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France: riot police attack student protesters at the Sorbonne
French riot police on Saturday forcibly removed students who were occupying the Sorbonne to protest the Gaullist government’s bill gutting job protection for newly employed workers. Under orders from Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the police stormed the occupied building and ejected some 300 student protesters.
Camera crews inside the building recorded the riot police, wielding batons and firing tear gas canisters, smashing their way through doors and flimsy barricades of piled-up chairs. The building was cleared in less than fifteen minutes.
The Sorbonne occupation was part of nationwide student actions being carried out against the government’s CPE (First Job Contract) measure. The new law will impose a two-year trial period for newly employed young workers, during which time employers will be allowed to sack the workers without cause. The bill was rushed through the National Assembly and passed on March 8. The day before, nearly 1 million youth and workers across France demonstrated against the institutionalised job insecurity represented by the CPE.
Since then, student strikes have spread from ten to 45 of France’s 88 universities. University teachers have also begun a strike movement. Mass meetings involving thousands of students have been held at various universities to approve indefinite strike action. Four thousand packed a stadium in Toulouse in the largest of the meetings.
University and high school students’ organisations have called for national strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, and on Saturday there will be a national day of protest, sponsored by all of the trade union federations alongside the student organizations.
The violent break-up of the Sorbonne occupation underscored the government’s fear that this centre of the student and worker uprising of May-June 1968 might once again become the focus of mass opposition In 1968, following battles between students and police at the Sorbonne, 10 million workers struck in alliance with the students and occupied their workplaces, prompting then-president Charles De Gaulle to temporarily flee the country.
The current struggle against the CPE is developing to the point of throwing into question the survival of the centre-right government of Villepin and President Jacques Chirac. Libération commented that Villepin “is on a tightrope.”
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/fran-m14.shtml
The Sorbonne occupation was part of nationwide student actions being carried out against the government’s CPE (First Job Contract) measure. The new law will impose a two-year trial period for newly employed young workers, during which time employers will be allowed to sack the workers without cause. The bill was rushed through the National Assembly and passed on March 8. The day before, nearly 1 million youth and workers across France demonstrated against the institutionalised job insecurity represented by the CPE.
Since then, student strikes have spread from ten to 45 of France’s 88 universities. University teachers have also begun a strike movement. Mass meetings involving thousands of students have been held at various universities to approve indefinite strike action. Four thousand packed a stadium in Toulouse in the largest of the meetings.
University and high school students’ organisations have called for national strikes and demonstrations on Tuesday and Thursday of this week, and on Saturday there will be a national day of protest, sponsored by all of the trade union federations alongside the student organizations.
The violent break-up of the Sorbonne occupation underscored the government’s fear that this centre of the student and worker uprising of May-June 1968 might once again become the focus of mass opposition In 1968, following battles between students and police at the Sorbonne, 10 million workers struck in alliance with the students and occupied their workplaces, prompting then-president Charles De Gaulle to temporarily flee the country.
The current struggle against the CPE is developing to the point of throwing into question the survival of the centre-right government of Villepin and President Jacques Chirac. Libération commented that Villepin “is on a tightrope.”
Read More
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/fran-m14.shtml
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Keep up to date with our English-language updates on the struggle, now online at http://libcom.org/blog
Background:
France has been hit with a wave of strikes, protests, marches and university occupations in recent days as workers, students and young people fight a new legal state assault on employment rights, reports Jef Costello for libcom.org news.
The ‘first employment contract’ (Contrat première embauche, or CPE) which was adopted by the senate on the 28th of February removes job security from workers under 26. The French Government has claimed that the only way to reduce chronic youth unemployment is by giving employers the right to sack workers under the age of 26 without notice, compensation or even a reason during the first two years of their employment. This proposal has been widely criticised by students’ unions, trade unions and public opinion. With unemployment amongst under-25s running at 22% many young people feel they have little to lose, even a good degree is no guarantee of finding work.
The vote in the Senate on the CPE was brought forward by a week to pre-empt the national day of protest called by students’ unions for the 7th of March. The day of protest went ahead in spite of this, with 400,000 people attending 160 demonstrations according to police estimates. The demonstrations were mixed with trade unionists, students, the unemployed and education workers. Students from the Lycées (roughly equivalent to secondary schools) were well represented at demonstrations. There have been occupations and strikes country wide, mainly focussed around universities. Roughly half of France’s universities have been occupied, Rennes II university has been blockaded by anti-CPE protesters and strikers since early February. In Tours, several hundred students invaded tracks at the railway station, stopping all trains for three hours on Friday according to the SNCF. On Tuesday 7th the Sorbonne in Paris, a key site in May 1968, which has not been the site of an occupation since was occupied by students. There have also been clashes with riot police in Toulouse.
Background:
France has been hit with a wave of strikes, protests, marches and university occupations in recent days as workers, students and young people fight a new legal state assault on employment rights, reports Jef Costello for libcom.org news.
The ‘first employment contract’ (Contrat première embauche, or CPE) which was adopted by the senate on the 28th of February removes job security from workers under 26. The French Government has claimed that the only way to reduce chronic youth unemployment is by giving employers the right to sack workers under the age of 26 without notice, compensation or even a reason during the first two years of their employment. This proposal has been widely criticised by students’ unions, trade unions and public opinion. With unemployment amongst under-25s running at 22% many young people feel they have little to lose, even a good degree is no guarantee of finding work.
The vote in the Senate on the CPE was brought forward by a week to pre-empt the national day of protest called by students’ unions for the 7th of March. The day of protest went ahead in spite of this, with 400,000 people attending 160 demonstrations according to police estimates. The demonstrations were mixed with trade unionists, students, the unemployed and education workers. Students from the Lycées (roughly equivalent to secondary schools) were well represented at demonstrations. There have been occupations and strikes country wide, mainly focussed around universities. Roughly half of France’s universities have been occupied, Rennes II university has been blockaded by anti-CPE protesters and strikers since early February. In Tours, several hundred students invaded tracks at the railway station, stopping all trains for three hours on Friday according to the SNCF. On Tuesday 7th the Sorbonne in Paris, a key site in May 1968, which has not been the site of an occupation since was occupied by students. There have also been clashes with riot police in Toulouse.
For more information:
http://www.libcom.org/blog/
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