The World Youth Committee of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) expresses its unwavering solidarity with high school students in France who are fighting for a better education system, with more teachers and greater resources for public schools, for the right to education, access to university for all, and a better future free from repression, unemployment and war. Instead of responding to their just and legitimate demands, the authorities have deployed thousands of riot police against these young people to forcibly prevent them from making their voices heard.
The WFTU World Youth Committee unequivocally condemns the acts of brutality committed by the French police in recent days against young people taking part in the mobilisations: assaults, shots fired with Flash-Ball-type weapons, beatings and nearly 3,000 arbitrary arrests of young people across the country!
This is the sham “democracy” across the EU, which cracks the whip against those who stand up and demand their rights.
We demand an end to the brutal repression they face, the immediate release of those arrested, and solutions to the extremely serious problems that have left schools unsafe, neglected and without the resources necessary to provide meaningful, high-quality education.
The EU’s policies of austerity and war are causing a deep crisis, driving up the cost of living and the prices of fuel, energy and basic necessities, while undermining and privatising public services in European countries. This is the real cause of the anger spreading among young people and the working class across Europe.
The French government, like governments across the EU, spends billions on armaments, sacrificing wages, healthcare and education.
School students, university students, teachers and parents must fight together for education and a life with rights! For schools that educate rather than wear students down, with decent working and learning conditions.
Against the policies of poverty, profit and war, and the imperialist plans of the European Union and its governments!
The WFTU Youth Committee stands alongside all those who struggle and demonstrate in every country to defend the rights of the oppressed and exploited.
WFTU WYC.
