7 - Une nouvelle génération politique : les étudiants et le mouvement anti-CPE en France

Abstract

Student movements have for a long time played an important role on the political scene in France. In recent years, the higher education system has undergone pro- found changes provoked by neo-liberal reforms of successive governments. These reforms have impacted on students at different levels: on the one hand, they faced harsher conditions of studying, while at the same time being highly politicised in the waves of struggles caused by neo-liberal restructuring over the last decade. The anti-CPE (contrat première embauche) movement that took place in early 2006 constitutes in this regard a landmark in that general dynamic. The univer- sity students succeeded in defeating a government which had managed to defeat almost all of the social protests over the previous five years. The main argument in this article will deal with the anti-CPE movement as illustrating the emergence of a new political generation in France. The paper will examine the genesis and development of the movement, as well as its underlying sociological and political roots, in the context of a national and global dynamic of counter-reforms and resistances. The latter is also one of the elements that link the anti-CPE students in France with the experiences of their African counterparts.