People of protest, here and across the pond

This Saturday, Oct. 17, some Americans will take to their streets for a fourth No Kings Rally, and in that light, I’ve been watching the latest French protests with interest. Protests in America tend to look different from those in France.

America isn’t France, and France isn’t America, but it’s important to remember that France observed the American Revolution and took it to heart. They mounted their own revolution in 1789 against a corrupt monarchy. A long, bloody fight followed on the path to French democracy, and ever after, they have claimed the right to protest as something akin to a birthright.

Currently, French high school students are angry about inadequate funding and aging infrastructure in their schools. I try to imagine American high school students rallying together like this. It’s hard to picture.

Let’s pause and consider several points about the French students’ anger: First, high school students are demanding more teachers, better wages for teachers, and better classrooms and school buildings. Second, students are demanding a better education. Third, high school students belong to a union. As in a union. For students.

As explained by journalist Tristan Redmond of the BBC, unions are deeply engrained in French life, and students join unions to prepare them for adulthood. A union gives students built-in solidarity and power. If a young person wants to gain leadership skills or go into politics, being involved in a union is a great start.

It may also help explain why this protest, too, is catching fire with labor unions who are joining the marches. Workers are standing in support of young people, an occurrence that would be rare in America.

Police are trying to quash the rebellion, but their tactics caused a 15-year-old to lose their hand in an explosion, so they have promised to ease up.

The protest puts the French government in a difficult position because it says there isn’t enough money to address the situation. The French economy is hurting. In 2023, President Emmanuel Macron signed a law that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. That decision occasioned another widespread protest, but the measure was taken to stave off a tanking economy. Yet here they are again.

In America, our president is telling lies about the French student protest, saying it is about open borders and the takeover of Islam in France.

In any other time and place, the American president would make some remarks about the importance of education in maintaining a democracy and while we support their concerns, we cannot support violence. Or words to that effect. But that is not now, nor will ever be, the way this president rolls.

The BBC’s Redmond says that American coverage, which paints the French protest as problems of mass migration, is categorically false. Even far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen is not saying that the protests are related to immigration.

Redmond also discussed another important student protest in France in the late 1960s. Known as “May 68,” university students complained about many of the same problems. They also despised then-president Charles de Gaulle, whom they felt was hopelessly out of touch.

In 1968, French police tried to stop the protest, but it only created more support, resulting in a general strike involving 10 million workers. Ultimately, the French government agreed to beef up spending on education and social policies.

Workers’ wages, working conditions and social protections increased, too. In addition, there were broader societal changes. May 68 opened the door for women and the LGBTQ community and environmental activism, and Charles de Gaulle stepped down the following year.

I have been asked if protests ever work. I have been asked if protests are just for protesters to feel good about themselves. I will admit that I sometimes wonder about the same things, but I protest anyway. Standing together, even symbolically, feels good.

American protests don’t look like what’s happening in France, and while a lot of us deeply long for real and lasting change, we know that France’s methods cannot be ours.

And a final word: We do well to remember that Jan. 6 was not a protest, but an active attempt to overthrow the transfer of power. Don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise.

Joan Zwagerman writes from Storm Lake.