A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #345 - Unionism, Student unionism: Revival or impasse? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Student unionism is today in full reorganization. Recent years have 
indeed seen the creation of new unions, the majority of which claim to 
be militant unionists. Despite this, students have not been a force 
strongly involved in the mobilizations of the social movement against 
pension reform. Therefore, does this recomposition show the weaknesses 
of student activism or does it herald a new dynamic? ---- A recurring 
feedback from the latest mobilization against pension reform is the low 
level of investment by students. Although the inter-union has achieved 
record mobilization figures since 1995, its student counterpart has not 
been able to show the same level of unity or mobilization. However, 
since 2019 there has been no shortage of student unions: before 2019 
there were two (SESL and UNEF) in 2023 there will be five!

These different organizations present several distinct approaches to 
student activism. First, the Student Union (EU) places itself in the 
reformist continuity of the UNEF. The FSE, also from the UNEF, embodies 
an ideologized and claimed communist line of advantage. The CGT-SELA 
shows a certain dynamic but this structure suffers from internal 
divisions leading to the existence of two national entities: the CN-SELA 
and the UN-SELA.

Finally, Solidaires Étudiants-e-s, (SESL) has struggled to renew itself 
since 2013. Carrier of self-managing unionism and attached to the Union 
Syndicale Solidaires, SESL embodied a unionism of struggle against the 
old UNEF. But today SESL seems to no longer be able to keep up with the 
new challenges of student unionism.

Solidarity Students overwhelmed
Born from the merger of SUD Student and the first FSE, SESL has since 
failed to achieve a major victory. While his predecessor SUD student had 
managed to come out on top in 2006 during the mobilization against the 
LRU law by being the last to mobilize until the end. SESL has since 
lacked victory, despite its participation in several student social 
movements. This can be explained by SESL's inability to adopt a common 
strategy in the midst of mobilization, leading to having to navigate by 
sight and leaving local unions to organize on their own.

In addition, there is a deep training problem within SESL, whether it is 
new activists who do not always follow a basic training cycle or 
federal/local secretaries who do not need training. have received 
adequate training to take on responsibilities. Creating many first-time 
activists at SESL, which is explained, among other things, by the high 
turnover experienced by student unionism, which leads to the rise of 
responsibility too quickly, but also by the lack of a strong federal 
training policy.

Student solidarity
Always looking for your own identity
This lack leads to confusion about what the role of SESL is, with many 
getting involved in it as if they were in a political organization and 
not in a union. Student Solidarity also experiences an internal 
political division that could be illustrated in an "Autonomist vs. 
Federalist" divide. The two disagree on the nature of SESL's federalism, 
the "autonomists" defend its decentralism and the autonomy of local 
unions. While the "federalists" want more centralism and make the 
federation the main entity of SESL.

This opposition born from a localist withdrawal experienced by a certain 
number of SESL unions losing interest in federal affairs, this drift 
only amplifies the structuring problems of the federation while not 
seeking to resolve them. Indeed, the current functioning of the 
federation requires active participation of the unions within it and 
moving away from it leads to a structural blockage which does not make 
it possible to resolve this divide. Faced with this observation, Student 
Solidarity will only be able to emerge from this crisis through the 
victory of one of these lines over the other.

A recomposition of the student activist environment
The student landscape is now as follows: a reformist pole placed under 
the banner of the EU, product of the fusion of the Alternative and the 
reformist tendencies of the UNEF and a pole of struggle divided between 
SESL, the FSE, the UNEF-TACLE and the CGT-SELA. However, these 
differences are completely invisible, making the proliferation of unions 
at universities absurd in the eyes of students, who do not understand 
the interest or the difference between each.

In the absence of real victories, given the limited methods allowed by 
student unionism, student unions are increasingly seen as left-wing 
politicized youth associations and not as structures of mutual aid, 
organization for students facing university. For the 2022-2023 school 
year, a year of mobilization for youth, SESL claimed... 500 union 
members (i.e. 0.05% of students). SESL is thus closer to a small group 
organization than to a union. The first concern of student unionism must 
be its massification.

Student unionism faces a triple challenge: the profound transformation 
of the ESR and the student profile with the liberalization of the ESR; 
the fragmentation of organizations by liberal activism, and the lack of 
organization of youth in union frameworks.

Some organizations seem to be taking stock of these issues and are 
beginning unification processes such as the FSE and UN-SELA. Others, 
like the EU, are taking the gamble of reformism and embracing the 
dynamics of individual activism. Timorous and torn between these two 
SESL trends and at a historical crossroads in its development. SESL must 
be able to reform itself to avoid localist excesses and promote a 
unifying attitude of union forces rather than a sectarian and liberal 
attitude and not be confused with a simple youth organization. It must 
focus on massification and political issues affecting students to create 
"class" consciousness among them in order to be able to respond 
effectively as a union in our places of study.

Léora (UCL Nantes), Akhane (UCL Amiens) and Lou G. (UCL Grenoble) from 
the UCL Youth Commission

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Syndicalisme-etudiant-Le-renouveau-ou-l-impasse
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en