Vive la Revolution!...but could I go to class today?

So, ok, this isn't really big news, because I have been talking about the strikes pretty much non-stop for the last month, but I figured that this was good way to get all of the really cool/interesting/informative stuff all on one page, all organized, and what have you.

Here goes.

Nicholas Sarkozy, president of la republique is a grade-A jerk, who is on the extreme right and was elected by a TINY majority of wealthy folks and has now started trying to completely reform France.
(I'm not even sure how he got elected in the first place, because as a person in general, he is pretty slimy. He stabbed his boss in the back [not literally] to be elected to public office in the 90's. He has had several affairs. When there were riots in the suburbs/ghettos of Paris a few years back he said that the banlieus aught to be cleaned out with a pressure hose...in short- not a nice guy. If he were running in the U.S. there would be a smear campaign against him in less than a week.)

As for the university reform:
Right now, universities in France are free and public meaning that if someone graduates from high school, they must be admitted into university and that they pay very very very little to attend said university. In addition to that, the schools are essentially run by a student union and the university president is a figurehead and for the most part, in charge of the physical campus only.
With the new law, much more power would be given to the president, a selection process would begin, the cost of inscription would increase DRAMATICALLY and universities would be allowed to accept funding from businesses, who would then, in some manner, have a say in the running of the university itself.
With this shift in power, schools would become much more like enterprises and there is a real fear that schools for the arts and humanities would fall by the wayside.

So what have they been doing about it? Striking, protesting, throwing eggs, getting hit by the police. etc...
Actually, at the start I was all for it. It was amazing to walk by the doors that were barricaded with mountains of tables and chars that had been pulled out of classrooms. It was a completely new experience to see people organizing in-mass to make changes. It is still exciting, still interesting, but it's getting a bit out of hand.
After the first week that students decided to block the university, there was an official vote at which student cards had to presented to fill the ballot (normally votes are held in the courtyard and it's a hand count, meaning that any hippies, revolutionaries or even just people who are passing by can vote) and this vote was 62% in favor of re-opening the fac. The next morning, when everyone arrived for classes, the grêvists (the strikers) were blocking the doors, bats and crow-bars in hand.
They started squatting in the main building, preventing anyone form coming in. This was also the same week that there was a confrontation with the police, ad the same week that I went to one of the manifestations.
here's my video:




Here's someone else's video:

manifestation du 14 novembre 2007
Uploaded by canalSIX

I happen to think that mine is much more dynamic, but I got less of the flares...


Here, on the other hand, is a really quality video. It's long and in french, but you should really watch the whole thing.

66 minutes rennes
Uploaded by fantomemitterrand

this was two and a half weeks ago.

Classes were back on for about three days, I had my history of silent film course monday morning and that afternoon there was another vote. There was a lot of renewed sympathy for the grêve after the confrontation with the police and that evening, when I went to go to my second class, the fac was blocked again. This time for a week, without question.
it was re-opened last moday, but tuesday, while I was in animation, a man in a security uniform informed us that the president had decided to lock-down the campus. Tuesday was a national manifestation and I guess the manifestation in Rennes was heading straight for the fac and he wanted to lock the blockers out before they had a chance to lock out everyone else.

Didn't work, actually.
I am standing next to the building in the grass asking Line "what is going on? who is pushing who?"
ten points if you can find me.

Manifestation - Rennes - LRU - 27/11/2007
Uploaded by kallok

yup. they broke down the door and took occupancy in the lobby.
hooray for democracy, eh.

But because the president had locked everything, the blockers were pretty much confined to that space and weren't able to block the rest of the campus, so wednesday morning, at 8, and despite my better judgment and my fondness for sleeping, I went to school, in the rain, to see if I would, in fact, be having class or not.
I got there and all of the buildings were still locked, all of the students and professors standing around, waiting, and nobody knowing what was going on.
The other buildings were unlocked first, but I have the good luck to be waiting for building B, the main building. Even luckier, my class was in the amphitheater off of the main foyer, which was still infested with blockers who had spent the night there. The building security came to try and unlock one of the side doors and immediately a group of blockers crowded in front ot them, making it impossible to reach the lock. As a surprising counter, a huge group of anti-blockers blocked the blockers into a corner, holding them there until both the side entrances were opened.
Students started pouring into the stairwell, but immediately the blockers who had stayed inside flooded down and started shoving everyone back down the stairs, but then! anti-blockers who had entered from a back door came in from behind and started shoving the blockers and subsequently the students down the stairs and out the door.
What followed was pure chaos as everyone tried to figure out who was a blocker or an anti-blocker and what the best way to get to class without getting trampled on was.
At this point it was a bit after 9 and I realized that there was no hope of getting into the amphis, if it was this difficult just to get into the side door. I also realized that I was cold and based on these two realizations, I decided to go home.
I went to my class that afternoon, but every time someone came in late, or there was a knock on the door you could feel the tension as we all held our collective breath, expecting it to be security saying that there would be another lock-down, or worse, that it would be the blockers.
Not the coziest learning environment.

What is great, however, is that the department of Les Arts de Spectacles held a meeting and will hold a meeting every week now to discuss the law, the strike, the best way to continue courses and what the department's stance should be. The dialog between students and professors was pretty incredible and the fact that the department staff cares enough to organize like this is comforting.


and don't worry mom and dad, I'm a lot safer than it looks and have missed most of the action.