"Les jeunes dans la rue"

Paris, 15 oct 2010

Yesterday I emerged from Gare St Lazare to find a sizeable crowd of schoolkids demonstrating in the street outside the station. Shouts and whistles filled the air as the young crowd grew, fed by fresh groups of Lycee and College students arriving by metro. On the underground platform a few moments later, progress into the carriage was somewhat delayed as more kids emerged, yelling and banging on the side of the train. As the doors closed and the metro continued on its way, a woman in the carriage cried out: "Allez les jeunes - on est avec vous!" At this, a man close to me loudly expressed disagreement, suggesting the kids should be in school. The woman, beside herself with excitement, treated him to a mouthful of expletives. Then several other passengers made their voices heard. "My daughter is supposed to be in college today and I would not want her to participate in such protests, they are at risk of turning dangerous," said one. "You are right-wing, you don’t know what it’s like to struggle for a living! Now shut your gob you bastard! (ferme ta geule connard)" exclaimed another young woman. "I agree with what has been said, it is irresponsible to encourage minors to bunk off school," said another man. By this time, with tension rising, a couple of people were starting to push and shove those around them. More mature passengers appealed for those involved in the confrontation to calm down. I only mention the incident as it seems to illustrate the level of public nervousness around the current socio-political tension, arising from the government’s pension reform law.

One can understand that student organisations would want to participate in the official demonstrations on protest days callled by the trade unions. But it does seems amazing that such large gatherings of youngsters should spontaneously happen on a weekday when indeed they are supposed to be in school. My girlfriend’s daughter has been prevented from attending school on at least one day so far, by "blockages" of the Lycee gates by militant students. The blockages, by the way, seem to be absurdly easy to set up, all that is needed are a few rubbish bins and a few dozen kids on the steps of the school entrance

Today as I am at home working on a translation, I have had TV news channels on - BMTV, LCI, Chaine Info as well as the mainstream TF1 and TF2. Mostly, the protests by schoolkids was the lead item - even though today (friday) was a relatively quiet day for demonstrating and you would have thought the fuel refineries story would be more important. But the reporters seemed to stoke up the tension, mentioning the time and place where gatherings were expected to happen later on that day. "The crowd has diminished today but rumours tells us a trainful of students is on its way to Opera," one of the reporters said to camera. Easy TV pictures maybe, plenty of action and only a few kilometers away from the studio!

What kind of reporting is this in a context when the youngsters are supposed to be legally in the care of the head teacher? And where was the comment from the official school authorities? I am not against the youngsters protesting if they want to. They have probably got good reason to, given the gloomy jobs outlook, the end of the good times enjoyed by papa’s generation, and likelihood that the standard of living in France will be on a downward slope in years to come. But surely a more mature and responsible editorial approach is called for, if only to avoid "attiser les tensions."