It's been quite a long time I haven't "updated" my page… But life's pretty chaotic lately. As you may have heard, there are lots of students' demonstrations and strikes going on for several weeks now, in France, and many universities are literally blocked, mine among others, and for the 3rd week now. That's really becoming utterly annoying! We have had an exam and quite a few courses cancelled, and finding days that would suit everyone to postpone all these will be a huge dilemma since all of us have different timetables; and that will undoubtedly infringe upon the time that was kept free for us to revise and write our theses… And most of all, even the library is closed, so we can't have access to books, which is extremely practical when you're making research and writing your thesis!!! (Especially as other existing libraries don't have specialized books at all! That's pathetic)
Anyway, I find these blockades totally unfair and undemocratic, even though the student unionists claim that they "voted" so, i.e. it's a democratic gesture… But they forget to mention that the 1st day they decided on the blockade, no one but the union knew such a vote was planned or what they were up to, and they keep on voting among themselves, so of course, they are pro-blockade… The ones who want to be given the basic right to have access to university (cos, well, we've paid our fees and, hello, the streets are there if they want to protest! If you just think that so many people in the southern countries still don't have access to education, and here we are, acting like stupid spoiled children!), so the ones who want to study freely are in majority but are afraid to show up to these assemblies to vote cos during these sessions the pro blockade are actually ruling everything…and also deciding on the time of the vote so if you don't sleep inside the uni, you don't necessarily know when it's taking place…(Fair, fair, fair…)
I've just been here today, and we were more and morer numerous against the blockade, but literally insulted! That's what they call democracy and respecting your opinion...Not mentioning how they can prtend it's fair to count thousands of votes just by appraising how many numbers of hands are up, in an eyeblick!
And being against the blockade doesn't mean we are in favour of the Prime Minister's bill** AT ALL. Many students are against it but still want to study and get their exams. What's totally irrational is that the ones blocking the university are actually evoking "freedom of expression and of opinion" but they actually exert it against itself, since by blocking universities, they stifle the freedom, not only of expression and opinion of those who may have other opinions than them, or not (since, as I said, many are against the bill too) but basically the freedom of movement, of going to school!
In that respect, the "occupation" is obviously illegal (totalitarian even, since it negates the freedom of others)
Thus, resorting to freedom in order to justify their protest is totally absurd and contradicts that very freedom!
Well, sorry for pouring out all that resentment, but I really needed to, I feel as if I were on another planet, with no timetable, and well, great you may think, but it's not like that at all. I cannot really plan anything 'cos we just know the day before if our lesson will be held or not, and even if it seems to give you much spare time to prepare your thesis &c, but, quite paradoxically, well, at least it's like that for me, when you don't have a fixed timetable anymore, your goals are less foreseeable, and you don't feel that "motivated" to study when deprived of any sense of schedule; it's like when you have a whole day with no class (i.e. vs your expected timetable) you do less than when you have only a couple of well-planned hours.
But I guess that's just me and my need of frames, to structure my stream-of-consciousness-like state of mind; hey how did you guess I was working on Virginia Woolf and British Modernism?!
But enough rambling… Sorry for boring you guys, but you've managed to read that far though! Thanks ;)
**P.S: I haven’t mentioned the bill itself: very briefly, our Prime Minister plans on setting up a work contract reserved for 'the young people' under 26, in order to fight unemployment (reaching an unsettling rate in that category of the population). This contract is rather flexible and enables the employer to "sack" the employee whenever and without motive during a trial period lasting 2 years, and that is the main bone of contention since this period will nourish precariousness and the lack of job security…
5 comments:
What a long note ;-)
I can completly understand your thoughts as I have gone through this twice since I started studying. The first time I was among those who were blocked (?) the rooms and stuff. However the problem was that not all people were behind it... I mean there were thousands who voted to strike but never showed up at any of the demonstrations.... they just wanted to have some time off. It was also frustrating cos some of the people went to the classes ( the prof has to teach as soon as one person shows up) and so they got the ir marks while those who were standing up and tried to protest against the planned student fees just lost another term... However the thing I got out of it is that it does not make sense at all to go on strike if u r a student. It only gives the impression that your are a typical student who is just lazy ... and I mean people do not care if students don't study. It does not harm anybody except themselves. It would be more sufficiant to plan a week- with proffesors and teachers- where u try to "protest" by maybe giving open lectures on public places, the subway, busses ... so people around u get informed....and then go back to ur studies.... It doesn't harm the government if students are on strike...or?
The other thing I want to mention, cos u spoke about "not being democratic" as those who are voting for the strike are just a small group. Is it not an open vote to all the students? It should be... Those meetings should be held at every faculty in order to inform students and to make a proper vote. However if those meetings are open and students do not come to this votes they should not complain about the ongoing strike. Then u have to go there and vote for no....
I can't believe that the libraries are closed as well... That really sucks and cannot be legal... there are probably several hundred people who are doing their finals, right?
Gosh, I hope everything will work out for u....
sorry for writing in such a crappy English, but i lost it all :-(
gotta go back to my paper now:-(
big hugs, hon....
I meant " Blocking the rooms!
Thanks for your comment ;o)
& please, stop saying your English is bad, that's NOT TRUE!!
The idea you suggest of studying out in the streets is a pretty good one, i've suggested it by mail (quoting my sources, of course ;o) ) but the problem is that we have to mobilise the teachers, and they aren't necessarily willing to do so! The other day, we had a class in the vice pdt's office, but that was just exceptional and the teacher who did so (cos he is also vice pdt) now keeps cancelling the planned courses, even though I think it would be possible to have class there again, since these are the only rooms which aren't blocked…And he says he regrets not to "be able" to give the class. But you see how implicated they are, as it is supposedly not really legal to teach in such conditions, as if it were more legal to maintain that blockade!
