By Catherine Brown
On January 16, despite a last minute back-down by the French government and a wet, cold winter's day, an estimated 1 million people poured into the streets of Paris to support public education. Thousands more missed out on the demonstration because the railways and airlines could not cope with the numbers converging on Paris from all over France.
"From being defensive, the protest turned into a defiant demonstration of the strength of French people's attachment to the principle of free education and a joyous and disciplined celebration of republican virtues", explained the daily newspaper Le Monde.
"For the French left this was the most important demonstration since 1968 [the massive student revolt and workers' general strike]", Alain Krivine, a leader of the Revolutionary Communist League, told Green Left Weekly, speaking from Paris. Krivine was a central leader of the Parisian student movement in 1968.
The march, following the route of traditional May Day parades, started at 11 a.m. and finished well after 8 p.m. It stretched 12 kilometres. Buses full of protesters from the provinces were still arriving as the front of the march dispersed having passed the Place de la Republique, a symbol of a 200-year struggle for equality of education.
On December 15, Francois Bayrou, the education minister, pushed through the Senate an amendment to allow local administrations to subsidise building and repairs to private schools beyond the 10% limit under the 140-year-old Falloux law. Already the state funds teaching costs and part of the running costs of private schools, usually run by the Catholic Church.
The move by the government "was in a sense a break with the republican tradition in France, which is very high in people's consciousness", said Krivine. It was seen as possibly the first step towards a dismantling of the government education structure, a creeping privatisation.
In response the teachers called a one-day national strike and announced a day of protest. A huge united front of 85 organisations, including trade unions, left parties, parents' associations, human rights and anti-racist groups planned and built the January 16 protest, explained Krivine.
So soon after the Edouard Balladur government's defeat at the hands of striking airline workers in October, the government wanted to avoid a mass outpouring of anti-government sentiment. So when the Constitution Council, on January 13, declared the amendment unconstitutional because it cut across the fundamental principle of equality in education established by the Declaration of Human Rights, Balladur withdrew the amendment. At the same time he was forced to concede to demands for extra spending on public schools, promising F2.5 billion in funding.
Nevertheless, the organisers refused to call off the rally. "The result was more important than anyone could have imagined", argues Krivine. "Officially, of course, the demands were around protecting the public schools and a struggle for equality. The banners declared the public school is a school of equality, it's an anti-racist school."
Since its election last March, the Balladur government has stepped up attacks on the rights of immigrants, authorising police harassment particularly of young immigrants. Anti-racism was thus a sentiment that particularly appealed to young protesters, as cuts in the public school system would deny many immigrants access to quality education.
"In fact, the demonstration was very conscious that it was about more than a defence of the rights of the public schools. There was a feeling of festival, a liberation of people after the frustration of the last 12 years. For many in the streets it was the first time since 1981 and the election of the left government [a coalition of the Communist Party and the Socialist Party] that the left had taken to the streets, able to express the frustration with the 'official' left when it was in power and now the right government."
The demonstration was headed by the leaders of the traditional left parties, many ex-ministers and the former prime minister and future presidential candidate, Michel Rocard, of the Socialist Party. Some of the protesters, said Krivine, yelled and shouted at this official entourage, calling, "Shame on you after what your government did for over 10 years".
It was less than a year ago that the French right won the national elections, increasing their vote by a mere handful to 39.5%, yet, due to the undemocratic quirks of the French voting system, netting 78% of the deputies. The British Guardian at that time described the victorious French right as "one of the most unpleasant and genuinely reactionary forces in European politics".
Initially buoyant and confident, the government was sent reeling by striking airport maintenance workers in October. An excited union representative with Air France, Michel Bousquet, described how the strike broke "all the rules", even blocking the presidential Concorde from taking off.
With the strike entering its third week and France's air traffic at a standstill, popular support for the strike was actually increasing. Polls showed 44% supported the strike, 27% felt some sympathy and only 16% identified themselves as hostile.
"We made the government retreat, a government all powerful after the victory of the right last March. This showed how weak this government is face to face with a united movement, massive and determined. I believe we have reopened a door for social struggle in France. That's all, everything was already in place, all we did was open the door", explained Bousquet, less than three months before January 16.
"The strike in Air France with such mobilisation and radical feeling was the beginning of a new period in France", agrees Krivine. "It marks the end of the paralysis of scepticism due to 10 years of Socialist Party government. This strike in Air France was the beginning of a new radicalisation, a new mobilisation among certain layers of the working class.
"The success of this mass demonstration is ... a product of this remobilisation of the social forces oppressed in this country. Something is changing in the consciousness of people, and the success of January 16 will reinforce it. It is possible to fight now and not to be isolated, and more importantly it's possible to win. After the air strike the government retreated from its project of privatisation, and now again the government has abandoned its new education funding law."
Krivine is quick to add this doesn't mean there will be a new 1968. "We have a lot of obstacles." Most importantly, while there has been a renewed confidence and readiness to fight, "there is no progress in the political recomposition outside the traditional parties, the CP and the SP, who are very discredited. There is no progress in the recomposition of the new left even though many people want it."
Tens of thousands of students, mainly high school, participated in the demonstration. But as Krivine points out, "The young generation hasn't experienced the failure of the traditional left. In that sense they haven't the same desire to take to the streets as their parents."
Recent industrial campaigns have had an effect on how many students see the workers movement. "Some years ago, it was impossible at universities to speak about the need of unity with the working class", commented Krivine. "Students would laugh. But for thousands of students when we explained the need of solidarity with the strikers at Air France, it was a revelation, an understanding. It is only new; nevertheless it is a beginning. "