“For more than 10 weeks now, French universities have been disrupted by strikes, mass meetings, demonstrations and occupations as a daily occurrence in an unheard-of wave of protest by university staff and students against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s neoliberal reforms of higher education. A dozen mass demonstrations with tens of thousands of people have been held, motorway tollbooths have been occupied and university council meetings invaded. Parallel university lectures, in streets, shopping centres or on trams have been used to help popularise the movement that shows no sign of stopping. In a spectacular action known as ‘The springtime of the chairs’, all the chairs were removed from many universities to stop classes and used to build protest sculptures. ‘University all night long’ events were organised while in front of the Paris town hall there is a permanent march, 24 hours a day, that began three weeks ago …” (more)
[John C Mullen, University World News, 26 April]