IWW Education Workers’ Industrial Union – International

French teaching unions have called for a one-day strike this Friday (30 March)  in parisian primary schools in support of an arrested teacher.

Valérie Boukobza, the headmistress of a school in the north of Paris, was arrested on the 20th of March after intervening to try to prevent the arrrest of a chinese illegal immigrant who was collecting his two grand-daughters from her school. A police car was damaged and an officer injured in the course of scuffles, with police using tear gas against those present. Ms. Boukobza was arrested and charged with damaging public property, she has since stated that her intervention was part of her duty of care towards the two pupils whose grandfather was being arrested.

Seven French teaching unions (SNUipp-FSU, SE-UNSA, SGEN-CFDT, SUD-Education, Snudi-FO, CGT-Education et CNT Sèvres-Babylone) have put out a joint call for strike action and for a march to begin at Sèvres-Babylone at 2pm.

The unions have denounced the heavy-handed treatment of Ms. Boukobza and have criticised the education authority in her district for failing to support her. The Interior minister (and probable next President) Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the courts to be ‘allowed to do their job’. Something which Ms. Boukobza, currently held on remand, is unable to do.

By Jef Costello http://libcom.org

Some 50 students occupying the presidential administration offices at Rennes II University were evicted by CRS riot police. There do not appear to have been any arrests.

The students are protesting against a raft of measures designed to ‘reform’ the university system. Students see the loss of bursaries, academic independence and the loss of what self-determination that they have.

Rennes II was one of the first universities to go out during the anti-CPE struggle last year and was one of the key battlegrounds. Unsurprisingly one of the proposals that the students were protesting against was the establishment of a 150-200 strong campus security force. An innovation openly designed to cut down on the embarrassing need to call in the police when students protest. It goes without saying that this force will not be paid for by a budget increase, so students will lose resources to pay for their own oppression.

An AG was held and a motion was passed protesting against these ‘reforms’ the refusal of the administration to recognise the referendum led to the occupation.
A demonstration has been called for on campus tomorrow.

There has been unrest at many French universities: Rouen, Nanterre, Lyon, La Sorbonne, Grenoble to name a few, although there has been nothing like last year’s movement.

Source: Jef Costello, 05/03/07 from http://libcom.org