It is almost a blind spot of opposition to pension reform. Youth, seen by politicians and unions as the element likely to tip the mobilization and influence the position of the government, is just beginning to enter the mobilization. And refuses any instrumentalization. Wednesday February 8, place of the Sorbonne in Paris, a hundred students made hear the will to go further than the dates decided by the inter-union, by renewing the strike. To the tune of “On February 7 we are in the street, on the 8th we continue! »
This decision to free itself from the calendar of trade union organizations and political parties comes from an interfaculty AG, which brought together 300 people, Monday, in Paris-VIII. However, the small procession, which stopped at ENS-Ulm, then at Lycée Henri-IV, seemed modest in the face of the large police force deployed in the Latin Quarter. “Too bad there aren’t more people”, whispered, on the spot Wednesday, a young woman to her friend. Already, under the five-year term of François Hollande, in 2014, the previous pension reform had not mobilized the youth in a massive way.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday – a day of national mobilization – several universities were blocked and many students joined the processions all over France. The UNEF mentions 180,000 students mobilized throughout the territory, “a figure up sharply compared to previous days of strikes [les 19 et 31 janvier] and especially in cities, such as Metz, Poitiers or Rouen, which were not usually mobilized so much”.
Eléonore Schmitt, spokesperson for the student union L’Alternative, evokes fifteen blocked universities, in particular in Rennes, Brest (Finistère), Toulouse, Besançon, Montpellier… The UNEF speaks rather “actions in several faculties without necessarily going as far as blocking”. Between now and Saturday’s meeting, in which these students promise to participate, several general assemblies are planned, in particular in the universities of Bordeaux, Nanterre, Pau, Tours or even Paris-Saclay.
“Vector of demobilization”
“It was high time for the youth to go on strike”, chants Lorélia Fréjo, activist of the Marxist and revolutionary collective Le Poing levé, master’s student in sociology at Paris-I, from the Place de la Sorbonne. If 300 young people occupied Tolbiac on Tuesday, she explains, it is also because “we answered the call of Rennes students”. “Rennes-II la rouge”, bastion of student protests, was the first, on Monday, to vote for the blockage, take out the barricades and the “Long live the community! » All in the wake of a speech by the deputy La France insoumise (LFI), Louis Boyard, on February 7, invited by the local student union, Pirate Union, of which the 22-year-old elected official is close.
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