In an opinion article published in Le Monde, historian Frédérick Genevée writes that the blockade of lycées is a relatively recent practice in the history of student protest and has accompanied, and even defined, lycée movements for around 20 years. His intervention comes as the lycée movement that began in September has made massive use of blockades as a means of action.
Genevée notes that statistics from the Ministry of National Education are difficult to interpret because they sometimes conflate fully or partially blocked establishments, schools closed because of blockades or by administrative decision, and disrupted schools. Nevertheless, he writes, lycée organisations and the government agree that hundreds of lycées are affected by this form of action.
The historian traces the vocabulary to the lycée movement of winter 2004-2005 against the Fillon law reforming the baccalauréat. Searches of daily press archives show that the words “blocus” and “blocage” appeared then, replacing “piquet de grève,” and that a new mode of action became established even though it had not been envisaged before. The 1946 Grenoble charter, a founding text of the Union nationale des étudiants de France (UNEF) and of student unionism, listed petitions and open letters, mass demonstrations, spectacular and protest monômes, abstention strikes, occupation strikes and destructive monômes, but not pickets or blockades.
Historical studies and testimonies confirm that the picket de grève was used, notably from the 1970s, allowing a strike by preventing entry to a place of education and bringing new participants into mobilisation. Genevée’s hypothesis is that use of the term “blocus” marks a strategic turning point that acknowledges a new political, organisational and school context, and asserts an autonomous mode of action distinct from the strike and the demonstration.
Sources: Le Monde Politique.