Quick update March 30, 2009

Just a quick update following the strike meeting today; it was packed again, more like last Monday and much more people than on Thursday. The debate veered back towards the underlying principles of the strike and was less about blocage/no blocage. Four motions were voted on;

1) motion to go en masse after the AG to the presidence and petition them for action; i.e to fully support the movement, to stop using threatening emails about a semestre blanc to try and dissuade some students from voting for the strike, and to make a clear decision about what will happen with assessments. This was voted through with a visible majority.

2) motion to continue the strike – voted through with visible majority

3) motion to continue occupation of campus buildings by mobilisation committee members (this is not the blocage but a separate physical demonstration i.e camping out overnight) – voted through with visible majority.

4) motion to continue blocages until Wednesday 1st April and the next AG – this was also voted through but by a majority which had to be counted. The eventual tally was 40 abstentions, 392 for, 230 against.

The video below shows the vote for the blocages; the first section is voting against, the second voting for and the final section the reaction when the result was written up. I had to cut parts out because it took a while to count the votes up.

Lazy weekend March 29, 2009

I have taken it easy this weekend, as the title suggests. Slept in yesterday and this morning, and haven’t done too much work. I finished my essay on The Tempest on Friday, so ran over a final draft and then emailed that and the other piece of work I did to my lecturer. Also emailed my answers to some set questions for Sociolinguistique to that lecturer. With Easter looming I am beginning to plan alternative forms of assessment with my lecturers so that in the event of there not being any exams I can take, I have something to show Keele for this semester! In other modules where I cannot contact the lecturer via email (because they don’t use it) and I can’t physically get into the buildings to find them in their office, there’s nothing I can do so I feel I should do as much as I can where it’s otherwise possible. To that end, the other piece of work I made a start on today is my presentation for Spanish on the subject of the Basque country. Normally this would be brief notes because the presentation is meant to be given orally, accompanied by a handout with diagrams or pictures. Because it looks unlikely I’ll get to give this presentation, I am writing it and formatting it as if it were a written presentation so even if it never gets marked by a lecturer here, I can show Keele that I was doing something. After I’ve finished that I’ll be done with the work for classes, but there’s plenty else I can do – learning Russian and practicing some free translation between French, English and Spanish are all on my list to do.

Something else I got done this weekend was finalising the trip to Brussels that’s been in the pipeline over the last few weeks. To begin with I mooted the idea of four days in Brussels, then it got switched to Bruges, then reduced to two days and moved back to Brussels, and now finally we have settled on that – the train tickets are booked now so there’s no going back! I met Sonia yesterday in a hidden-away Salon de Thé called Alice-Anne which has Wifi access for the price of a drink; useful to know in case of a future internet emergency. We are going early in the morning on Friday 10th April and returning in the evening on Saturday. “We” is me, Sonia and her friend Allie, whose family friends we are hopefully staying with. They live just outside the city apparently, and have kindly agreed to let us stay with them! The train journey is in two parts; from Amiens to Lille-Flandres on a regular intercity train and then from Lille-Europe to Bruxelles-Midi on a TGV. The stations of Lille-Flandres and Lille-Europe are only a short walking distance apart; Lille-Europe is the international station through which TGV and Thalys trains pass to Belgium and also Eurostar between Paris and London. The reason we decided on Brussels rather than Bruges is because of the train journey; with the one we’ve chosen we are always travelling north, whereas to get to Bruges made less sense, since it involved getting 3 trains; intercity south to Paris-Nord, Thalys north to Bruxelles-Midi (not via Lille) and then Belgian intercity to Bruges. So since we’d be travelling through Brussels anyway we thought we may as well just go there. I have yet to do my super-internet-research-whistlestop-tour planning but never fear I will have a manic list for our two-day stop!

Tomorrow brings another AG, another vote on the blocages – so until then I don’t really know what to expect for the week ahead. I want to say that blocages will continue, but following Thursday’s negative AG I’m not so sure as I would have been a week ago. Anyway it doesn’t really matter, because the promised sunshine is back and I have plenty of other things to fill the next few weeks, so time will pass quickly even if I don’t have lectures. I hope the presidence gives an answer on what they’re going to do about exam scheduling soon, so I (hopefully) have some ammunition with which to email Keele and justify me leaving in a month instead of two.

