While the majority of students in Jean-Jaures University from Toulouse is hurrying towards the exit, this Tuesday evening, some of them met in a room in the Arche, an emblematic building on the Mirail campus, where many fights have already been fought by their predecessors.
At the call of the collective ” The raised fist “about fifty young people were present to discuss the best way to organize the mobilization of youth against the pension reform, “the mother of battles, the sounding board for other protests” against government policy explains at the podium Chloé, an activist from the collective.
“It is up to us to decide when we are going to mobilize”
Far from the noisy GAs where the speeches are linked in front of 500 people, that evening the discussions relate to the best way to organize the movement to bring it into a more radical form. Outside the framework established by the inter-union.
“There are a lot of people in the street, but it is the unions that decide the dates. We leave the terms of the strike in the hands of an inter-union which decides in Paris, without consultation and which relates only to the reform of pensions. But we want to talk about precariousness, college selection, salaries. It is up to us to decide when we are going to mobilize, why and when”, loose Alberta,
for whom the key to revolt lies in the broadening of demands.
Everyone is convinced that if young people get involved, as in 68, it could change everything because “we scare them”, insists Chloé. “We have the ability to impose a much more radical pace. You have to go get the other students, the high school students, the workers. It’s not just about not going to class, if at the end I don’t have my year, the government doesn’t care. On the other hand, if nothing comes out of the factories, that matters to him”, assures Rozen who castigates the politicians who “talk about a sacrificed generation and do not want to give all meals at one euro”.
If the enthusiasm is there, the difficulties in initiating a fundamental movement are also present. “Even if they are against the pension reform, many students have jobs on the side, exams, important deadlines”, underlines one of them, echoing many others whose inclinations to strike generally come up against the reality of everyday life.
With distance, the limits of blocking
But also the difficulty of enlisting high school students in their wake, mobilizing the teaching staff or even holding a long-term blockage of university buildings. Because if a few years ago, this technique put the university on hold, the Covid and the generalization of digital technology have changed the situation. “If the exams do not jump and take place remotely, it weighs and it plays for a lot of us”, continues the student who wonders about the impact of the movement.
Especially since the holidays are looming and for a fortnight it risks weakening. If all will be in the street this Thursday “to mass”, they do not want to wait for the day of March 7 and a renewable strike without doing anything either. On February 24, they will respond to the blockade call from the Interfacs collective.
“We have to organize ourselves beyond the framework of the demonstration, we are going to the strike pickets of the employees and we must open our GAs to the workers, have more links with the other universities”, assures Chloé who, like her colleagues , wants to get out of sporadic mobilizations every fortnight to move to a general strike in all sectors.