Sacha Ismail and Vicki Morris – The JCR was an autonomous organisation of the LCR – will there be an autonomous youth section in the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA)?
Suzanne Dufour – No, there was no agreement on that, but there will be youth sections and youth committees, locally and nationally. Having independent sections for young people is the best way to involve them.
What are the most important issues facing young people in France?
Lack of jobs, the pay and conditions of those who are in work. And the question of universities: a movement is starting over this because the government is trying to privatise. They want universities to be like enterprises. This movement is going to be very important. Also war. The youth commission has proposed an amendment to the political orientation document stressing the importance of this issue for young people. Young people are especially able to mobilise on this question and they are more directly touched by the question. Some people oppose youth organising independently on this question, but probably only because we haven’t had time to discuss it properly.
After the victories against the Contrat Première Embauche [CPE – an attack on young workers’ job security] and against university reforms, how are you expecting young people’s struggles to unfold in the coming period?
It’s hard to predict. It’s easier for young people to mobilise: they are not demoralised by past defeats. The universities and high schools are going to be important: they are changing at the moment, in a way that will make it harder to mobilise in the future. Discipline is part of the new reform. In future, universities will not get money according to how many people registered at the start of the year, but according to how many people sit the exams. This puts pressure on the universities to put pressure on students. We could end up with a situation more like in the UK or the US.
Are a lot of young people joining the NPA?
Yes, we have two to three times the number of young people that were in the JCR. Whereas previously we might have a committee in a university that also organised other people in the area, eg, high school students, now the high schools themselves might have their own committee.
Are you recruiting young workers?
We are. We would like to organise them in the youth section, but our problem is it’s difficult to organise them together with students. Some people in the party are not convinced that it’s useful: they think young workers are first and foremost workers.
Is that a question of culture?
Do you mean, is the youth section too ‘student-y’? No, that’s not the problem. Many students are now workers as well. I mean, we have just been too busy to give this question the attention that we would like to.
Do you find the congress a little bit middle-aged?
The people here are on average younger than in the LCR; I don’t find it ‘too old’.
How are you finding the congress?
Well, there are many people here that we don’t know. It is impossible to debate properly because there are no platforms, and no discussion of the central questions, just lots of little amendments, so it is easy to lose sight of the big questions. The question is, will the delegates go back and say that it was undemocratic? I don’t think they will.
The congress is very heterogeneous. How can you get it so that people have a common culture? People come from different places and we need to develop a common discussion. Next month will be very important: the struggles, and the report-backs from the congress.