It’s saddening that protests, rallies and activism in general are overlooked by mainstream America today. Many Sacramento State students work in addition to attending school, and may lack the time and energy necessary to participate in a political or environmental cause that they may support. The lack of time also makes it more difficult for young people to be informed about worldly events that exist outside of our giant isolated country. As American students, we should be taking notes on how students in other countries are not only aware of events going on that affect them, but also how they unify themselves and have used protests to create change.

I know many Americans have mixed feelings about the French, but love them or hate them, their effective use and acceptance of protesting is fascinating and shouldn’t be ignored, especially by academics such as ourselves.

I witnessed first hand a highly effective nation-wide peaceful protest that was staged primarily by students and other young people. I attended one of the bigger rallies that was held at Place D’italie in Paris, and it was like nothing I had ever seen before, huge banners, chanting, and hundreds of thousands of people so determined and passionate about their views that you could see the fire in there eyes.

In the Spring of 2006, the French government passed a law called the CPE which means The First Employment Contract in English. The government claimed the law would help combat unemployment and create a more “fluid” economy. One article of this law allowed employers to fire workers under the age of 26 without any reason at all, within the first two years of employment, according to the BBC news article French Job Law Constitutional.

These student protests took place all over the country and eventually led to the changing of a national law. The public’s voice was heard, and the people got what they were asking for. The protests were successful for several reasons, because of the magnitude of supporters, the group’s cohesion and relentlessness, the fact that people took direct action to voice their opinions by taking to the streets, and because of the blatant discrimination displayed in the CPE law. Often French protests lead to changes, for good and bad. What is great about these particular protests is that student’s voices weren’t drowned out, and students were active participators in their vested future. So what about the US? Our society has changed; the protest isn’t what it used to be in America. Often the word “protest” has a stigma attached to it, protesting isn’t exactly socially acceptable. Contrastingly, most French students are paid to attend college, and often have the option of working; as we know many American college students struggle to make ends meet, many work outside jobs to fund their education.

The striking difference between the two student cultures is that French students have shown a level of commitment to their role as students and cohesion that we lack as American students. As American students we should be concerned with our future and be active participators.

Many young people in the US don’t follow current events, and may be unaware of laws passed that affect them. The size of our country in comparison to France also plays a role; we have more layers of government than they do. According to the book “Sixty million Frenchman can’t be wrong,” in federations like the US or Canada, protests have less impact because power is diffused between one federal government and fifty states, 10 provinces, and there are hundreds of jurisdictions that fraction dissent. Where in France, people protest in Paris and they know they will be seen clearly by the government.

It may be more difficult to make national changes protesting in the U.S., yet working towards local changes, could be a more reachable goal.. The efforts and mass participation is part of what I find intriguing about the French protests. I wish that we could see more of that cohesion and dedication with American students. An example of a group that is exemplifying what we have been lacking in college communities lately is. The students and families of tuition relief, who are fighting to keep tuition rates low. They are a prime example of a group who is working in the interests of students; it would be great to see more of these types of organizations.

We are clearly too caught up in our busy lives to recognize that we could be working towards student empowerment and unification. This is a commendable thing that French students and citizens have taken upon themselves to do. They fought back against an unfair law and their efforts created national change. Somehow I don’t see hundreds of thousands of American students taking to the streets to fight for something like this. It seems that other parts of the world may be more ahead of us than we would like to think.

Kate Jones can be reached at [email protected]