Another week, another vote March 26, 2009

First of all I’ll tell you what happened at today’s AG; there were less people than on Monday, and the tone was altogether different. The debate went on and on with people speaking for and against the blocages, rather than about the positives and negatives of the reforms that they are fighting in the first place. It was like everyone’s got tunnel vision on the radicalisation of the movement and why that should continue, and they’ve forgotten about the reasons why they’re on strike. Nothing more was said about the “semestre blanc” possibility, except a tantalising half-comment about “exams in september”. At the moment I’m waiting for a follow-up email from the presidence on what their schedule is for catching up, but until then things seem muddier than ever – I can’t get straight answers from the few lecturers I’m in touch with via email, and the blocage vote seems to be weakening. At least, at today’s AG the margin between for and against was much narrower than Monday’s, and although for won it (meaning blocages will continue until the next vote on Monday), it looks like it is becoming increasingly unpopular, although why this could be when on Monday it was wholeheartedly supported I don’t know. Anyway I have two short video clips; the first one shows the size of the auditorium and the number of people there, the second is the moment when the blocage was voted through. The reaction was much much quieter than Monday’s, I might add.

Anyway, in other news…. Well not much really, which is to be expected. I have read The Tempest this week and am currently writing a mini-essay on it for one of my literature modules. This is part of the work options that some lecturers have  been sending us via email; now many people are thinking about what alternative forms assessment could take in order to validate the semester. Over the weekend I need to write my Spanish presentation on the basis that theoretically there may be class time in which I can present it; if the AG on Monday votes to end the blocages then according to the schedule I could present it when it was originally planned for on Thursday. However because we’ve missed so many weeks I don’t know if she will want to do the people who’ve already missed theirs first, or leave them til the end. I briefly went skating yesterday but it was crap, too many kids messing about so I gave up after a short time and I’ll try again tomorrow. This is one advantage of having no lectures – I can do whatever, whenever instead of planning it round lecture time. On Saturday I’m meeting up with Sonia so we can organise our weekend trip to Belgium in a couple of weeks’ time, so I should have some more details about that by next week. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better next week as well; after our long spell of sunshine this past week has seen a return to grey, dreary drizzle and lower temperatures. Only reasonable to expect variation from springtime, but I do like my sunshine!

Blocages set to continue March 23, 2009

As expected, I had no lectures Thursday and Friday last week due to the faculties being barricaded. This continued today. No barricades were taken down at all, and the doors were only opened to allow people in to attend the AG at 12pm in the biggest lecture theatre. This is in a circular corridor called the rotonde (rotunda), which connect to the faculty buildings D and E on one side and A,B and C on the other. The protestors had also erected barricades of tables and chairs to either side of the lecture theatre doors in order to stop anyone wandering off into the other buildings. There were footprints on the floor leading to the theatre and it generally felt like we were being herded in! This lecture theatre is huge, I didn’t take my camera but I wish I had because it is really difficult to describe just how many people there were. Hundreds, at least; on every bench, seat, wall, step and spilling out into the entrance passages and corridors outside. This movement has a far larger support than I had realised.

The meeting took two hours in the end; to begin with there were summaries from the leaders of the movement with regard to what has already happened during the movement, the result of recent demonstrations including numbers – apparently there were 3 million protestors across the country on Thursday in relation to this strike – plans for upcoming demonstrations, summaries from the other faculties, and meetings with the university president. Then the floor was opened for debate, with quite a few people stepping up to voice their opinions, although by the end it had become a rotation of the same few people. The vast majority made passionate speeches about how it was necessary to continue strike action no matter what; how the government must listen and that this is the only way to get the reforms thrown out. They left the floor to an uproar of applause and stamping of feet. The one or two who dared to take the stand against the strike movement barely got their sentences out before being booed and shouted down.

