High school students, university students, and unrest in France, or Educational conversations with my daughter

So it is no surprise that French youth mostly hold left-wing values, as do their European peers. This means, above all, that they are outraged by injustice. In particular, they see with their own eyes that there are high schools with good teachers and a quality curriculum — but there are also decayed ones, with overcrowded classrooms and a chronic shortage of teachers. Clearly, this second group of schools is located either in disadvantaged neighborhoods or in depressed provinces. Thanks to social media, high school students communicate a lot with one another, and this communication extends far beyond the local place of study. Footage of a rat running across the stairs or of students searching for missing chairs in a classroom is seen by tens of thousands of young French people. Solidarity, as is known, is also among the main left-wing virtues.

What do they want

Here is a description, according to my daughter, of the situation in one provincial high school where one of her friends studies. For several months there has been no French teacher, despite the fact that an exam of great importance for bacHere and below, the integral grading system upon completion of high school will be briefly called “ bac ”, as is customary among the French is coming in the summer. No substitute teacher is being provided either. But even during canceled classes, students cannot leave the high school grounds before the official end of the school day. How, one asks, are they supposed to prepare for exams under these conditions, and how does this correspond to the principle of equal rights, in the sense of equal access to the national education system?

I say that there are no ideal education systems anywhere in the world, just as there is no justice, but my daughter replies that even if that is so, high school students have the right to protest, and she supports their demands, which looked roughly like this.

It is important to emphasize that the high school students’ protests were not marginal from the very beginning. This is not only because they spread very quickly across France, but also because parents, teachers, and students (yesterday’s high school students) naturally joined them. The demands outlined above stem from a difficult situation familiar to many French people who agree with the high school students.

However, when I ask: how do you imagine the immediate correction of all shortcomings in the midst of a severe budget crisis — my daughter has no clear answer.

The spiral of violence

The idea behind the protests was initially to block the high schools. Even here I begin to have some doubts. Suppose there is a part of the students whose minds are boiling with outrage, and they are convinced that this cannot go on any longer. But there are also the others, who presumably would like to attend classes and have the right to do so, even if they share the anger of their more radical comrades. Why should they be prevented? My daughter replies that the protest must be sufficiently visible to attract the government’s attention. I do not really disagree, but I think one circumstance must be taken into account.

Perhaps it is necessary to think seriously precisely about the forms of protest. The experience of the last 15 years shows that practically all the most peaceful demonstrations, organized by the most respected trade unions, ended in riots and street battles with the police. No one could prevent this. Into the ranks of the demonstrators who came with the best intentions, young men in masks with athletic builds, ready to burn and fight, constantly infiltrated. These were extremist far-left groups, few in number but determined and well equipped. Or simply criminal elements.

It is no surprise that the high school students’ initiatives did not go unnoticed by these new revolutionaries. From the very first days of the protests, footage appeared of burning trash bins, overturned cars, and broken windows. Naturally, the police came to restore order. In the clashes, of course, there were casualties, and both sides accused each other of violence.

Very soon, not only trash bins began to burn, but also some high schools. My daughter tells me not to confuse peaceful demonstrators with rioters, and in theory she is right. In practice, the police arrive when something is already burning, and they have neither the time nor the ability to separate the sheep from the goats. As a result, the government circulates footage of violence by demonstrators, accompanying it with figures for those detained and injured, while high school students on TikTok and Instagram show scenes of police beating peaceful citizens. All of this together contributes to rising tension in society.

The protests naturally began to expand, and students quickly joined them. In universities, blockades of individual faculties or lecture halls also began. On the days of the largest actions, transport in the cities stopped running. My daughter, who is in her first year, had problems getting to classes and returning home on time, which she does not like very much, despite the fact that sympathy for the demonstrators’ goals remains.

But on October 17 the protests moved to a new level. The high school students went on holiday, and almost no one remembers them anymore, but the slogan “convergence des luttes” appeared, which can be translated as a call for the unification of different social movements in struggle. France has not seen such riots for a long time.

My daughter has the opportunity to see with her own eyes confirmation of the thesis that violence breeds even more violence.

The political backdrop

The mayor of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Bally Bakayoko, recently triumphantly elected and representing the left populists from LFI, became famous for footage in which he stands between high school students and the police, preventing what seemed to be an inevitable clash. It was LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a presidential candidate, who from the first days of the protests took the side of the high school students, accusing the police of violence. But after October 17, the situation became more complicated for him, for the government, and for the other political forces.

As in the case of the “yellow vests”, spontaneous protest movements of this kind develop unpredictably and uncontrollably, multiplying violence and damage but failing to find a rational way out of the crisis. Clearly, a plunge into chaos a few months before the presidential elections would be extremely undesirable. Mélenchon is often accused of a secret desire to provoke unrest in France in order to come to power on this wave by a semi-revolutionary path, since he is unable to win in the second round of the election (if he even gets there). But the problem is that he cannot control events either, just as he cannot openly justify violence. The historic building of the Limoges city hall was not set on fire by high school students, who until very recently were only beginning with modest blockades of their own high schools. Everyone understands this, including Mélenchon.

The other participants in the election race are also in a difficult position. It is not enough to speak of the legitimacy of the demonstrators’ just demands and, at the same time, firmly condemn violence. Claims to the presidency imply the existence of a project for solutions — meanwhile, the protests are taking such a turn that, on the one hand, the police must stop them, but on the other hand, ways of appeasement must be found. At the same time, no one trusts the government, and the state of the budget does not allow for extravagance. Nobody has good moves under these conditions.

The first days of November will show whether the protests will subside after the holidays or, on the contrary, gain a second wind. In any case, the election campaign scenarios are being rewritten on the fly, and many unexpected twists still lie ahead. Of course, one would like fewer riots, but the situation is such that calm is still a long way off.

All that remains is to observe and discuss what is happening together with my daughter.