Democracy and unity mark student strikes THE FOLLOWING interview was done at the height of the student strike, before the government withdrew the proposed law. Sue Piercy talked to Christophe, a student at Tolbiac and member of the Jeunesses Communistes Revolutionnaires (JCR). He is a member of the committee at his faculty, which has been one of the most active during the struggle.
This fits in with the fact that it is youth who've suffered most from the repressive measures in general. The lyceens were much quicker to take up slogans challenging Chirac's "security" politics, the government's racist measures and their initiatives on the drugs question.
Q. What does the Devaquet law actually propose, and how does it fit into the government's project?
A. It's important to grasp that the proposals in this law mark a real break from previous policies. Since 1968 the reforms of the universities proposed by the bourg. eoisie in France have been reforms intended to adapt the universities to the needs of capitalism in crisis -but this has been by tinkering peripherally rather than attacking the essential organization of the system.
The Devaquet proposals have opened the door to a break with this previous attitude. It seems to me - although I don't know the precise
Question. How exactly did the movement start? After all, it surprised many people.
Answer. The movement started towards the end of October with the organization of a national day of strike action in all the universities. After this, the next notable move was that the students started to organize in response to a national appeal launched by the students at Caen, which was signed by 2,000 students. The students at Villetaneuse were the first to go on strike. This was followed by a rapid extension of the movement - first to the bulk of the Paris universities and then to most of the provinces.
It is important to understand that although many people were surprised by the movement, there had already been several indications that it would be possible. In June, another law had been proposed by the right and the far right, putting forward an even more extreme "liberalization" of the universities. (1) In spite of the fact that this was right in the middle of the exam period there were some very big mobilizations in the provinces which paved the way for the response in the new academic year.
To understand why this generation has gone into struggle it is important to remember that they are the same generation who participated in SOS Racisme, the anti-racist movement, when they were lyceens [high school students]. They have, therefore, already had some experience of collective action, and it is to this experience that you can trace the confidence and ability to organize that you find today at the university level.
Although this generation saw 1981, it wasn't old enough to vote in that g 6 year. So, it didn't suffer as strongly as the generation that preceded it from the betrayals of the Socialist government - with all the resulting disarray and disorganization. What stands out about this generation, in contrast, is its complete rejection of the first measures of the right-wing government - whether it's a question of racism, the security measures which were introduced as part of the anti-terrorism campaign, or the government's proposal to criminalize drug dependence. Even if the movement is concentrated on the single issue of the Devaquet project, it is also an expression of a much larger groundswell of reaction by youth to the Chirac government over the last months. Q. How did the movement spread to the lycees? A. The movement in the lycees grew incredibly quickly. At the beginning students spontaneously went to the school gates to explain what is contained in the law, because it concerns the lycees directly. It challenges the Baccalaureat as the qualification for access to university, and one proposal from Rene Monory [the education minister] would create two types of "Bac" - one for the elite, and one which no longer guaranteed a place in higher education.
It was noticeable that in the lycees the dynamic of the movement was much more rapid, even if its structuring was more hesitant. Very soon it was the lyceens themselves who took charge of their activities and set up their own strike committees and coordination, and we saw the massive mobilization of lyceens in the streets.
details - very similar to what has happened in Britain in terms of its practical consequences. In Britain there has been a reduction of 20,000 in student numbers in four years and a dramatic cut in education spending under Margaret Thatcher. The Devaquet law fits into the overall project of the bourgeoisie of making universities profitable.
The central axes of the proposals are first the raising of tuition fees, and second the undermining of the nationally recognized status of a degree, with the consequent introduction of competition between degrees from different universities and competition between students. Thirdly it would mean selection within the universities, particularly after the second year. And finally, it would introduce selection for entry to university, no longer automatically recognizing the Baccalaureat on its own as sufficient qualification.
There is a coherence to all these measures. It is the destruction of the present character of the universities and its replacement on the one hand with universities for the elite with high fees, selective degrees and big business sponsorship, and on the other hand "dustbin universities" offering lesser qualifications for the mass of students.
This reform comes at a time of real crisis in the universities. In France, as in the majority of indus-
1. The term "liberalization" means essentially the free-enterprise politics of the right. In relation to the universities, these proposals included selection students entering higher education, increased links between the universities and private business, and so on.
International Viewpoint 22 December 1986
trialized countries, there was a boom in student numbers in the '50s and '60s. The figures show that this rise was stopped completely by the crisis, and that a stagnation has ensued - so that student numbers have either followed demographic trends or regressed in some countries.
From this point of view the Devaquet project is an adaptation of the universities to the capitalist crisis instead of an attempt to deal with the real problems that already exist, such as "social selection" It is worth noting that in France the son of a worker has two and a half times less chance than the son of a middle-manager of going to university.
