On the streets of Paris (Picture: Guy Smallman)

There were protests in 40 cities across France on Tuesday as workers and parents joined the movement of secondary school students demanding a future. 

In Paris, organisers said 100,000 packed the streets. They were overwhelmingly young school and university students. 

Young people chanted anti-fascist slogans. They included, “La jeunesse emmerde le Front National”—“The youth tell the Front National to fuck off” in a reference to the previous name of the fascist RN. And, “Siamo tutti antifascisti”—“We are all anti-fascist”. 

They sang the Internationale and the French national anthem La Marseillaise. And there were Palestinian flags and chants of “free Palestine”. Other home made placards referenced the student and worker uprising of 1968. 

When the presidential candidate for the left wing LFI party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, arrived at the start of the march, he was mobbed by crowds of people. Both young and older protesters greeted him with chants of “president Mélenchon”. 

Mélenchon called on his supporters, including many members of parliament, to join the protests. He wore a white armband on Tuesday to symbolise his support for the high school students. 

As the march arrived in Place de la Nation, hundreds of riot police attacked with huge clouds of tear gas and charged at the crowd with batons. Protesters threw fireworks and set bins on fire.

Nora, Sarah and Sonia, three university students, spoke to Socialist Worker about their reasons for joining the protest. 

“We protest for the rights of high school students,” they said. “All the media talks about is violence. But there are real reasons behind their protests. 

“The RN is fascist. It’s homophobic and Islamophobic”.

Another student, Alice, said that young people are worried about their futures, “We are all worried about fascism, every student is worried about that. And about finding a job, everything is kind of scary. 

“High school students are very stressed. We went through that so we want to be here with them.”

Trade unionists linked arms and faced up to cops with tear gas. 

Pierre works in the tax office and is part of the Solidaires union federation. He told Socialist Worker, “I am on strike today, in solidarity with the students against repression and because we have the same problems with austerity.”

Clement, from the CFDT union federation, told Socialist Worker, “The demands of the school students are totally legitimate. The buildings are crumbling, there are rats in the classrooms, there are 30, 35 or even 40 people in a classroom. 

“It’s a terrible period with the far right rising across Europe. We could see fascism in France for the second time in its history.”

Clement added that the current president Emmanuel Macron has “rolled out the red carpet for the RN’s Marine Le Pen”. 

Another protester mentioned that there are already fascists joining the police force and that Le Pen would use them to smash the movement on the streets if she was in office. 

Meet the pupils’ blockade: ‘We are young, determined and revolutionary’

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Macron’s austerity measures and repression, combined with the normalisation of racism against migrants has created the conditions for the far right to rise. 

Le Pen is currently leading in the polls, while Mélenchon is currently in second place. 

The best hope of beating Le Pen will be if the movement stays on the streets and links the anger of the students with the power of the organised working class.

Key opportunities to deepen the movement are coming this month. Total Energy workers are set to strike Thursday—and there is a day of action on 17 October.

Anti-fascists are planning to demonstrate against the far right RN party’s conference on 24 October.

If the movement of school students and strikes deepens, it has the power to transform the political situation in France. 

Students and workers unite on the streets of Paris on Tuesday morning (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Hundreds of thousands of people were preparing on Tuesday morning to march through Paris and cities across France. 

Five trade union federations have called on their members to strike on Tuesday in solidarity with the movement of school students.

They have been blockading their secondary schools for over a week . “We are defending ourselves against the police,” one student told Socialist Worker. “They are racist and they kill the young people.”

Her friend added that undercover cops spy on them. “They dress like us to trap us,” he said.

“We will blockade every day. We are demanding our rights in education,” another student told Socialist Worker.

“We don’t have a lot of teachers. We are in school from 8am until 6pm. It’s too long.”

“We want to change the situation. Petitions don’t change anything. We set things on fire, we shoot fireworks and we throw bottles at the CRS riot police.”

One student said they wanted to fight the police. Another explained that they don’t “hate the police”.

On Tuesday morning in Paris, students and workers blocked roads outside Hélène Boucher school.

The students chatted and fooled around as paramilitary gendarmerie lined up alongside them. They were joined by striking workers and parents.

 Jacob from the parents’ union told Socialist Worker that a lot of professionals are really angry. “If the fight unites, we will win,” he said.

Vincent, a high school teacher, told Socialist Worker, “We share the students’ demands. We have been demonstrating for the same things for decades and getting nowhere.

“When the teachers strike it doesn’t change anything, but if the students strike maybe. They have a chance to win.”

A group of workers from the IGN geographical institute, members of the CGT, walked out on strike and joined the students.

Clementine told Socialist Worker, “We also work in the public sector and have budget problems.

“Some of us also have children and are concerned about police brutality.

Birce from IGN added, “It’s a shame the police us violence against students. You will have seen the news, some of them have been very badly injured.

