UNDERGRADUATE PAGE Student Politics in Paris
. By JULIAN CIUTCHLEY (Pembroke College, Oxford)
HERE appeared some time ago in a news-reel some short but dramatic pictures of a student riot in Paris. For a brief moment one saw a crowd of duffle-coated students -fighting and threatening, swaying and surging along the Boulevard St. Germain, retreating step by step before a phalanx of black-coated policemen. To anyone who has never seen a Parisian riot it would have appeared an ugly, savage and alien demonstration ; yet it was for Paris a comparatively quiet one. "Las agents" were not wearing steel helmets, a sure sign that the- authorities had not taken a too serious view, and that formidable weapon, the tightly rolled-up mackintosh, was not • to be seen. - • But if such scenes are common in the Quartier Latin, they • are certainly not in Bristol, Manchester or Nottingham. How fortunate are our university authorities ? What are the problems that the directors of the Sorbonne have to face ? Since the war some of the gaiety of the Sorbonne students has gone. They have always taken an interest in politics, but nowadays that interest is stronger, more fanatical. There are few middle-way students left ; only extremists of the Left or Right. Everybody is always " contre quelpe chose." The cardboard effigies for- merly burned at Carnival time in front of the Pantheon have been replaced by equally inflammable material in the shape of De Gaulle's Rassemblemefit and the Communist organ Clarte, and nowhere is the principle of frateraite more clearly sh-ciwn than on the Boulevard St. Michel on a Saturday afternoon, when only the thin line of gendarmes with batons drawn prevents East meeting West.
"Well of course they are grown-up and responsible," the dapper little Secretary General of the Sorbonne told me. "Students used to burn professors in effigy ; now they yell 'peace '.slogans in the university courtyard. In the university itself we try to prevent politics from interfering with the work, but in the street outside there is nothing we can do about it." The only direct control that the Sorbonne authorities have is the right to censor any political notice that is pinned on the notice- boards of the university. "It is certainly aggravating, but they are citizens of France mid have the -right to take part in politics if they so wish." Among the many strange characters that one can see strolling around the Quartier Latin, there is Joseph, the Commissaire de Police of the 5th Arrondissement. The stern but benevolent keeper of the peace is often to be seen walking in a duty mackintosh along the Rue Suffiot, or drinking his aperitif with some students in one of the many cafés. A former student him- self, he is popular with all the students except perhaps the Communists, one of whom told me that Joseph was a crafty devil. His job is a hard one, but he has perfected his tactics for dealing with any disturbances. Saturday is his worst day. By two o'clock in the afternoon the Bold' Mich' is seething with rival newspaper-sellers. Small bands of De Gaullists and Com- munists begin to gather, at first amusing themselves by swapping verbal abuse. At three o'clock M. Joseph appears with perhaps a dozen agents. He divides the De Gaullists from the Communists and reasons with them paternally, perhaps popping into " Dupone' with a handful of thei party-leaders in search of a quieter and more pleasant atmosphere in which to reach an understanding that both sides will give up and go home.
He generally succeeds, but when he doesn't things get very impressive. Whistles shrill ; squadrons of Black Marias appear from side streets ; swarms of policemen bundle the squabbling students into their vans and remove them en masse to the police- station to cool their heels and have their identity-cards checked. At about 5 p.m. representatives from both sides gather in front of the Commissariat and call for Joseph to come down and parley for the release of their followers. Joseph decides to wait • till he considers the atmosphere of the Quartier to• be quieter, and usually round about seven o'clock the demonstrators are sent home. ,Proceedings, approximately eight a year, are taken against those who insult the Commissaire or attempt to blacken the eyes of " mes garcons," as he affectionately calls his men. If none of those students are guilty of such crimes, they are returned, martyrs to the cause, into the arms of those eagerly awaiting them, ready to fight again next Saturday.
There is an official students' union that is known as Corpo. This is supposedly non-political, but Communists hint darkly that it is riddled with reactionaries. Under a new system started by De Gaulle in "1947 representatives from each of the faculties are elected to it annually. The members have the right to be consulted by -the directorate- on such matters as disciplinary action, scholarships and loan applications. It was the Corpo that was responsible for calling a 24- hour protest strike on the last day of term last March. M.
Lapie, the-Minister of Education, had decided to lower the subsidy on student sanatoria from five million to three million francs. This, it is believed, will result in the amount that the student himself has to pay for medical treatment rising from 600 francs (12 shillings) to 6,000 (six pounds). Not an incon- siderable increase. At the time of writing negotiations are still going on with the Ministry. The strike itself was total. Entrances were picketed to stop those students who wanted to work from doing so, and the professors were asked not to hold courses. All but a very few obliged. There were many disturbances in the streets during the afternoon. - One can at least plead that the students have been set a bad example. Professors' strikes at the Sorbonne are by no means unknown.
The largest _student political group is the R.P.F., the De Gaullists. Since 1947 it has absorbed most of the Right-wing opinion. The M.R.P. has disappeared. It -cannot really be compared with the Conservative Party, though many are inclined to say that it would be more like it if it were not for the presence of. General De Gaulle who has more attraction for extremists than for people of the middle view. There is also a Right-wing monarchist organisation that has many members. its policy is best summed up in the title of its official publication, Contre- Revolution. Its members desire the re-establishment of the monarchy, and the re-judgement of Maurras, the pre-war leader of the Partie Action Francaise.
The Socialists are weak, and many of their members have gone over to the Communists ; and it is the Communists them- selves who provide the only effective opposition to the R.P.F. Perhaps 10 per cent. of the students are Counnunists ; more men than women. Like Communists everywhere, they make a noise far out of proportion to their numbers, work hard and are always well in evidence. Their numbers have declined over the last two years by almost a third.
One occasionally finds non-French student political groups.
There is a small and bitterly anti-Communist Ukrainian Nationalist movement, which recently celebrated the thirtieth anni- versary of the battle of Kroute (in which some 200 Kiev students perished in a fight for independence) by bringing out a pamphlet in which they stated that Ukrainian guerrillas were still waging war against the Soviet. There is even a' branch of the ubiquitous Young Conservatives, the first official Young Conservative branch outside the United Kingdom. There are_ some forty members who pay a subscription of 100 francs, which allows them to become bona fide members of their home constituencies when they return at the end of -the scholastic year. Meetings are held monthly with guest speakers, and they have publicly debated with members of the Labour Party.
I hope that,I have not given the impression that the Quartier Latin is one vast political forum, and that studefit-life in Paris has lost any of the gaiety and frivolity for which it is so justly famed. Nothing could be further from the truth. However. one should not think that to live in Paris is to be always gay. and Paris students are well aware of the dangers that menace the world at the present time.
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