Though unlike the French lyceens, these students actually have a good reason to protest. It's not as if they're protesting pension reform for people who are 40 years their seniors.
Solidarity, friend. Frankly, it warms my heart to see different strata of society (in this case the young and old) realizing that at the end of the day they are in this boat together.
Solidarity is a nice principle, but for 90% of French students protesting that week it was the perfect excuse to get out of school a few days before the November break.
The vast majority of students really don't give a rat's ass about solidarity or issues such as pensions which don't concern them
Would 'kinda' agree on that.
The feeling of solidarity would actually exist in France amongst youngs, and spontaneously they would 'feel' concerned by the pension reforms. And youngs also have this kind of 'national psychology of protest' that I tried to describe in an other thread. And while individualism can be huge by these youngs, the feeling of mobilization for causes of solidarity really exists.
But, on the other hand, as someone who spent 3 years in a very classical provincial French lycée (high-school), the lycéens' strikes are something which easily are 'yeah! no school!' (a break soon or not). So there use to be a bunch of leaders, who kinda feel invested of a political mission, who, each year, find something to protest about, they claim for strike, and indeed, most of people find it a wonderful idea, and then each year, you can easily have a strike about such or such, that's at least how I lived it. I indeed enjoyed strikes, and was part of those who used that not to complain about anything, or doing some mess somewhere, but to go to movies, or hanging out with friends, or at home on computer, a strike could easily last one week.
So, it isn't only a way to make a long break, there's something beyond it, but,
that counts.
