A reunification in the midst of a protest movement. The student union L’Alternative, joined by some of the local sections of the Unef and members of its national leadership, announced on Tuesday the creation of a new organization, the Student Union.
“Seventeen local sections of the Unef and eight members of the national leadership have decided to leave the organization and join forces with the Alternative to create a new student union: the Student Union. After several years of division in the student movement, a real reunification of student unionism is taking place,” L’Alternative said in a press release.
“If we are announcing its creation in this context today, it is not insignificant”, underlined during a press conference Éléonore Schmitt, so far spokesperson for L’Alternative, a union itself from a split from Unef in 2019. “We currently know what is the largest student movement since 2006, with more than 80 establishments that have been blocked, hundreds of thousands of young demonstrators and activists who actively participate in the economic blockade of the country “against the pension reform. “We must be able to offer a union and political outlet for this mobilization,” she stressed.
Unef defends a “right to disagree”
The Unef reacted in a press release entitled “The Unef is not for sale, it belongs to the students! », estimating that « more than the necessary reunification of the student movement, it is the very role of trade unionism which is questioned by the creation of a new student organization ».
“The right to disagree, the cornerstone of the organization of our debates, must not disappear in favor of the desire for hegemony of a single group”, continued Unef.
According to Éléonore Schmitt, the new union will be present in some “51 establishments” against “about thirty or forty” currently for L’Alternative. “The sections of the Unef which join us”, ie “17 for the moment out of about forty”, represent “almost half of the organization”, she added.
Crisis at Unef
The creation of the Student Union must be officially ratified during a congress on April 22 and 23. It follows an “internal crisis” within the UNEF which had lasted since October, with members who “have suffered pressure and violence from the presidency”, according to Éléonore Schmitt.
“We are starting in a context of democratic crisis within the UNEF, a climate of violence, and in a desire to recompose the student movement, to unify it more”, confirmed Hugo Jean, former member of the national office of the ‘Unef, who joins the new union.
“Our objectives are simple: to amplify the mobilization to obtain the withdrawal of the pension reform, and to put a stop to Macron’s neo-liberal policies”, summed up Karel Talali, a new member also from the management of the ‘A f.
The Student Union, which is planning a day of student action next week, called on young people to “swarm the streets in numbers” on Thursday, the next day of inter-union mobilization.