Up to 100,000 academics and students marched in all major French cities on Tuesday in a second round of demonstrations against government changes to the foundations of the French university system. In Paris, up to 50,000 turned out behind the slogan “Non à l’Université bling bling”.

A new decree, amending the 1984 law that fixed the statutory conditions of university personnel, has given university presidents (the equivalent of New Zealand’s vice-chancellors) the right to “adjust” those conditions and university managements control over staff recruitment, salaries, and tenure.

University professors, lecturers, researchers, and now students have united across political divides to oppose the new decree. A national co-ordinating group of representatives from 46 universities and seven union federations, together with action groups and scholarly societies, met in Paris last month and voted for a “total and unlimited strike”. The National Union of Higher Education (SNESUP) has estimated that “nearly all of France’s universities have been affected to some degree” and that nearly one academic in two is participating in strike action.

Thousands of academics and their supporters took to the streets in twenty cities last week in opposition to the decree. “We are profoundly angry with what’s going on”,  said Stéphane Tassel of SNESUP. “It’s like coping with a disease. We went through denial and despair, now we’re angry” Rejecting the new powers being given to university presidents, he added, “They can dictate how many hours we teach or do research, and who gets promoted. This goes against the principle of collegiality we have been following.”

The university strikes and demonstrations follow a nation-wide stoppage by public- and some private-sector workers that caused transport chaos, closed banks and schools, and cut public services. France’s major unions called the strike in protest against President Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis.

From Libération, the Guardian, and University World News