The dispute continues. Two days after a first day of massive action at the initiative of the eight main French unions, 11 youth associations are calling for a mobilization against the pension reform this Saturday, January 21 in Paris.
The parade, declared by the prefecture, must leave the Place de la Bastille at 2:00 p.m. to join the Place de la Nation via rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine. Security services are provided to monitor protesters.
The motto of the associations (L’Alternative étudiante, VoixLycéenne, FIDL, Young Guard, Young Insoumis, Young Ecologists, Young Generation s, Place Publique Jeunes, RED Jeunes, POI, NPA Jeunes) goes beyond the fight against the reform presented last January. 10 by the government of Élisabeth Borne and demands, for example, the end of Parcoursup, the post-baccalaureate orientation reform launched in 2018 – and solutions against student precariousness.
“Everything is going in the same direction”
An initiative supported by La France Insoumise, NPA and Génération s that calls for “massive” support for youth associations, unlike the Socialist Party, Europe Écologie-Les Verts and the Communist Party (PCF). Jean-Luc Mélenchon and several deputies and elected LFI will be present in the procession.
“Students, retirees, people who are somehow not at work […] will have the opportunity to mobilize,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Thursday.
For him, young people – whose contribution can be decisive to push back the Government – know “very well that the change in lifestyle that retirement entails will change life immediately, now.” To justify the organization of another action, two days after the one of the unions, Jean-Luc Mélenchon indicated that “all this converges, all this goes in the same direction”.
LFI even proposes to create local collectives in all parts of France to “broaden mobilization” and with “the aim of starting a campaign of local initiative and meetings common to our organizations.
The example of the CPE in 2006
“We feel that something is going to happen. The youth on the street is in a way Emmanuel Macron’s greatest fear,” the rebel deputy, Louis Boyard, former leader of the school protest, had announced earlier this week with BFMTV.com.
The youth unions have an example in mind: that of the First Contract Contract (CPE). In January 2006, as soon as this specific employment contract for minors under 26 years of age was announced, millions of people, the majority between 18 and 25 years of age, mobilized to have this bill withdrawn.
“I don’t believe in these types of scenarios. The CPE was not a campaign promise. We do advertise the color. They always tell us this story but it has nothing to do with it, ”he judged for his part together with a ministerial adviser.
A new strike is planned at the initiative of the unions on Tuesday, January 31. Meanwhile, the inter-union calls for “multiplying actions”, “especially around Monday, January 23”, the day the law is presented to the Council of Ministers.
As a reminder, the march against high prices organized by LFI on October 16 was a relative success, gathering 140,000 participants according to the organizers, 30,000 according to the police.
Source: BFM TV
