Paris, students march again after the general strike: “We will not accept compromises. Now Macron must listen to us”

Not even 48 hours after the last general strike march at Paris, the male and female students returned to the square again. “Even if Macron doesn’t want it, we are here. We are here for workers and a better world”, they shout in chorus holding the banners that have been dragging on for days. The demonstration was convened by the committee of the main faculties of the Paris region and brought together hundreds of university students. Started from the central Piazza del Pantheonthey crossed the streets of the Latin neighborhood to get up to Bastille square. With them also some representatives of male and female workers, many on total strike since March 7 last year. “This fight for pension reform allows us to voice many of our hitherto unheard grievances, from feminism to the climate emergency,” she says Elise, 21 years. “We are young and we are poor, we struggle to fill the fridge and precarious jobs await us. We don’t even know if we will have a pension and what kind of planet we will have to live on. It is time for politics to listen to us”. The demands are very clear: not only the withdrawal of the highly contested government reform of Emmanuel Macron, but also the urgency that politics intervene against precariousness, for the increase of wages and the protection of the environment. The choirs and billboards tell them well: “Robespierre returns“, can be read not far above the pile of rubbish bins and barriers built to block the entrance to the University of Law. And then they sing: “We are all antifascists” (strictly in Italian), “we are anti-capitalists” and “Macron makes us war”. There is a band playing and the atmosphere is festive. Also because they, the twenty-year-olds, believe that there is no alternative for the government and they will have to be listened to. Noemi also says it: “We believe in it, because it is a historical phenomenon. Since May 1968 we had not seen a similar mobilization, with the axis between students and workers. We also tell the unions: we will not accept compromises and we will ask them to go all the way”. And he closes: “For us, utopia is to think that continuing like this can go well and that the climate stops burning”. The university students ask that the radical nature of the protests be maintained and that no steps be taken. “I’m here representing a trade union,” says Antoine, “and I also think that it will not be possible to ignore such a movement. We hadn’t seen so many people in the square for years. And above all that an axis was not created between all the sectors that suffer, from the youngest to the elderly. Macron will not be able to turn a blind eye”. Not far away is Grégoire: “I come from Grenoble, I was passing by here and I found the procession. I’m very happy. We can finally make our voices heard.” Next to them are Nahuel and Hassaniasophomore psychology students: “It’s not going to end this movement anytime soon. May Macron put his heart at rest. Our malaise comes from afar and concerns all young people. Not only French, but also European. We are not linked to the unions, we share the demands, but we have many others. No compromise is conceivable for us. We will continue to be on the road. Because we have no alternatives”.