There were a few notable moments; one of the issues hotly debated today was that of the “semestre blanc” or void semester; essentially if the strike continues, it will be very difficult if not impossible to set any kind of meaningful assessment, and therefore validate the semester. For me this isn’t a great issue but for the permanent students it means making up that semester at some point in their degree. This week, following the blocages where no lectures at all have taken place, the presidence has voiced concerns about this resulting in a semestre blanc – and has been ridiculed by the strikers for this, because as they rightly point out many courses have been on strike, with no classes, for nearly 2 months now – which has a greater impact on the likelihood of a semestre blanc than 3 days blocage, and yet the presidence has only just started making noises. There seemed to be a conflict of information at the meeting today though; whereas one lecturer stood up and said that, legally because of the duration of the strike so far we are already categorically in a semestre blanc situation, another stood up and said that the students should not be worried because no matter what they would be awarded a grade and the semester would be validated. Personally I don’t see how this is possible. At one point a debating student turned to face the largest group of lecturers and accused them of urging the students to radicalise the strike movement (i.e blocages) in one moment and then cautioning them of the risk of a semestre blanc in the next. So there are slight cracks in the foundation of this strike, but they are very minor.

Finally after the debate came the voting. I abstained because obviously it’s unfair for me to vote on things that seriously affect the other students but not me; I was only there today as an information-gathering exercise. It was difficult to hear but the voting was split into three parts; the first vote was on whether to change the list of people who are allowed past the barricades. Last week it was something like lecturers, university personnel, library staff, master’s students, people supporting master’s theses, and the IUT staff. I’m not quite sure who the IUT people are, but anyway today they were voted off the list in order to force them to show solidarity with the strike movement, which they have up until now resisted. The second vote was on the general continuation of the strike, which was of course passed. And the third vote was on whether to continue the blocages, in this case until Thursday and the next AG. This was also passed, by an overwhelming majority and again to massive cheering and applause as it became clear. So barring any sudden changes, come Thursday I will have had no lectures for an entire week. I have already missed one mid-term and I will now miss another on Wednesday; as for the future it remains to be seen but I suspect the blocages will continue. I will go to the AG again on Thursday; it’s become more important now that I get a proper grasp on what’s happening, especially as I now won’t find out anything from classmates or lecturers because we won’t see each other. Next time I’ll take a camera and you’ll get an idea of this strike’s following.

Blocages! Another twist in the strike saga… March 19, 2009

Fac. Lettres doors blocked

Yesterday brought another turn of events in the history of this year’s strike. Now that we are roughly 2 months into the strike, it seems the consensus is that this is a critical breaking point. Last year’s strike cracked at about this time and they lost the battle. This year’s picked up almost where they left off, and they are more determined than ever to see it through to the bitter end. With half the university not observing the strike up until now and many rumours spreading of an end in sight, it was decided at yesterday’s AG that more drastic action was needed to show everyone that this fight is not over. So they voted for “blocages” until Monday and the next AG. This means picket lines and other forms of physical obstruction of faculty buildings, thus forcing those who had previously conducted classes normally to acknowledge the strike. The picture above shows the doors to the Faculté de Lettres section piled high with tables and chairs. All the other doors were the same, with the exception of the rotonde which was only partially blocked and manned by strikers who only allowed lecturers and maintenance staff through.

Faculties blocked until Monday 23rd. It is time that they understood that democracy is us!

I went down to both my lectures today just to see what it was like but it was clear no one had any classes today, unless as I heard one irate lecturer say, they were conducted outside – that is if she could round up enough of her students. I think most people, having heard about it yesterday, didn’t even bother showing up. Tomorrow however, we have a mid-term exam in Spanish translation. Or at least, that was the plan. Now it seems likely that will have to be rescheduled. On Monday at the next AG (which I intend to go to this time) I presume they will vote again not only on whether to continue the strike but whether to continue the blocages. I can see a situation whereby they vote for blocages to affect one to three days each week; continuous would be too drastic a measure even for them but with partial blocages they could cause almost as much disruption. I have set an end-date on my space to watch; four weeks. That’s the length of time between now and when I fly home for Easter. I’ve decided that if the situation has a) not improved from current or b) got even worse, there is little point me coming back and paying more rent for May to sit around waiting for more-than-likely nonexistent assessments. We shall have to wait and see.

