Posted Jan 21, 2023, 10:21 AMUpdated on Jan 21, 2023 at 2:22 p.m.
After the massive mobilization on Thursday, young people are mobilizing again against the pension reform. A dozen youth organizations thus brave the freezing temperatures of this Saturday to demonstrate in Paris. La France insoumise (LFI) came to inflate the procession which left at 2 p.m., Place de la Bastille.
The organizations are already mentioning the presence of many demonstrators who came despite the freezing cold.
The organizers do not intend to bring together the million or two million demonstrators – according to estimates by the police or the CGT – who beat the pavement Thursday throughout France. But Philippe Juraver, head of LFI’s “struggle network”, “hopes to do better than in October”, a reference to the “march against high cost of living” organized by the mélenchonistes and which had drained 140,000 participants according to the organizers , 30,000 according to the police.
Unions “crumpled”
However, doing better is not won. The movement founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon was more timid in its communication to organize this event, preferring to hide behind ten youth organizations. “We realized that young people wanted to put themselves forward, that they felt the first concerned”, explains Philippe Juraver.
The latter admits that LFI was also aware of having to show their credentials to the unions, “offended” that the date had been announced before theirs. “So in the communication, we were very careful. It was only a few days ago, after the announcement of the date of the 19th, that we increased communication for the 21st,” explains Philippe Juraver.
The Divided Nupes
First thorn in the side of the organizers: Unef, the main student union, will not participate. “Because we are convinced that to bend this pension reform, we must have a united union front, to organize the fight as broadly as possible”, justifies Imane Ouelhadj, its president.
And, contrary to the “march against the high cost of living”, the left alliance Nupes does not support this initiative either, EELV, PCF and PS believing that it is necessary, for pensions, to let the unions do their thing. “In this hard and long battle, we will have to respect the calendar of the trade union organizations”, without “dispersing”, thus warned the leader of the communists Fabien Roussel, Friday on RTL.
Conversely, LFI MP Aurélie Trouvou, used to attempting mediation between the left and the unions, believes that the role of politicians “is to mobilize other sectors, youth, retirees, entrepreneurs, women”. “We cannot afford the luxury of competition in our social camp”, also pleads the NPA, which will send in the procession its spokespersons Olivier Besancenot and Pauline Salingue.
Different strategies
But even within political formations, the strategies are different. “EELV and other parties have decided to wait for the date of the inter-union”, but “it was important to mobilize early (and to announce it) from December, because the youth cannot wait”, considers Clovis Daguerre, Young Ecologists.
Young people fear “a reduction in the number of jobs”, explains Noémie Stickan, representative of the FIDL high school student union. And they want more generally to “say stop to this antisocial measure” of postponing the retirement age to 64 years.
Alongside the Student Alternative or the Voix Lycéenne, the youth movements of the left-wing parties will take the lion’s share of the demonstration: the Young Rebellious, the Young Ecologists, the Young Generations, Place Publique Jeunes and the NPA Jeunes.