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Student & Worker Revolution in France!

Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.

Reposted from www.libcom.org - March 20, 2006

A fresh wave of protests has hit France as students, school pupils and workers continue the occupations, blockades and rioting against the first employment contract (CPE).

This is just a short summary of the events being updated regularly on http://libcom.org/blog - the most comprehensive and up-to-date English coverage of the struggle against the CPE anywhere on the web.

Scores of high schools and around 70% of universities are occupied today.

In many areas teachers have been joining their pupils in the protests, with several thousands demonstrating in Limoges, Boulougne, Le Havre and many other towns and cities across France.

The Monteil school in Rodez, the largest school in Aveyron with 1,600 pupils, was occupied and shut down with barricades. Fifteen schools in Seine-Saint-Denis, the scene of last years riots by suburban youths, are occupied. Many young people from the banlieus are preparing to join in the demonstration in Paris later today. Around 1,000 high school pupils have blocked a motorway in Nice whilst 200 pupils did the same in Vitry-on-Seine.

This is a strong sign that the struggle is circulating and extending outside the universities to France's disaffected working class youth - the focus of mass civil unrest in November last year. The increasing numbers of lecturers and teachers on strike and supporting the protests, and the railway and motorway blockades, along with support from France's major unions, all point to a struggle which is encompassing an ever wider section of France's society.

To keep up-to-date on the events in France, look at http://libcom.org/blog