Chaos in France – Conditions in public schools
Chaos in France is headlined around the world. The protests began with a strike of secondary teachers over conditions in schools and teacher shortages. Students joined; violence broke out in front of many schools. Principals and teachers who tried to intervene were even attacked physically in some cases.
Last weekend, protest marches were held in major cities. They were largely peaceful but as they concluded, in Paris and several other cities there were chaotic battles between anarchistic “casseurs” and police. Dramatic images of cars burnt, shops (both luxury brands and small family commerces) pillaged, and the classic Mairie of Limoges destroyed, have circulated around the world.
Ironically, at the same time, I have been writing about my earlier experiences way back in time – some 55 years ago – in my home state of South Australia. The issues of dilapidated school buildings, of teacher shortages, of underfunded public education, and a system unable to cope with population increase, notably from migrant families, provoked a crisis at that time. The substantive issues I’ve been reading about in France ring all too true. My activism as a young teacher took me into national then international work on behalf of education personnel and the young people in their classes. Here are a few of the lessons I drew from that early experience in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
Back then, protests began in Australia’s largest state, New South Wales, with a teachers’ strike. In my home state, membership opinion for or against strike action was divided. A teachers’ strike in South Australia would have been the first ever. The then Institute of Teachers decided to launch a public campaign. I was seconded from the classroom to work on the campaign.
Younger militants like me strategized with older leaders who were more experienced in negotiation. Our internal debates were robust but respectful. One thing we agreed on was that we had to work closely with parents. Together we mobilized to bring the crisis in our schools to the forefront of public opinion. The first phase of our public protest movement brought about the resignation of the State’s Minister of Education. But that was only the beginning.
Another key strategy we adopted was to use the processes of democracy to highlight our cause. A parent leader and I ran as Better Education candidates on a joint ticket for the Australian Senate. We achieved an electoral score that captured attention in the media, and especially among the leaders of political parties.
At the same time, a comprehensive report was commissioned by one State government and implemented by another. It became the prototype for a National Schools Commission. As governments changed again nationally, amid a constitutional crisis, we saved the Schools Commission by mobilising a massive but peaceful demonstration of parents and teachers – called E Day. Parliament actually stopped its proceedings! The Prime Minister and Education Minister met with a parent and teacher delegation. Within a week, the government conceded. The Schools Commission was saved, then continued its work to provide federal funding for education – public and private – based on principles of need and equality of opportunity. My role in these campaigns propelled me into international work, where I saw, again and again, in country after country, the same struggles for better education, for improved conditions for my colleagues, and most of all for quality public education for all. As two of our international presidents, Mary Futrell and Albert Shanker, said when we formed a united Education International in 1993, the struggle for education justice will always be never ending.
But the events in Paris last weekend compel us to reflect more than ever about the underlying causes of protests that have been transformed, or should we say high-jacked, into widespread senseless acts of violence and scenes of chaos.
Let us start with the union movement. I knew France’s secondary teacher organisation SNES-FSU well from my early days at WCOTP* then at Education International after the unity merger. SNES was not the easiest group to deal with in our internal circles, although I got on well personally with its leaders. More details will follow in my book “Education and War and Peace”. I watched the current Secretary General of SNES being interviewed on both French and British television and I thought she did very well. But I cannot help thinking that historical divisions within the teacher unions of France have diverted attention from the need to develop effective strategies that produce tangible results for education, for teachers and for their students.
Then consider the role of parents. Following through the media from a distance, I see parents getting involved, at least to protect their youngsters, still minors under the age of 18, who are engaged in the protests. The French Minister of Justice says that parents of minors engaged in degradation should pay for the damage. I hear voices in the community in agreement with that proposal. But I do not see a structured cooperation between Teacher and Parent Organisations, with an agreed strategy aimed at seeking results. There have been, no doubt, contacts and talks between parents and teachers. But any structured cooperation has not been visible, nor has it been effective so far.
Next, consider the role of political authorities. When Emmanuel Macron won the presidency of France by building a movement in the centre of the political spectrum, there was much hope for change. I was surprised to find that his successive governments had been ineffective in remedying the deficiencies in public education facilities and staff that had existed under previous governments – whether of the left or of the right. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised.
Macron was re-elected for a second five-year mandate, defeating the far-right candidate in the run-off second round of voting, but he has not had the majority in parliament to achieve his programme as announced, and an in-advised dissolution of parliament backfired politically. During his first mandate, he managed an earlier “yellow vest” wave of protests over fuel prices by initiating a “national dialogue” of community meetings (I participated in a local community organised by the Mayor). But little came of it. He has been prominent in European and International affairs, but his address last Sunday to the nation after the chaos of the weekend was widely panned. On national issues, he gives the impression that he has run out of steam. His Education Minister has invited dialogue with the students, but he gives the impression of “too little, too late”. Again, there is little visibility of a structured consultation, let alone negotiations, with the Teacher Unions together with the Parent Organisations. Maybe there is something behind the scenes, but it is not evident.
Underlying the political impasse is the all-important question of resources. The budget for education is both inadequate and problematic in its distribution. Repeated failed attempts at pension reforms have not helped. Back in 2011, Global Unions published a book which Laura Figazzolo and I edited. Our book demonstrated that in a global economy, national budgets for quality public services, including education, have been squeezed in all countries. The solution was and still is there in plain sight. In a global economy, global corporations should pay their fair share, all the more those corporations which derive their wealth from well educated young people. The harsh reality is that those same corporations have been adept at minimising their contributions to society through taxation, because they can use techniques such as so-called “transfer pricing”. Laura and I argued simply for a degree of balance. But organisations such as the World Economic Forum of Davos were not only unresponsive but overtly hostile to our common-sense proposals. At Davos there is one word “the T” word, which is “off limits”.
While revenues stagnate, expenditures for the military, already high, are ramping up in the context of the ongoing Ukraine war, increased funding in Europe for NATO, and the reignition of conflicts in the Middle East. Underlying all of this is the fundamental issue of inequality. Since the turn of the century, the gap between rich and poor has widened dramatically. Millions are feeling every day the impact of rising consumer costs, especially for energy and fuel, with little or no movement in their wages. Many are in the precarious “gig economy”. Many are migrants coming to western Europe, mostly legally, sometimes desperately via people traffickers, looking for a better life. Education for their children is a key element in their aspirations.
In “Dancing before Storms” (2022), I wrote that the lessons of the history of revolutions tell us how the combustible elements of uprisings will wax and wane until a particular issue becomes the catalyst for the explosion of a full revolution. In France, elsewhere in Europe and in much of the global South, social and political unrest points to something big confronting our societies. We now are living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, fuelled by social media, confronting the reality of climate change and the onset of artificial intelligence. Just as the first Industrial Revolution, two centuries ago, created the conditions for political revolutions across the world, so this Fourth Industrial Revolution takes us into unchartered waters.
Robert T (Bob) Harris
Postscript:
I write this article in Tokyo where my wife, Yuko, is launching the new Japanese version of the 80th anniversary edition of St. Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” as part of a global launch of a wonderful new interactive book. The success of this classic, so often included in the school curricula in many countries, has to do with the story of the Little Prince’s search for truth. In St. Exupéry’s imagination, some of the characters that the Little Prince met as he travelled from one asteroid to another are highly suggestive of the behaviour of certain political leaders in today’s chaotic world!
*WCOTP was the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession, which merged in 1993 with the International Federation of Free Teachers’ Unions (IFFTU), to form Education International.
