Students Strike in France

This is Legba Carrefour's first post on For Student Power. Welcome Legba! -- Patrick

As part of the increased labor tension in France, mostly in response to Sarkozy, a large percentage of French universities are on strike at the moment, with occupations and barricades going up. Once again, it looks like (from my reading of the French press) that Lyceens (roughly analagous to high school students) were the lead in this, although the strikes are in immediate response to the introduction of the LRU (a law moving towards the privatization of the university system).

Not much available in English yet but I'd expect more to come--France is blowing the fuck up again. 77 cops were seriously injured in a new round of intense rioting in the mostly poor and mostly black suburbs, a transit employee strike is still going with a full-scale civil employee strike in the wings. Here's what I have translated for you now off of the various French indymedia sites:

In France, a new law has been voted this summer when the university community was in vacation. This law, in relation to freedoms and responsibilities of universities is in fact a way to privatize them, to change their functioning and therefore disengaged the state.

Since few weeks already, general assemblies for informing and mobilizing students have been formed, gathering more than 2000 students sometime. Strikes, freeze and occupations are present in around 30 universities (~40% of French universities).

National coordinations have gathered several dozens of students coming from all over France. (Toulouse 27-28 of October, Rennes 10-11 of November and Tours, November 7-18). These national coordinations appeal to cancel the law, to defend pensions and to amnesty convicts from the past social movements.

This actual social movement is a test for the new president (Sarkozy) recently elected. If he wins, France will fast become a leader in the wild capitalist system; BUT if ground people resist and win, France will go on with its tradition of social movements and ground resistance.

If the convergence of struggles (pensions, students, lawyers, state employed people) is created that can lead to calling into question the entire system!

http://libcom.org/blogs - they always have phenomenal coverage of French radical politics, all in English. They did AMAAAAAZING coverage of the 2006 general strike.

They also have a wonderful guide to the history behind what's going on in France right now: http://libcom.org/library/introduction-unrest-france-2007

For those of you who speak French:
The Lille and Nantes indymedia sites have great coverage and there are a few blogs by Nanterre students out there as well.