From our other sites
The story
On October 6, large-scale protests involving more than 250,000 people took place across France in solidarity with high school students blockading their schools to demand more teachers and improved school buildings, with university students and major labor unions joining in. In central Paris, 56,000 people marched, and clashes broke out when some participants threw stones and smoke bombs at police, who responded with tear gas; 488 people were detained nationwide. According to the Ministry of National Education, the impact was widespread, with 891 schools — about a quarter of the roughly 3,700 schools nationwide — canceling classes. On 5ch, reactions were split between those praising the high schoolers for speaking up politically and those linking the school overcrowding to immigration policy.
[Paris, Kyodo] On the 6th, large-scale protests were held across France in solidarity with high school students blockading their schools to demand more teachers and improved school facilities. University students and major labor unions also took part, with more than 250,000 participants according to the Interior Ministry. In central Paris, 56,000 people marched, and clashes broke out when some threw stones, street trash cans, and smoke bombs at police, who fired tear gas in response. Police detained a total of 488 people nationwide.
According to the Ministry of National Education, a total of 891 high schools — about a quarter of the roughly 3,700 nationwide — canceled at least some classes on the 6th due to the blockades and other disruptions.
National Education Minister Geffray told local media that “protests by high schoolers are healthy for democracy” and said the government “is responding to their demands,” but the student organizations said “there has been no political response whatsoever to high schoolers’ anger” and signaled they plan to keep the protest movement going.
Source: 47news.jp / Original article here
What people said
I wonder how many Japanese kids are even thinking about politics by high school.
There's definitely some adult pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Japanese high schooler: 'Will protesting get me a college recommendation? If it does, sure, I'll do it.'
Officially they're demanding 'improvements to the education environment.'
But people are piling other political messages onto it and setting fires, so it's basically chaos now.
Apparently the government let immigrants in without managing the numbers, so schools couldn't keep up and there aren't enough seats — the demand is basically 'do something about it.'
That's a surprisingly mature complaint for high schoolers.
Even Japanese parents living in France back them up — apparently the schools really are falling apart and in bad shape.
They just want people to separate 'the schools are awful' from 'the rioting,' though.
But fixing that absolutely requires a budget.
Whether it's a new tax or reshuffling existing tax revenue, someone's going to end up footing the bill and get angry about it.
I mean, if it were serious students with serious complaints, they wouldn't be rioting. If it were slacker students with slacker complaints, they'd be griping about boring classes or too much homework instead.
What, were they messing with explosives that went off?
'High schooler loses hand to police grenade at school-blockade protest in northern France'
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/c2b8d52dcd47c7bcf5b99fb1c706f7a5a85b33e2
There was apparently an incident where a grenade picked up during the protest exploded and caused serious injury — which is a messed-up way for it to happen — so that's probably what they mean.
You'd think people would've figured out by now that if you don't push back like this, you just get exploited — but Japanese people just never take action.
And they're suckers who feel good about themselves whenever someone flatters them for having 'good civic manners.'
So are you doing anything about it yourself?
Social insurance premiums alone (pension, healthcare, long-term care) eat up 30% of wages. That kind of intergenerational exploitation has robbed workers and young people of the means to marry, raise kids, and pay for education, which is why the birthrate collapsed. Young people in China and South Korea leave the country without hesitation — Japanese youth should be able to do the same.
Not France, but I've talked with foreign high schoolers before, and they were probably more switched-on than you.
They discussed politics like it was totally normal.
Meanwhile I only ever followed the news for politician scandals, and they were genuinely unimpressed with me for it.
High schoolers' political views are really just indoctrination from the adults around them — things like 'say this and you'll get praised' or 'this will make people happy.' That's the same in every country. Actually forming your own ideology takes time.
Exactly! I felt that hard back when I was a student.
These days social media's influence is probably huge too.
A Japanese school building
You're not allowed to install air conditioning, right? (lol)
French school buildings are old and have no insulation. Even Japan's old school buildings are better than that.
I guess shoddy BEA buildings are just a national trait too, huh?
Immigration, right. Figured. (´・ω・｀)
High youth unemployment is just the default there, so bored young people rioting is the default too.
Japanese youth, where companies hire new grads no matter what, are probably too busy for that.
Keep the protests coming.
Japan needs to riot and make demands too.
Japan already learned that rioting changes nothing, so it's hopeless now.
Even the garbage media (note: "マスゴミ," a derisive slang blend of "mass media" and "garbage") hyped it up at first, but did a total about-face once the New Left movement rose up.
'Is that even worth the effort?' (note: riffing on "コスパ," Japanese shorthand for cost-performance/payoff-for-effort)
It's a country where civil revolutions don't happen.
I mean, there were peasant uprisings (note: "百姓一揆," farmer revolts from Japan's feudal era).
The February 26 Incident (note: a 1936 Japanese military uprising) was one of the far-left riots, though the soldiers involved were just rioting without really understanding what was going on.
That's because Japan has no history of tyrannical rule.
All thanks to the Emperor.
Background and Key Points
Teacher shortages and aging school buildings have long been flagged as problems in France, and what stands out this time is that university students and labor unions joined a protest movement led primarily by high schoolers. Some in the thread floated the view that “classrooms are short because of immigration,” but it’s worth noting that the original 47news article makes no such claim itself — that’s purely a commenter’s speculation. Also, while the body of the original article puts the number detained at “488,” headlines elsewhere reporting “490” likely reflect a discrepancy from early breaking-news tallies. The thread split between voices praising the high schoolers’ political engagement and those mocking the protest as being “just for college recommendations,” with the discussion branching out into Japan’s history of student movements and comparisons of school facilities.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Flash+) thread “French High School Blockades, 250,000 Join Protests — Clashes With Police, 490 Detained.”
Leave a Reply