Rough interpretation: If you want to go to lectures, help us win this fight quickly

I am not bothered, in fact I’ll be quite pleased if that turns out to be the case. I believe that they are justified in fighting these reforms and that strike action is the only way they can get the government to take notice. I also believe that this is the time to step up actions and something like this was needed. This strike has a massive following; as the flyer they handed out today reads: it is the lecturers, university general staff, research laboratories, doctorates, IUT, IUFM and the teacher’s federation that are all supporting this strike action.

A tangle of tables and chairs effectively blocks the doors

As the flyer also says; “much better than last year when we were isolated.” Another passage rallies against letting the movement become slack: “In the face of this ambiant demoralisation that reigns over Amiens, where the impression is that the fight is useless, let us remember that this isn’t the case in France, contrary to what the media would like us to believe. It is time to find once more the strength that was ours last year!” It also states the figures from the CNU (Coordination Nationale des Universités) from the 16th March; 53 universities represented, of which 40 are blocked and 8 occupied.

Mooching along March 15, 2009

Really not much to report but I thought I ought to write a little something since the last I posted was on Tuesday. The weather has been dull and grey most of this week but next week my forecaster is showing all bright suns and temperature between 10 and 15 C, so should be a nice week! Nothing unusual has happened recently; it’s all been business as usual with lectures and work. I’ve targeted the reading this week to try and get that finished and I’ve succeeded in so much as I’ve now finished all three texts for Littérature Comparée; Horace’s Odes, Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal. Having already read two of the plays for Littérature Française I just have Le Roi se meurt left, which I should get done this week coming. I also had some lecture notes for Littérature Française to read, some questions to type up for Sociolinguistique and a mini-essay for Littérature Comparée, which I chose to write on Odes. So it has been quite a literature-orientated week. On Friday however I have Spanish translation mid-term exam so this week will be more Spanish-orientated, especially since the grammar mid-term is the following week and then my oral presentation the week after. I need to find out when the next strike AG is; it might be tomorrow but I want to go to see if I can get a heads up on the outcome of these next couple of crucial weeks. There are more demonstrations this week, once again on Thursday. I don’t know why they always pick Thursday and I hope it doesn’t disrupt continuing lectures this week. I now haven’t had a Spanish oral class for three weeks – it might even be four I can’t remember! Granted this isn’t all due to the strike; one week it was the holiday, the next it was “dead university day” and last week the lecturer was absent, but it’s still not good. I only have two more classes until I’m supposed to give my presentation. Anyway we shall see. The next few weeks should go quickly I think because I have an assessment each week; that always helps to make time disappear! I am also tentatively planning a weekend trip to Belgium for the double jour férié weekend of 10th April, so watch this space…

A roundup of the Strike so far… March 10, 2009

I thought I would just write a post about the strike tonight, because I know it has been confusing for us over here so it may well have been hard to follow for anyone not experiencing it as well. On Monday February 2nd, university lecturers walked out and began a general, unlimited strike to protest against the government’s proposed reforms to the higher education system; notably to funding, the position of enseignant-chercheur (teacher-researcher), masterisation/ alteration of courses and the cutting of hundreds of jobs – all of these reforms were to be introduced at the beginning of next academic year in September 2009.

Although some progress has been made the outcome remains unclear. After a couple of weeks when it became clear this was no small strike, the education minister Valérie Pécresse appointed a mediator and began talks with the unions to revise the reforms, but she still insisted that reforms of some kind would go ahead in September. Later it was promised that after 2009’s cuts, no further job cuts would come in 2010 or 2011. Still the strike goes on, because the unions are not happy until the entire bill is thrown out and in particular the government still hasn’t given ground on one or two points of the bill. A recent article from the local press, Le Courrier Picard, included a quote that from past experience of strikes in the education sector, the point of no return for catching up is 5 or 6 weeks. This is week 6 of the strike so far.

