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The student protests that erupted
across the country from 12-14 June were one of the most inspiring events
of recent years.
The actions came after the PPTA secondary teachers’ union took the
extraordinary step of banning extracurricular activities like sport, plays
and music as part of its low level industrial action on 11 June.
This was without question the worst possible strategy the PPTA could have
adopted. It put absolutely no real pressure on the government, while
simultaneously dividing staff and alienating students and parents.
It’s hard to know whether the PPTA leadership was just being plain
stupid or if it was deliberately trying to provoke a crisis that would
scare teachers into following the union’s lead without question.
Inspiring
protests
Not
surprisingly, the protesting students were pilloried by the corporate
media and the PPTA. Among the usual hysteria about "anarchy on the
streets" (Evening Post) and "rioting" (PPTA) came
the more serious accusation that most protesters were merely taking
advantage of the situation to wag school.
This is rubbish. The overwhelming majority of students who walked out of
their classes in June took part in protests rather than simply hanging
round in town or going home. Large numbers of media interviews with
protesting students, their letters to newspapers and slogans on their
protest banners showed that they have a much better idea of the problems
facing teachers than the PPTA or the media.
Again and again they made it clear that their anger was directed at the
government and PPTA leadership – not their teachers.
1968 –
students almost spark a revolution
In May-June
1968 France teetered on the brink of revolution. After days of brutal
police attacks on demonstrations, Paris university students occupied their
university and ran it democratically through mass meetings.
Workers quickly followed the students’ example and started occupying
their factories and offices. Within days a general strike involving
millions of people was underway.
At first, the workers’ demands were largely economic: they wanted a
bigger share of the profits they created for the bosses. But because so
many workers were on strike, they had to come up with alternative ways of
distributing food, making sure there was petrol for essential services
like ambulances and fire engines (but not police cars!) and generally
organising themselves. In parts of France whole cities effectively came
under the mass control of the working class through joint strike
committees.
This incredible inventiveness and self-organisation also spread to the
high schools. The revolt by French high school students is not only
inspiring but very instructive, because it shows how people with no
experience of union or workplace organisation can still develop their
ideas quickly in a modern western country very much like New Zealand.
In France in 1968 about a third of the teachers actively participated in
student-led school occupations, the rest going on strike. A pupil
described the feeling:
Upon
occupying the buildings the pupils for the first time really felt at
home. Many observers were astonished at first by the seriousness of the
occupier. They imagined that the pupils would take advantage of the
occasion to run wild and even damage the places. But why should they
damage their materials, smash up their classrooms,
sabotage their own work? It is on this point that the pupil
occupations ran parallel with the factory occupations. In both cases,
the work tools were respected because they were so much more responsible
on discovering that they could function by the activity of the rank and
file alone, without interference of administrative hierarchies or the
bosses.
One
school embarked on a three week educational experiment:
Each
group organised its work as it wanted, studying one subject in the
morning and deciding how to run the timetable (introduction, practical
exercises, small groups etc.). From 12 to 12.30 the pupils of each
class, 1) decided the aim of the operation and wrote down conclusions
which would help them when they returned to the matter, 2) prepared the
next day’s work deciding who would introduce a subject, what books to
bring etc. In the afternoon there were political discussions (in the
widest sense of the term), and cultural activities: theatrical works,
the reading of passages, films, until four.
Complete
democracy prevailed. Delegates were elected from each class and from the
teachers and other school workers for various committees. The head was to
be elected every three years, and subject to recall by a two thirds
majority of the school Committee for Joint Control.
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