La grève

This means "the strike", which is what quelques anarchistes ("a few anarchists", as my Ecumenism prof put it) have been keeping up for a while now. These pictures are views from my window; they're marching up one of the main streets, with some music and lots of rhythmic shouting. The protest is about the so-called "capitalization of the university", which amounts essentially to reforms being carried out which would allow (among many other things) businesses to give money to universities for particular programs, and the creation of departments which have a particular career path. All of the changes are things which make sense to Americans and which seem very reasonable and positive; but the attitude here is that higher education is a public service (which means it costs only 100 euro!) and should not be affected by "the market" (which is a dirty word in France, says Alex).

One of the most frustrating things about the grève is that the professors who take part in it simply don't come to class, which means that the majority of the students at the university, who just want an education, aren't able to just learn! This means they may have to graduate later, or retake classes, etc. While I understand the students who choose to jeopardize their own academic standing, it seems incredibly selfish to me when they, for example, block off classrooms with piles of chairs so that no one else can go to class either.