A-Infos (en) France, UCL: Solidarity with the mobilizing high schools! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Since last week, major high school student mobilizations have been 
organizing across the country, primarily taking the form of school 
blockades. They are demanding resources for education and the right to 
dignity. Police repression is brutal, particularly in working-class 
neighborhoods. The *Union communiste libertaire* (Libertarian Communist 
Union) supports the mobilizing high schools, calls for the release of 
all students detained by the police, and urges education staff and our 
broader social movement to build solidarity with the students in order 
to develop a major plan for education.

No future, no peace
"Parcoursup blocks lives." With these words, a high school student 
summed up on Tuesday the reasons for the blockade of his school-a 
blockade that was part of the vast student movement mobilizing over the 
past week to demand resources for education. Understaffed personnel, 
dilapidated buildings, overcrowded classrooms... "We lack everything," 
cry the students exposed daily to the stress of constant selection.

In working-class neighborhoods, students are steered into academic 
tracks they did not choose and whose curricula are sometimes highly 
opaque. Year after year, education policies have been limited to 
managing a future workforce and imposing increasingly restrictive 
regulations. High school mobilizations in these neighborhoods can take 
on a more violent character, differing significantly from traditional 
protests. How can this be surprising, given the social and racial 
violence these students face on a daily basis? Let us make no mistake: 
when students lash out at their schools, they are symbolically rebelling 
against the entire system of crushing pressure and ruthless selection. 
We therefore warn staff members against knee-jerk moral condemnation 
that would dismiss this movement out of hand.

We are proud of these young people, who refuse to look toward a future 
defined solely by catastrophe.

This generation is acutely aware of the systematic destruction of their 
schools, the cost-cutting measures made at their expense, and the 
hostility directed at them. In recent years, they have mobilized against 
police violence, for climate justice, and more; this high school 
movement is therefore not an isolated incident. That it has spread 
across France from the initial blockades in the Paris region, and 
aligned with the September 29th public sector strike, is no 
coincidence-it is the direct result of conditions shared across the country.

Stop the repression!
In response to these entirely legitimate demands, the Ministries of 
Education and the Interior issued a circular over the weekend announcing 
a crackdown and encouraging school principals to call in the police. The 
message is clear: fall into line. The police have unleashed violence 
against high school students-particularly in working-class 
neighborhoods, where young people have faced a double enforcement of 
social and racial order. Beatings, injuries, rubber-bullet fire, tear 
gas, and mutilations: there are many injured, and arrests number in the 
thousands nationwide (over 5,000 in a single week).

The repression must stop. The police must be withdrawn, their acts of 
violence condemned, and the detained high school students released 
without charge. This is a necessary prerequisite for any dialogue.

Students, teachers, staff, and parents: shared demands, a shared struggle.
The demands of the high school student movement must also be heard. It 
is no surprise that the first images of the blockades came from the "93" 
(Seine-Saint-Denis), where a lack of educational resources is a glaring 
issue for the poorest department in metropolitan France. Faced with 
abandonment by public authorities, the 93 knows how to organize. Since 
2023, an inter-union coalition has been fighting tenaciously for an 
emergency plan for the department. This struggle has united staff, 
families, and students who are all too familiar with the injustice of 
their situation.

The money is there-let's take it all! 450 billion: that is the public 
funding for the French "rearmament" plan-a windfall for the arms 
industry designed to uphold French imperialism. 655 million: that is the 
funding allocated for developing AI in the public sector-without 
consulting staff on the tool's utility, but simply to create new avenues 
for speculation. 1,400 posts: that is the number of new positions 
planned for the police and gendarmerie to continue repressing our 
legitimate protests. No one can claim this is a technical issue; these 
are political choices. It is a class struggle.

Let us build a shared struggle for the universal right to quality education.
As the government's budget threatens the back-to-school allowance, the 
demand for an emergency plan for education-centered on renovating school 
facilities and reducing class sizes-must be widely championed in public 
debate and through collective action. To succeed, this initiative must 
be driven by our class-based unions, parents' associations, and high 
school student movements.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Solidarite-avec-les-lycees-mobilises
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