At UPJV, views on the strike are divided. There are those lecturers who never went on strike, whose classes have been largely unaffected up until now (unless they happened to fall on a day of general demonstrations or on “dead university day” last Thursday), and who are now trying to set dates for mid-term asssessments and being told by the President of the university that he will not allow any formal assessments to be set until the strike is resolved. The Presidence then is clearly backing the strike, and in particular the Faculté de Lettres is still very actively and almost completely on strike – but others, such as languages and science, are less active and have seen almost no disruption at all. Law was on a total strike to begin with but now apparently they are starting to return to teaching. So while some see the strike as over, others are as vehement as ever that the fight is only just beginning and that the movement must remain strong to have the best effect and not a repeat of last year’s defeat. This coming Thursday there is another national demonstration day and this time the unions have called for the lycées to join them; after all it is this year’s lycée graduates who will be affected by next year’s reforms as much as the staff and current university students.

If the strike ends in the next couple of weeks it will create the most awkward situation for the rest of the semester, I think. This is because there will be just enough time to rush and cram in as much as possible of the missed course material to form a condensed course and take an exam in May, but it will be very pressured and difficult to follow because so much of the peripheral material will have to be left out. If the strike continues for another 3-4 weeks, then it seems likely that the course will still be rushed to catch up and condensed down, but the exams will be pushed back into June. If this happens I am not likely to stick around for them, because it’s an abnormal situation and I will just write them off. The third scenario is that the strike continues right through to the end of semester, or at least to the end of May by which point it will be far too late to catch up on anything. What consequence that has for the permanent students I’m not sure but as far as I’m concerned those modules would just be written off. Right now I am hoping that the strike does continue to the end of May because this would be the simplest situation; that way I can concentrate fully on the modules I do still have (two Spanish, two French, one Science), and write off the others entirely. It’s fortunate that in fact my grades this year don’t matter to my final UK degree; this year is an addition to the normal 3 years and not a replacement. Some people I know, the Americans like Sonia in particular who are here for just this semester, are replacing one of their US semesters with the one here – so the grades they get this year do count for their final degree. What impact that has when they don’t get any because of the strike, I don’t know.

La Picardie under threat March 8, 2009

Image from Courrier Picard

I noticed a month or two ago that the local newspaper Le Courrier Picard ran an article about plans to divide and essentially do away with this region; la Picardie. Much like Cornwall in some ways, many people here feel a strong cultural bond with the region and as well as being French they are Picard; there is the Picard language (as well as many dialects within the region), cuisine and customs. Geographically (and politically) speaking the region of Picardy is divided into three departements; Somme, Oise and Aisne. The map on the left shows how, under new plans of Sarkozy’s, these three departements would be absorbed into the surrounding regions of Nord Pas-de-Calais,  Ile-de-France and Champagne Ardenne respectively, effectively ending the existence of Picardie. Obviously, many people living in Picardie feel very strongly that this should not be allowed to happen; see the cartoon below for le Courrier Picard’s daily cartoon artists viewpoint. The changes would be part of Sarkozy’s plans to simplify France’s regional political hierarchy, which it has to be admitted is currently mind-boggling.

Dessin d'Alex from Courrier Picard

The 22 regions are themselves divided into 100 departements, further divided into 4000 cantons, divided again into 36000 communes. Sarkozy says the reduction in numbers would just help to simplify political processes; his sceptics say that it is a ploy to reduce the opposition party’s influence in certain regions. If you really want to get your head around the current subdivisions in France then here is the wikipedia page: Subdivisions of France. The BBC has even picked up on the debate and so there is an article you can read here as well: France considers redrawing the map For French speakers, le Courrier Picard has gathered together a number of views on the subject here: La Region en danger?

Breaking into summer March 6, 2009

I am most impressed with the weather the last few days! Blue sky and sunshine, only a few brief patches of grey and no rain. It’s been warm enough to have my window open in the afternoons, although in the mornings it can still take a while for the cool night temperatures to warm up. Definitely looking brighter than the past few months though and it’s a welcome sight! Could this be the herald of a great summer? I certainly hope at least that the worst of the weather is over with. Rain I would expect in March and April but snow and ice I hope not to see again until next year!

