitalism. I am a Socialist Pacifist but good old traditional Capitalism wasn't hypocritical. It was simply a situation where the rule of capital enabled some people to do better than others and often there was exploitation but today the situation is much worse. Today there is undemocratic State intervention in favour of large, unaccountable globalised companies. The deals between these companies and the government are not subject to parliamentary scrutiny. It is a clear situation where governments DO intervene to help corporations but when trade unions or students ask for help they are told there is no money.This is not Capitalism. It's worse. It's blatent corruption which helps the strong over the weak. It doesn't even help the good old "capitalist" small businessman. The French people are right to defend decent work contracts so long as this is done by peaceful protest which is a democratic human right. If not we will end up with the situation in Spain (where I live most of the time) where even people with University degrees find it impossible to get secure employment. The new Spanish government is better than the previous one but due to bad legislation in the past the majority of people are given "rubbish" contracts and with the excuse of a trial period are dismissed from bars restaurants etc when the employer doesn't need them any more. This is unfair. Good luck to the French students in trying to preserve decent work contracts.

Paul

PS: Whatever happened to Lionel Jospin? He wasn't too bad as modern politicians go.

Paul Simon
mail e-mail: totelquesigui@yahoo.es


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