Teachers demonstrate in Paris

19 March 2019, Paris. Teachers are on strike for better working conditions and against government policies and cuts. They were tens of thousands to demonstrate in Paris, hundreds of thousands in the whole country, as other sectors, including transport, joined the strike.

In these interviews by Revolution Permanente, many of the strikers, teaching in the suburbs, complained about a permanent lack of ressources. Despite many demonstrations and actions,  their demands are constantly ignored by the authorities:

"This is not just for one single day, we want to strike again, particularly in Seine-Saint-Denis because we see no improvements.
Every week teachers go to the regional education board and ask for more teaching materials, for more hours, and for more tutors, but so far we haven't gotten anything."

Many teachers were already organised in December last year in a movement called "The Red Pens", that  took place parallely to the "Yellow Vests" and was also organised independently of unions. In an online manifest, they ask for wage increases, more ressources and better working conditions.