France: the struggle in high schools shows us the way!

The wave of blockades sparked by the mobilisation of students and staff at the Saint-Exupéry high school in Créteil on 17 September has grown considerably in recent days. On Monday, 27 September, 180 schools across France were affected. And then on Tuesday and Wednesday, the number rose to more than 300. As of today, more than 400 schools have been blockaded.

[Originally published in French at marxiste.org]

High school students are protesting unacceptable learning conditions: a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated and unsanitary buildings, a lack of nurses and social workers, and the closure of student lounges and cafeterias – the list goes on.

High schools in poor neighbourhoods are the worst affected by these conditions, but the problem is widespread: 65 percent of the country’s high schools are understaffed. As for the buildings, 86 percent require energy-efficiency renovations, and 43 percent of classrooms lack shutters to provide shade for students during heatwaves.

These mobilisations also reflect the anxiety felt by young people about their future. The high school students are protesting Parcoursup – the main portal to apply for higher education – and its unfair selection process, which they have described as a form of social sorting that favours those from elite schools and well-off areas. They are also fighting against austerity and the high cost of living, at the same time as the government has announced more than €50 billion in cuts for the 2027 budget.

The state has met this movement with brutal repression: tear gas, baton blows, shots fired at point-blank range. Already, over a thousand people have been arrested, and around a hundred injured. In Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, a 14-year-old had his teeth knocked out after being shot point-blank in the face by a policeman firing a grenade launcher. Another high school student lost the use of one eye after being hit by a ‘flash-ball’ round in Tours.

🇫🇷 FLASH - Un policier a TIRÉ une GRENADE LACRYMOGÈNE à BOUT PORTANT au visage d’un lycéen qui participait au blocus du lycée professionnel Château d’Épluches, à Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, ce matin. (document AlertesInfos) pic.twitter.com/dBfcY2cPXM

Bourgeois politicians and the ruling-class media have unleashed an escalating barrage of insults and lies aimed at the movement, in order to discredit it and divert attention from its causes. High school students are being accused of ‘irresponsibility’ and ‘violence’ by the very same people who are destroying their educational opportunities and sending in the security forces to maim them! 24-hour news channels sound the alarm over every single burning bin, while the police unleash their fury on teenagers.

With the presidential election approaching, the right wing is attacking its usual scapegoat: high school students are allegedly being ‘manipulated’ by La France Insoumise (LFI). Former Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau is openly calling for a ban on LFI, which he accuses of “organising an insurrection” by supporting the high school students’ struggle.

In the face of these attacks, workers’ organisations must mobilise all their forces to provide effective support for the protests: we must defend the right of high school students to fight for their future. Mélenchon’s call to “stand up against police brutality” is a step in the right direction, and must be widely heeded. This is already what teachers and teaching assistants are doing in several schools, in solidarity with their students.

The unions – and in particular the CGT – have a decisive role to play. Beyond merely verbally condemning police violence, they must encourage their activists to join the blockades.

They must also launch an agitational campaign to prepare for what comes next. At the start of this already-turbulent back-to-school season, struggles are multiplying – from firefighters to hospitality workers. In anticipation of the planned 17 October mobilisation against the high cost of living, a broad, renewable strike movement in workplaces must be prepared, based on a militant programme to fight austerity.

The demands of young people and workers point in the same direction, and high school students are aware that they cannot win this fight alone. Just as they participated in the public-sector demonstrations on 29 September, they in turn need the support of the labour movement. As the German Marxist Karl Liebknecht wrote, “youth is the flame of revolution.” But this faint flame will be extinguished if it remains isolated. It is up to other sectors of workers and youth to fuel it, to make it a blazing inferno.