“We have to calm it down, not to calm down the students, I mean to calm down the police.

Meet the pupils’ blockade: ‘We are young, determined and revolutionary’

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“We are also all very afraid of fascism of course. But on the other hand there is a big hope with Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the LFI party. It’s very on the edge.”

As the students gathered on Tuesday, fascist RN leader Marine Le Pen was on the news denouncing the students. She claimed, “Violence has entered the high schools.”

Birce thinks the violence comes from the police. He said, “Le Pen supports the police and that might wake people up a bit to the reality of it. People will see that with Le Pen the police will be even worse.

“A lot of parents might be right wing but they have children in the high school. People will see that the police shoot young people. We need to at least have hope that they can change.”

The day before police invaded the Sorbonne Nouvelle University campus in Paris and violently attacked the students.

Some 500 students met at noon for a mass assembly in solidarity with the high school blockade movement.

But the university bosses called police, who arrived in large numbers with shields and batons, entering the buildings and assaulting the students.

The last few students were still kettled—sat on the floor outside the university surrounded by CRS riot police—until nearly 8pm when the cops left.

University students told Socialist Worker, “We support the high school students in their demands and have some demands of our own.”

Struggle is rising with key flashpoints coming this month. Total Energy workers are set to strike Thursday—and there is a day of action on 17 October.

Anti-fascists are planning to demonstrate against the far right RN party’s conference on 24 October.

If the movement of school students and strikes deepens, it has the power to hit back at the state’s violence and the system it protects.

Students at Sorbonne Nouvelle University shout at cops (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Police invaded the Sorbonne Nouvelle University campus in Paris on Monday and violently attacked the students.

Some 500 students met at noon for a mass assembly in solidarity with the high school blockade movement. But the university bosses called police, who arrived in large numbers with shields and batons, entering the buildings and assaulting the students.

The last few students were still kettled—sat on the floor outside the university surrounded by CRS riot police—until nearly 8pm when the cops left.

University students told Socialist Worker, “We support the high school students in their demands and have some demands of our own.”

One said, “We are also facing police brutality.” Another added, “We don’t have enough flats for the students to live in. Students are living in the streets when they arrive here.

“They are raising the fees for foreign students to come and study here. They now find it extremely expensive. It’s a racist thing.”

The students explained that they had held the assembly to plan for the strikes and demonstration the following day. But the university supervisors called the cops who used force to try to move them.

One student said she was dragged to the ground. “They put their foot on my face,” she told Socialist Worker.

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When other students found out what was going on they gathered outside and began calling for the cops to leave.

The students said, “The teachers were with us. They were also assaulted.”

The students said though that what happened to them is nothing like what has happened to the high school students. They said the secondary school students, who are aged 11 to 14, have been teargassed as well as the older high school students.

“They don’t even care if there is a nursery school nearby. They still use tear gas,” one said. 

The university students said that what people see on TV about the movement is one-sided. “It’s only propaganda and doesn’t say anything about why the students are fighting.”

Meet the pupils’ blockade: ‘We are young, determined and revolutionary’

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They are angry about a proposed new law that gives police the presumption of “self-defence” if they use their weapons. “It is like a right to kill for the police”.

And they are terrified about the prospect of a fascist becoming president after elections in April. The latest polls show the fascist RN’s Marine Le Pen in the lead, with left winger Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the LFI party in second.

The students said they don’t see any future if the right gets into power.

They agreed they would vote for the LFI. “It’s not perfect but we don’t have much choice. It’s that or Nazis,” one said.

But they wanted to make clear that the LFI is not a hidden hand running the student movement, despite what some in the media say.

“And the high schoolers can’t vote, so how will they express their views?” asked one student, “We don’t know how we can fix this if we don’t fight in the streets.”

School students and teachers hold general assembly

After school students formed blockades of high schools around Paris on Monday, over 100 teachers, students and supporters from across the city gathered for a general assembly. The meeting in the union hall was organised by striking teachers from one of the high schools, the Lycée Voltaire.

The education minister, Édouard Geffray, announced that hundreds of schools would be shut and would switch to online lessons after school students clashed with the police last week.

In some places the state’s response has meant fewer people joining the protests.

But there were still at least 400 high schools disrupted on Monday. And five union federations have called on their members to join the protests and strikes on Tuesday.

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Many groups of teachers refused to switch to online learning. At the Voltaire school, they responded with a strike on Monday. Some 30 teachers met in the morning on Monday and agreed to strike again on Tuesday and Wednesday.

At another school there was an 80 percent vote for strikes. One teacher said she was furious with government propaganda that says the movement is on its way down. She argued that more schools are joining the blockades.

Some attendees at the assembly said that the blockades at schools in the centre of the city had been calm. The police focused their violence on the poorer students in the suburbs or banlieues.

But another teacher said that cops were using tear gas at schools in the centre of Paris as well. She argued it is not a question of inner city versus suburbs but one of class.