"It's gonna take you and the police department and the fire department and the National Guard to get me outta here!"

The French are striking. Again.

This seems to be strike week. One sector strikes, and all the other decide to jump on the bandwagon. We begin with the still-unhappy railroad workers, move on to outraged students, and finish with civil servants. We also randomly saw the Communist Party marching in the streets today.

The railroad strike is very similar to the last one. No trains running, causing over 350 km of traffic jams. We walked forty minutes to one of our classes yesterday morning, but that was the only one we could conceivably get to on foot, so now we have the rest of the week off. Fun? Sort of, except we can’t get anywhere. Vaune and Jen and I had lunch at a Chinese place on the way home to reward ourselves.

We also have students protesting and blockading buildings. They are protesting against “La loi d’autonomie universitaire” or “La loi Pécresse.” This flyer outlines the problems with this law:



Let me translate some of them for you.

-A change in the level of funding for university, with the encouragement of private funding and the lessening of public funding, which leads to a dependence of universities on enterprises

-An inequality between establishments, in terms of regions (which offers more or fewer job opportunities) and fields of study (meaning, for example, that they are dedicated to social studies or hard sciences)

-A loss of pedagogic autonomy, with the possibility of “purchasing” a seat on the Administrative Council by enterprises that fund the university and that therefore put pressure on the curriculum, the offer of education, and research guidelines.

-A “presidentialization” of universities, meaning a concentration of power in the hands of the president and a lessening of student representation (fewer representatives in the Administrative Council)

-A risk of disappearance of fields (of study?) that cannot gain a profit, by the presence of representatives of enterprises in the Administrative Council as well as by the liberty accorded by the State to each establishment in terms of the creation of departments/majors; a university funded by enterprises and therefore subjected to their interests would not favor curricula that the enterprise deemed “unprofitable.”

-A risk of instituting “selection for university entry,” notably by the system of “pre-registration” (high school students now have to send a file to the universities they want to go to before registering).

At the bottom, in the dark grey, it says:

To fight against this law being put into use, the universities of Rouen, Toulouse, Rennes 2, Lille 3, Perpignan, Tolbiac and Clignancourt are blockaded. At Malesherbes, the question of blockading will be the order of the day of the General Assembly of the 13th November at noon in the courtyard. Come en masse!

I didn’t go to this General Assembly, as it was between my Swedish class and my Grammar and History of Language Class. It did, however, rain that day, and so apparently the General Assembly was held in the Grand Amphi, which happens to be where my Grammar and History of Language Class is. Quelle coïncidence! So I copied down some of the points written on the blackboard:

-Referendum pour ou contre l’abrogation de la loi?
-Appel à la manifestation du 20 nov? [ADOPTE] 14 nov? [ADOPTE]
-Solidarité avec les autres mouvements sociaux?
-Coordination nationale?
-Créaton d’un comité d’étudiants de Paris IV - Malesherbes? (réflexion sur la loi sans blocage)
-Blocage de Paris IV - Malesherbes - Que les jours de manif?
-Rassemblement devant l’assemblée le vendredi 16 nov?

Translation:

-Referendum for or against repealing the law?
-Call to protest Nov 20? [ADOPTED] Nov 14? [ADOPTED]
-Solidarity with other social movements?
-National coordination?
-Creation of a student committee for Paris IV - Malesherbes? (Discussion of the law without blockading)
-Blockading of Paris IV - Malesherbes - only days of protests?
-Gathering before the Assembly on Friday Nov 16?

You have to keep in mind that both the flyer and those points are for one building. Granted, it is a building with a lot of students who have all or almost all of their classes there, but it is one building. This isn’t even university-wide organization, and they are talking about solidarity with other social movements and national coordination? Please.

Students protesting in Rennes (where Carolyn goes to school)

Now, a lot of these are valid fears, especially this whole thing with various enterprises getting involved in the academic process. But a few things jump out at me:

1. Private funding - TUITION??

2. Universities that are not all exactly the same and sometimes have different specialties and independent from the government!! Crazy talk.

3. “Presidentalization” - maybe then French universities would have some semblance of organization! This is heresy.

4. Applying to university! Ohs nos!

Any of this sound familiar? I mean, not to say that the U.S. secondary education system is perfect, but I’d say it works pretty well. My favorite complaint is the last one. French students don’t have to pay for university and they don’t have to apply (unless they go to one of the few Grandes Ecoles). No wonder the middle school students we saw in Angers were so misbehaved. They have absolutely no incentive to work hard. Maybe having to apply and/or pay for university would give them some incentive to actually do something and graduate instead of being perpetual students. There are fifty year old students in my classes because anyone can enroll at any time, but there are 30 year old students in my class because there is absolutely no incentive to finish on time.

On a side note, this makes me wonder where all of my Tulane tuition is going, since the Sorbonne is free… Some of it must have gone to CIDEF (classes, food, host family, excursions), some of it is our activities money, and some if it I think I get back at the end of the year… but that just doesn’t account for all of it. Where does it go?

In summary: Go students! Blockade! Protest influence by enterprises! But come on. Applying for college is not that bad. I mean, I got in, didn’t I?