The internet was down from Wednesday evening until about Thursday lunchtime, which was a bit frustrating because normally I would have lectures to fill the morning, but since Thursday was the “dead university” day I didn’t. I didn’t even bother walking down to campus although I believe all the buildings were locked and chained as they usually are on weekends or holidays. Instead I did laundry and took the opportunity to deep clean my room; including all those parts which don’t need so frequent cleaning (like my window), or that I usually ignore (in ‘I’ll do it next time’ syndrome), and beating out my rug. After a couple of hours I tried the internet again and discovered that it worked without having to go through the authentication stage (which is the part that hadn’t been working) so for a while I thought they might just have done away with it. But no, after a couple of hours I clicked to a new page and got the authentication page instead, so it was back. I was quite pleased with myself this morning when I managed to get up and out to my 8am lecture at the science fac (the only one I have this semester) – I felt a bit bad because I haven’t been for three weeks; last week being the holiday and I overslept the week before.

Tomorrow I’m going to do a bit of shopping in town; I’ve built up a bit of a list of things to do so that coupled with a lazy-ish morning should kill most of the day. Sunday I might go skating but probably will stay in and do some work and other random things. I’m not sure that many of the Cardiff guys are back yet; as far as I know most or all of their lectures are on strike still so they’ve probably taken the opportunity to stay in the UK for longer. If anyone’s around I might see what’s on at the cinema. Apart from that I intend to have a fairly chillaxed weeked.

Trying to Beat the Boredom March 3, 2009

I really haven’t done much at all since I got back on Saturday but it feels like an age since I was home, not less than a week! I’ve had a couple of lectures and a bit of work to do, but not much really. Part of that work was reading another play, Les Caprices de Marianne, another short one like the last that only took an hour or so to read. The course that I’m reading it for is still on strike but I thought I may as well read it and be prepared on the off chance that we go back to lectures. It was very Shakespeare-inspired and neither clear cut comedy or tradgedy – once again it takes place in the space of a day except for the last scene, there are four principle characters; a lawyer, his pious wife, a cousin, and a friend of the cousin who is in love with the lawyer’s wife. He has been trying hopelessly to get her to have an affair with him, but to no avail. He sends the cousin, his drunken friend, to plead his case but the cousin only ends up convincing the wife that she should have an affair with him! She invites him to come to her that evening while her husband is away, but her husband (who is suspicious of her behavious) lays a trap with assassins. The cousin is a good friend and instead sends his friend to the meeting. The wife sends the cousin a warning about the trap when she finds out, but it’s too late and the infatuated friend dies. It is more of a tragedy I suppose but some of the conversations and insult trading is more comic.

Anyway apart from that I’ve been trying to fill the time, but it’s so frustrating. I went skating this afternoon but even that wasn’t very satisfying because for some reason it was really busy with lots of kids and I couldn’t work on anything. I really don’t know if I want this strike to end or not! I have got used to not having many lectures or long days or much work to do, so if they ended it tomorrow and I went back to a full timetable it would be a shock and I’d end up so tired. However, having more work and less time in the day would be a blessing in some ways because I wouldn’t be sat around bored half the time as I am now, and I would think it would make the weeks pass quicker if they were more full. It is so irritating that last week at home just disappeared like sand through the fingers and now it feels like every minute takes an hour to pass. If the next 6.5 weeks go this slowly I’ll end up insane. I’m not depressed like I was before christmas, I’m just bored and counting time until this is over and I can get back to my life! I don’t feel like I’m learning anything new or having a major life experience over here – I have gained some new friends but that’s about all.

The strike is continuing into it’s fifth week now; there is usually at least one AG per week where they meet to discuss the action they’re going to take next, and so far there have been 3 or 4 separate days of demonstrations called to reinforce the strike and keep it in the public and government mind. In addition the President of the university is supporting the action and has called for Thursday to be a “dead university” day, so probably the faculty buildings will be locked up so no one can get in to teach or work even if they wanted to.

Image from Le Courrier Picard

This morning when I went to my lecture there were lots of tables and chairs stacked in the halls and corridors that are usually in classrooms, and when I looked up the local news later on I found out that yesterday a lot of students had emptied the classrooms and carried the tables and chairs outside. It seems that far from quietly slipping back to normal, the demonstrations and action will continue to escalate for a few weeks yet.