The strikers said the other day, during the assembly, that the ones who want to study can still have classes at their teachers' places!!! But it's not even an option; I'm not trying to blame the teachers but it's not "legal" as they say, and no one does so in that country, and of course the strikers know it. (the day we were supposed to have our exam, the teacher said, by way of joke, that we could just take the exam in the park nearby, we were agreeing, but he immediately dismissed the idea as "illegal"…Well it's easy to blame the "legislation"…) See, it's a pity the ones who are entitled to do things do nothing and are equally afraid to "hurt" the strikers as they are occupying the building all day long, literally accepting the de facto situation… (the president of our uni said he could do nothing even though we keep signing petitions to go back to our studies… One among the anti-blockade movement also talked about referring this to the tribunal; some other universities did so and it worked, though it's pretty radical, that proves this blockade is against the law, still.)
Yep, I went to the assemblies to vote, but the day our uni was blocked, no public assembly had taken place the day before except among the strikers, it hadn't been publicized!
The problem is that the ones who are vs the blockade don't always come, many didn't even know when those assemblies were taking place, and many are also working and since (esp. in research degree) your timetable is planned according to your working timetable, you can't come at that time. Also, as the ones who are against the blockade want to study, they won't lose time (assemblies go on for hours!) on what was initially studying-time. (Many are preparing for the imminent competitive exams)
And the strikers refuse to use ballot papers, saying voting by show of hands is as democratic and that the people should show up anyway, but the reason is that the strikers seem to be afraid as every uni who has introduced that ballot paper vote has been "freed".
Moreover, you can't say it's democratic since the vote is taking place in our hall and it's not big enough for all the students, (and, as I've just said, cannot be representative of the ones who can't come at that precise time) and even of those who cannot fit in & have to stay outside, and who were simply not allowed to vote, can you believe it? Is it fair? And they were pretty numerous at that.
The strikers said making a strike without a blockade was unconceivable and if we stop blocking, the government will interpret it as a withdrawal!! But the government don't care, the real number of blocked unis isn't even recognized by the government (the "official" number is really less important than the number given by the unions or some journalists) and it's not the government who are taking their exams! And demonstrations in the streets are actually as efficient, if not more, as the blockade…
Anyway, the assemblies also last hours & hours, around 4 the other day, and they started with proposals (some absurd or utopian, like the resignation of the whole government, setting up a European cooperation (esp. since in England the laws concerning the young people are even more flexible than here…) and occupying the uni restaurant to have free meals (they literally said so, it was refused though) and we voted each of those. They forgot one, which was actually THE most important: the issue of a referendum, and they just said it was the same as the vote pro or con blockade, which is actually not!…(Note that the people in the assembly can't speak unless they have a really strong voice! That's quite funny)
Some of my friends left before THE issue of the blockade kept till the very end, cause they had to work or simply got bored…That's also their method. I find it stupid to make proposals before voting the issue of the strike & blockade since these 2 are the conditions of the efficiency of the proposals: if you don't vote pro, the proposals are then no longer to exist… So, that's also a way to "bore" those who aren't unionists…
Then, when the vote took place, people pro & con the blockade spoke to present their arguments, but the time given to each wasn't respected, the ones pro spoke longer (some in the "public" protested, but well, in vain…) and one who was against the blockade didn't use his whole time (and well, didn't have good arguments, at least they could have found sb "better", it doesn't make things easier) and everyone refused to let sb else use that remaining time though the people had previously registered to speak.
And during the speech of those vs the blockade, some people kept booing, masking their words (though we had the decency to let the "opposing side" speak) and one in the public shouted "mind your own ass!"… see the well-founded arguments!
I also heard quite a few strikers who said if they went on blocking, the government would have to give the students their degree automatically!! Now I got the point, they (well, some of them at least) think it's going to be like in 1968 when students got their exams without taking them, but that's just so wishful-thinking and kind of selfish! And the more it'll go on, the more it'll be hard to catch up…
We were nevertheless quite numerous against the blockade (and against the government's bill too, that's what the unionists can't conceive, willing to study doesn't mean we agree with the government!)… and a meeting is planned in front of the city hall in a couple of days; but the problem is that information isn't circulating as massively as those transmitted by the (political) unions…We're not "organized" as such, and that's a pity!
Ooops, sorry for that inadmissibly long note again! Need to go back to my studies, really, that blockade eats up time!
I keep my fingers crossed for you always.
Thx for your support
Hugs & kram
Sorry, it does not make any sense for me to refuse teaching. Those teachers seem to be weired. Lukly I had some who went out in the parks or even into the subway... Like my Swedish teacher hold her class in the subway... argumenting that it is even more sufficent to do it there than in a university where the rooms have no windows at all and where u should pay 500€ for... while you can get it for free in the subway.... windows and a seat ( which u do not get in a room which is supposed to be for 40 people while there are 200 taking the class... However I think you should do actions like that....I mean get people informed in the streets... it would be of course more sufficent if the teachers would go along... makes a better impression... we printed handouts which we were giving out just to inform people....
However I could go on and on about it.... I just keep my fingers crossed for u that everything will work out as you please....
Big hugs
Yep, that sounds quite crazy, but actually, I've had some news about teachers being pro-blockade, so that can explain the thing...
Anyway, I've sent some mails to my teachers about having classes out in the street(only one answered...) and she told us that she will maintain the schedule (though she previously cancelled the class) and if it was still blocked, we would go in a baker's nearby our uni! hee hee.
And last friday I went to a sit-in in front of the town hall to protest vs that blockade and apparently the mayor "heard" our complaint. Hope keeps us alive, desn't it?
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