"Well, I just hate [that] I'm not going to be there"
— One woman on why she threw herself a funeral for her 80th birthday. We hope the guests were in the know.
Vive La Révolution
Student Protests Rock France
What’s going on: No one protests like the French — some even consider it a national sport. But this month’s student demonstrations, which have shut down around 900 schools, are much more than a typical uprising: They've expanded from local schools concerned about understaffing and subpar facilities to 40 cities and more than 250,000 protestors (union organizers estimate 450,000). While teachers started the conversation, students and social media have spread the message — and everyone from labor unions to parents has quite literally locked arms. But what stands out is the youth driving the movement… and the police response that's come under scrutiny, with arrests, tear gas, and water cannons. A 15-year-old lost his hand to a police stun grenade this week, and 18 police conduct cases are already under investigation. Of the more than 6,000 protestors detained so far, the overwhelming majority are minors. While many were released without charges, more than 1,800 are set to be prosecuted.
A history lesson, s'il vous plaît: In France, there’s a strong sense of accountability for how federally funded social systems, like trains and schools, should be run — and that they should ultimately serve the people. But protests aren’t just French-coded. They’ve been an effective tool for institutional change, from 1968’s transformative student protests to 2018’s Yellow Vest movement when the working class challenged a fuel tax. Still, if you think teen angst may be a factor, you wouldn’t be wrong, either. Some say the protests represent a broader nihilistic movement about concerns over the economy, the future, AI, and the next political party to take power. It’s a lot to fix, but one encouraging note? The government is definitely taking the demands more seriously as the protests progress.
