Ongoing Student Protests in France
Featured image: Student protest on September 29. Source: La Cause du Peuple
Recently student protests in France have spread throughout the country. Since the beginning of the year protests had flared up several times against budget cuts, which have effected the wages of public workers and school budgets.
With the draft budget for 2027 to be presented on October 1, which is expected to worsen the situation further, protests already began last week, but were centered to the capital Paris. A student organization had begun mobilizing on September 21 citing such issues as “lack of teachers and staff,” “dilapidated high school buildings,” “overloaded timetables and overcrowded classes,” and stress caused by the university admissions process. By the end of the week some 12% of Paris high-schools were effected by the protests.
This week, the protests began rapidly spreading to other parts of the country, and the attempted blockades of the schools were becoming more successful, with reports of actions came on Monday from the Alpes-Maritimes and Var regions, Marseille, Lille and Sedan – causing the Prime Minister to denounce the protests, calling them irresponsible.
On Tuesday, calls were made to augment the protests, and they were soon joined by a strike of public employees, reportedly mobilizing around 300.000, representing around 11% of all teachers and school workers in the country. A union representative called these a “red alert”, promising further action if the plans for budget cuts were not reversed by October 1.
Protests have already spread to more than 400 high-schools (of the 3.700 in the country), with at least 44 being successfully blockaded. The State has responded with widespread police violence, tear gas and arbitrary detentions, while the students are defending the burning barricades with sticks, stones, firework and bottles. On Tuesday, the Interior minister reported of 440 detentions with two thirds of them leading to police custody, while dozens of students have been injured.
La Cause du Peuple has reported on the ongoing struggles, highlighting that the repression is focused on schools in proletarian and migrant neighborhoods, while in the richer parts of Paris the cops are playing nice and were even seen having push-up contests with the students. They underline the example of a school called ENNA in Seine-Saint-Denis in the 93. district of Paris, which particularly stood out for the decisiveness with which the students fought back the police.
The youth organization Jeunesse Communiste (Communist Youth) joined in the protest in the school Utrillo. Jeunesse Communiste has explained, that protests were already ongoing, as the students were demanding the removal of a teacher who was exposed as a pedophile but protected by the school institution.
The protests continue and it is unlikely that the French State will find a solution to their budget problems that sparked the current round of protests. The last budget was only approved after 3 rounds of votes and the planned budget cuts come in the context of predictions of France’s public debt growing to 121.7% of its GDP in 2027. La Cause du Peuple highlighted that attempts by opportunist groups to coopt the movement to gain a few votes for the next elections have failed, and that this wave of struggles is only continuing to strengthen. You can find their complete article here:
