[Speaking of movements...... Today marks the entry of students into the French pensions movement. As of a few hours ago, between 350 and 400 high schools were"shut down or mobilized" and the young are massively joining the demonstrations for the first time. This article is sort of a look behind the scenes...]
http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer/article/2010/10/12/1423779.html
Le Monde Oct. 10 2010
Pensions: the student unions focus on education to mobilize
Explain to convince: the method of the student unions -- which want to the universities to take part widely in the national protest against the pension reforms -- was particularly well-prepared before the start of the school year. In the corridors of the universities, where posters calling for general assemblies (GA) flowered on the walls side by side with the new class schedules, now, by all accounts, is the moment for "education" [pedagogie].
"Our goal right now is to increase the number of meetings we hold to demonstrate the impact of the reform on the students," explains Ichem, a member of the UNEF student union at Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV), for whom the watchword is simple: "the withdrawal of [Labor Minister] Eric Woerth's pensions bill."
October 12: A Trial Day
In the Paris IV annex at Port de Clignancourt, Monday morning, 150 people participated in the general assembly. Following the UNEF's appeal, the students vote easily in favor a "dead campus" day and for the creation of teams that will go Tuesday morning to meet students and convince them to demonstrate. It's a trial effort for the union organizations, which will see to what extent they are followed in the universities.
Many are already convinced of the need for strong actions to rapidly escalate the national protest. "We have to remember that the workers at the SNCF and the RATP [i.e., transport workers] and the refineries, they're losing one or several days' pay in the coming days in order to keep up the fight. If all we do is go to a demo, it'll look like we're doing nothing," shouts Claire from UNEF hoarsely, followed by sustained applause.
"Working the Arguments"
To start the debate, members of the SUD union presented a document on an overhead projector going over the main points of the reform: change in the retirement age, pay levels, pensions...A presentation with the feel of a lecture course, charts and figures at the ready.
The "mobilization committee" also promises quickly to bring out a four-page document, based on the work of the collective "Pensions, an issue for the young," which is affiliated with the high school students' movement. "The priority is to work on the arguments, to bring in the people who aren't mobilized at all," the UNEF coordinators keep repeating to the students assigned to edit the document.
They are therefore placing front and center a single uniting theme: student precarity and the unemployment rate for graduates, which are at the heart of the debates in the general assembly. "The reform means a million jobs on the market that are being taken directly from the young, and it will mean as many tax contributions taken out of the pensions system," one of the unionists explains to the students.
"A Huge Lever for the Future"
The arguments hit home with those who had come "without necessarily being aware of all the implications of the debate," says Baptiste, who took notes in his class notebook. "That's how we're really going to be able to do it. Sarkozy said we had to be watched 'like milk over the fire.' We know we're potentially a huge lever for the future of the protest movement," the young unionists from SUD and UNEF explain.
That's why on the sidelines of these information meetings, the student organization are now working hand in hand. A "Paris Region Coordination" emerged on October 5, and will soon bring together delegates from each Paris-area university. After that, they will decide about the possibilities of organizing more radical solutions, such as blockades [of schools] and rolling strikes, which are being demanded by many participants in the assembly.
It's a prospect that is still far from enjoying unanimous support: "Let us have our classes," grumble a group of Paris IV students, already furious that the general assembly is overlapping with their lecture courses. Invited by the unions to come into the lecture hall, they refuse to participate in the meeting, except to ask if the schedule for the week will be changed.
"What we want is first of all to have a successful school year and to work. Pensions are for later," a girl summarizes, a binder under her arm. Not giving up, the members of SUD and UNEF invite the group to join them at the next general assembly, planned for Thursday. And they will spend all afternoon sharpening the arguments designed to make the students change their minds.