GSF Steering Committee member Nathan joined a high school blockade to speak directly with students taking part. The video, an extract from a longer conversation, explores their demands, their methods of action and the reasons behind their decision to organise.
The interviews come amid a wider movement over conditions in French education. Students have raised concerns about teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and deteriorating school buildings, demanding that public authorities address the conditions shaping their education and futures.
Behind the images of blocked school entrances are students making decisions about how to be heard. This conversation provides an opportunity for an international audience to hear directly from two of those involved and better understand the movement from their perspective.
For GSF, bringing these perspectives across borders is part of building solidarity within the student movement. Students’ experiences should inform both public understanding of protests and the decisions made in response to them.
GSF has already expressed solidarity with students in France exercising their right to peaceful protest. We have called on French authorities to protect student safety, investigate alleged abuses and engage directly with students and their representative organisations on educational conditions, resources and inequality.
Watch the interviews on YouTube to hear why these students are mobilising and what they want to change.
Read GSF’s statement on the protection of students and the right to peaceful protest in France.