Q. It's 15 days now since your faculty, Tolbiac, came out on strike. What's been happening here over the last two weeks?
A. I am one of five delegates elected to the committee of Tolbiac, a faculty which is made up of a total of 15,000 students, and where the strike is overwhelmingly supported.
In Tolbiac, as in other faculties, there is a very strong desire by the students to participate in building the mobilizations and to control the decision-making process. There has been a very high level of participation in all the commissions that we've set up. In the main our structures have been concerned with examining what sort of university we want beyond the Devaquet proposals, and the setting up of a strike committee representing all the students.
We've got what, in my opinion, is a very democratic way of functioning. There is a general assembly every day which takes reports from the commissions. The students vote on all the principal issues, and on continuing the strike. For 15 days now the strike has been voted through with a huge majority -about 80 per cent of the students at Tolbiac.
brings together unionized and nonunionized students. That is to say that although union organizations like UNEF-ID - an organization made up mainly of Socialist Party members, but with several groupings of revolutionaries such as the JCR belonging to it - were able to play an important role in terms of launching the movement, it is not the movement of any particular organization.
We've seen that when these unions appear to be useful tools in the struggle then they are not rejected. Students accept their support, as long as there is no attempt to monopolize the movement.
The key thing for the structuring of the movement was the general assembly convened by UNEF-ID on November 22. This general assembly took place a week after the strike had begun at Villetaneuse. It transformed itself from a union body to a general assembly of all students, with the support of all the student organizations, no longer just UNEF-ID.
It was at this meeting that an appeal for a general strike from November 24 was launched. This was supported by all the universities in France with the exception of a few bastions of the extreme right.
The meeting called for demonstrations on Thursday, November 27. These went ahead in all the major towns with a total of 6-700,000 students and lyceens involved. The continued refusal of the government to withdraw its project posed a problem of perspective for the movement. But, contrary to what the government was betting on, the movement hardened out and even continued to grow, with day and night occupations of the universities, organization of debates and the opening of the universities to the population.
Next, the Student Coordination called a national demonstration in Paris for December 4 which brought together 600,000 people in Paris and one million in France as a whole, the generation of 1968. How far do you think this is the case?
A. The distrust is real, but it is a distrust of delegating politics to organizations that have often seemed to betray. With the antiracist struggle, and now with the student movement, we are beginning to witness a reversal of the tendency to individualism of the last few years. Young people are showing that they are interested in politics - but in the wider sense. They want to construct something new, and that is important. But there is a distrust of organizations that claim they will do it for them.
Another important factor is the economic crisis, and the high unemployment figures amongst youth. People have been looking for a way to challenge this and now there is an increasing recognition that unemployment is not the inevitable consequence of the crisis and that there are definite policy decisions involved.
In France there is a general ideological crisis, which weighs especially heavily on youth, who have a distrust of Marxism. Although there is the revolution in Nicaragua, it is not yet a major reference point for youth like Vietnam was in the '60s.
What is happening today is that the bourgeois press have tried to reduce movements - like the antiracist movement - to the level of vague humanitarian concern. It is much more than this. It is part of the search by youth to find a way to intervene into the present situation. But they limit themselves to concrete demands which come out of the general political situation.
Q. What is the situation at the moment?
A. After two weeks of general strike in the universities and lycees there was a problem of what to do next. After Thursday's demonstration students got the message that the government had not only failed to withdraw the law, but that it would not hesitate to use force. The provocation of the government was seeking to destroy the unity of the movement. Over 100 students and lyceens were injured at the end of the protest.
But what was noticeable was that this police violence, far from disorientating the movement, caused a radicalization. The students voted to continue the strikes until the project is withdrawn and to step up the occupations. We have also decided to make use of the widespread sympathy among the public and the working class for the strike, and to organize a day of support action bringing all those forces together next week.
Q. How are the students organized on a national level?
A. At the national level what is most striking is the reproduction on a large scale of the structures in each of the universities. There is a very strong desire for unity among all the students. So people wanted to set up a structure that the majority of students, whether unionized or not, could take part in and exercise control over.
Nationally each college set up a strike committee and a general assembly. They then elected delegates, with very precise mandates and the possibility of being recalled at any time, to the national Student Coordination of the movement. This body and one milli because for couldn't com
At this apparent that place. The ( had brought in the move a large nu lyceens saw education ha and that th government part of the work of their
Q. A lot have pointed among the emphasised on in France as a whole, financial reasons some e to the main march. demonstration it was : an evolution had taken lynamic of the struggle about a politicization ment, in the sense that mber of students and that the problems of ve broader implications, e intransigence of the on this question was general repressive framepolicies. of articles in the press to a distrust of politics students and have their dissimilarity with
International Viewpoint 22 December 1986
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