strike

[krasnoludek]

The high school students are striking again today. This wasn't a pre-announced strike like yesterday's general strike, but similarly "spontaneous" like the high schoolers' strike Monday. Christian and I don't know the extent of what's happening, since we're outside of the main part of the city where the protests are occuring, but all the public

Comments

[oxeador]

If high-school "strikes" in France are anything like in Spain...

In Spain, traditionally, whenever any collective in the country is having a protest, high-schoolers spontaneously claim to be in strike as well. This means that they simply agree not to go to class. Nobody ever goes to the protest, it is never anything that actually affects high-schoolers, and it never goes through the natural process necessary for a strike. The high-schoolers are not asking the high-school, or the administration, or the government anything. They are just "on strike" because there is a protest at 5pm downtown against the war in Kuwait (which means nobody will go to any class that day).

This used to drive me crazy. I do take the right to strike seriously and this was obviously an insult to any person who has done a real strike. Except for the first such incident in my first year in high-school I refused to ever go on a fake strike. Often all my peers would leave and I would stay in class alone, challenging any bully to argue that what they were doing made any sense.

[krasnoludek]

Here the high schoolers actually go to the protest--it is not simply an excuse to cut class. For instance, Monday it was just high schoolers in the streets protesting. However, I do doubt their intentions and seriousness. It seems to me that in France you are not really French unless you've participated in at least one fierce protest in your life. These students have their first real opportunities this year. I agree that it waters down whatever message the real strikers have. For the teenagers it's just an excuse to be legitimately disobedient, and gives the more unruly of them an excuse to vandalize or steal.