In my experience, at any protest, the most memorable and encapsulating slogans are always the ones written by hand with marker pen on cardboard placards.
asserted
slogans → write → placards
“School is a right, not a privilege,” read one such sign held aloft by a student in Paris, where huge youth protests over the state of high school education have brought tens of thousands of young people and adults on to the streets, with further strikes planned today.
asserted
strikes → read → streets
“A state that gasses high school students is a weak state,” another sign said, referencing growing public anger at alleged police brutality towards young protesters.
asserted
sign → gas → protesters
Tens of thousands of young people have also taken to Spanish streets in recent weeks to protest against the country’s deepening housing crisis.
asserted
thousands → take → crisis
And outside the Labour conference in Liverpool last week, a crowd of jobless young people protested against what they saw as their bleak employment prospects.
asserted
they → protest → prospects
From Paris to the north of England, a similar thread runs through it all: a generation who feel betrayed by the absence of basic economic security and the erosion of public services that older generations took for granted.
asserted
generations → run → that
I spoke to our Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis who has been reporting from the centre of the French protests.
asserted
who → speak → protests
Kemi Badenoch has announced that the Conservatives would abolish inheritance tax on family homes if elected, prompting criticism that she is prioritising cutting taxes for the rich.
asserted
she → announce → rich
Labour’s flagship changes to special education in England are at risk of unravelling because parents are rushing to secure support for their children before the system changes, new analysis has found.
asserted
analysis → unravel → children
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Spain | María del Carmen Abascal, the 87-year-old whose eviction set off a nationwide wave of protests against Spain’s housing crisis, has died.
asserted
eviction → set → crisis
-
Science | A type of gene therapy based on Nobel prize-winning science is safe and can partly restore sight in blind people, researchers have revealed.
asserted
researchers → base → people
British billionaire Sir James Goldsmith warned that Jeffrey Epstein was a “sexual deviant” decades before the FBI closed in on the abuser, a Guardian investigation has found.
asserted
investigation → warn → abuser
In depth: Why have young people taken to the streets?
asserted
people → take → streets
The most significant youth movement to emerge across France in recent decades started on 17 September.
asserted
movement → emerge → September
Pupils returning to the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, southwest of Paris, after the summer holidays, discovered they couldn’t continue their studies because of the extent of staff absences.
asserted
they → return → absences
The 15- to 18-year-olds blockaded their high school in protest.
asserted
olds → blockade → protest
After negotiations with the education ministry, those staffing gaps were filled, but the impassioned complaints about crumbling buildings, overcrowded classrooms, and long school days – alongside a wider sense of inequality in the education system – resonated in the suburbs.
asserted
complaints → fill → suburbs
“This movement grew from the ground up, from teenagers speaking to others outside their lycées.
asserted
teenagers → grow → lycées
And over a couple of weeks, it has spread to hundreds of schools across France,” Angelique tells me.
asserted
Angelique → spread → me
There’s a tendency to mythologise youth protest, especially in France – my uncle Joss was in Paris in 1968, and I lapped up his tales of pulling up cobblestones with his bare hands to build barricades.
asserted
I → ’ → barricades
But youth activism is often diminished.
asserted
activism → diminish → ?
When I reported on the schoolchildren who protested against the war in Iraq in 2003, and those who took part in climate strikes more than a decade later, adults repeatedly questioned whether they were swayed by older provocateurs or just wanted an excuse to dodge school and indulge in petty vandalism.
asserted
they → report → vandalism
“This is very much a youth movement,” says Angelique, comparing it to similar protests in 2006 over an unpopular youth employment contract, which were organised by students’ unions.
asserted
which → say → unions
“High schoolers are organising themselves without a centralised system or even spokesperson.
asserted
schoolers → organise → system
That’s historic, and it’s taken the government by surprise.
asserted
it → ’ → surprise
This week, the sociologist Fabien Truong, who has written widely on youth protest culture, praised the “maturity and coherence” of the protesters.
asserted
who → write → protesters
He pointed to a “social media effect” whereby teenagers in wealthier areas were sharing videos of scurrying rats, gaping ceilings and leaking toilets in poorer schools.
asserted
teenagers → point → schools
“It’s beautiful, this solidarity with students from more privileged backgrounds fighting for others and more equality.
asserted
students → ’ → equality
This is precisely what Angelique has witnessed on the streets of Paris in recent days, where some of the most elite state schools have also been barricaded.
asserted
some → witness → schools
She spoke to one teacher outside a school in a richer inner-city area, who was proud of her pupils.
asserted
who → speak → pupils
“She said there was a feeling of solidarity and generosity between teenagers, and how it flies in the face of the idea that they’re part of a social media generation who are selfish and narcissistic.”
asserted
who → say → generation
“I spent a long time speaking to teenage girls at one of the barricades in the centre of the city,” Angelique says,“who were sitting on top of a pile of bins and shopping trolleys.
asserted
Angelique → spend → bins
They told me: ‘We’re told in France that state education is a great leveller, but that’s not the case.
asserted
that → tell → France
We are being taught our lessons, but we’re getting out on to the street because we can’t bear to know that other students in poorer areas are in buildings that are crumbling’.”
***
What’s wrong with French schools?
As Angelique sets out in this helpful explainer, the pupils’ grievances are backed up by evidence – and the prime minister himself has described them as “legitimate”.
asserted
minister → teach → them
Class sizes are bigger on average, and school days are longer, than in other comparable countries, while about 10% of teaching hours across the year are not delivered because of absent teachers.
asserted
% → deliver → teachers
What’s going on?
asserted
What → go → ?
The high spend can be explained in various ways, Angelique tells me.
asserted
Angelique → explain → me
France has a lot more high school buildings to maintain than other countries, and many more vocational courses that cost more to teach.
asserted
that → have → more
At the same time, more spending is desperately needed on staff.
asserted
spending → need → staff
Teacher shortages are linked to very low pay progression through the profession, while there are severe difficulties in finding teachers to work in deprived areas.
asserted
shortages → link → areas
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
