In the May issue of the Brooklyn Rail, Anouk Columbani, a student activist from France, writes about the emergence and continuing evolution of the country’s Nuit Debout (Up All Night) movement. While it began as a protest again a labor reform law, the movement has expanded to question the very social model of modern France, with people from all segments of French society joining in. Here’s an excerpt:
After several years of relative calm, France has been in an uproar since the beginning of March. The cause: a thorough rejection of ideas contained in the reform of the labor code that the government claims is necessary to combat unemployment, a reform which affects at least some five million people. From the demonstrators’ point of view we are witnessing a fundamental challenge to a social model supposed to be good for everyone. The Labor Minister, Myriam El Khomri, who engineered the law, wagered that in a few years young people would be thanking her. She didn’t need to wait so long; today many of us are already thanking her for having woken us up as protesters. Indeed, many of us have decided not to let this law come to pass. Strikes, raised fists, and occupations of city squares mark the movement that began on March 9…
Anyone who knows where all this is going is quite gifted. The government has already abandoned its projects of enshrining the state of emergency in the constitution and of depriving people convicted of terrorism of French nationality; some measures in the labor law, which go to the parliament in May, have been removed. The Intersyndicale picked April 28 and May as dates for demonstrations. Meanwhile, student or other strikers continue to agitate in preparation for a general strike against the labor reform law and maybe more. Railroad workers are threatening strike action against rules in their sector modeled on the proposed labor law. A general strike in Mayotte has inspired protestors and has put the issue of French colonization on the table. The Nuits Debout are going full-steam ahead for a total overhaul of the world. Whatever happens, the daily lives of thousands, if not millions, of people will have changed in a few months.