“We are going to do everything to get back to work quickly, but before that, we will have to close the gaps and shed light on this whole affair.” This Monday, April 25 in the morning, Christophe Prochasson, at the head of the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), is in the middle of a crisis meeting. The day before, the twenty or so students who still occupied the premises of the Condorcet campus, in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), finally left the premises. “Finally, I do not know if we can qualify all these individuals as students, specifies the president of the EHESS. I would rather speak of a movement of vandals which aims to destroy intelligence, research and training with a kind of dumbfounding nihilism.”
Smashed doors, forced lockers, stolen or damaged computer equipment, broken windows, scattered books and files… In an internal document, management mentions a considerable human and financial cost, which would amount to several hundred thousand euros. To these destructions are added anti-Semitic inscriptions and death threats aimed at Christophe Prochasson himself. “My researcher’s office was completely devastated and two graffiti displaying the word ‘youtre’ were found. Which brings us back to the dark times of our country”, confirms the president of the EHESS.
The changeover took place during a general assembly (GA) bringing together around fifty students on April 20, at the call of an inter-union. “Everything was going well until people from outside brutally invaded the GA and voted for the occupation,” says Caroline Callard, director of studies at the EHESS. “Some young people, hooded and masked, urged the staff to leave the building. There was a moment of hesitation when, in a panic, the gates were closed. Finally, these were reopened and those who wished were able to leave.”
The occupation begins. It will last three days with, at the height of the movement, the presence of a hundred protesters. “Difficult, once again, to draw up their profiles”, explains Christophe Prochasson. “But according to the testimonies of several colleagues, I would say that there was a large third of students from other universities; a third of “black blocks” or thugs; and a small third of students from our “, he continues. The destruction will gradually spread from the ground floor to the seventh floor of this brand new and ultra-modern building which opened its doors in 2019. But, due to the health crisis, it had only been really invested for about a year.
“Multidimensional” claims
“The new spaces reserved for doctoral students, equipped with digital equipment and all the necessary comforts, are among the considerable assets of the place. However, they are the ones that have been vandalized”, deplores Caroline Callard. Another anecdote which aroused the indignation of the teaching staff: a wheelchair, installed in the office of a disabled colleague, was stolen and used to erect a barricade. “Despite the requests for exchanges repeatedly proposed by the presidency, no dialogue could be initiated”, writes the EHESS in a press release published on April 25.
On April 21, the day after the first day of occupation, an inter-union press release (bringing together various organizations such as FERC Sup EHESS, Sud Recherche Condorcet, Université Ouverte, FERC Sup Paris 8, the SNTRS-CGT section of Ined, Solidaires Etudiant -es EHESS) condemned the closure of the campus… but not the occupation: “Since Wednesday afternoon, April 20, students have taken over the premises of the EHESS on the Condorcet campus, in order to give themselves space to organize their mobilizations in the face of the rise of the far right and the very precarious situation of higher education. “The decision to close the premises is in no way a means of protecting the working tool”, stipulated the text, calling for “appeasement through the opening [des] local to all”.
Corentin, a student at the EHESS, also disputes this “systematic closure of establishments at the slightest suspicion of mobilization” and evokes the “right of students to meet to express themselves and debate”. Even if he was not for the wild occupation of the premises of the EHESS, fearing excesses, the young man shares a good part of the demands put forward by his comrades. “These are multidimensional. Some are part of the current general student movement, others are specific to the EHESS”, he specifies.
During this intervening round of the presidential election, students had made their voices heard, particularly during the occupation of the University of Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, which was also the scene of damage. Using the slogan “Neither Le Pen, nor Macron”, the latter had denounced the failure to take into account certain issues, in particular social and climatic, by the candidates.
“A building out of step with our political ideals”
“With regard to the Condorcet campus, the Solidaires union and the Syndoc, the EHESS doctoral students’ union, had used the institutional channel to raise certain problematic points. But they have the feeling of not having been heard”, further advances Corentine. One of the main points of contention concerns the presence of numerous video surveillance cameras on the site and the limited access to certain places that are only accessible thanks to a badge system.
Arthur (the first name has been changed), present during the occupation of the premises, denounces a mismatch between the vocation of an institution teaching social sciences and the architecture of the new premises of Aubervilliers in which this antenna has been installed from the EHESS. “The site is made up of several buildings – which house other institutions – equipped with cameras, automatic gates and even barbed wire in places. neighbour”, denounces this second-year master’s student.
“It all looks like a big center of start-uptotally out of step with our political ideals and the courses we receive”, he continues, also castigating the lack of spaces dedicated to exchanges, meetings and debates. “This is the very essence of the EHESS, which seems to have lost its soul”, he concludes.
Counterproductive event
For Christophe Prochasson, only a tiny part of EHESS students took part in last week’s uprising. “Twenty out of 3,000, that doesn’t represent much,” he insists. Lila Nantara, a master’s student at EHESS, is one of those who openly condemn recent events. “We, who represent the future of research, would do better to fight our battles intellectually. Advocating intellectual freedom and the freedom of researchers while ransacking our place of study makes no sense,” she denounces.
On campus, on a daily basis, it is not uncommon to read stickers displaying “bourgeois, you are lazy, you are useless” or “fewer bankers, more ice floes”. During the occupation, other slogans were brandished through tags – “Prisons on fire, guards in the middle” -, or threats – “tick-tock boom” inscribed on a clock. “Alongside this very noisy minority, there is the silent majority who do not necessarily dare to speak”, recalls Lila Nantara.
Caroline Callard also denounces the counter-productive nature of this kind of event. “Those who tagged messages like ‘distanciel kills’ or who criticized the security dimension of the premises will unfortunately obtain the opposite effect, since the building will remain closed for an indefinite period”, she denounces. An investigation was opened and Christophe Prochasson filed a complaint under the institution and on a personal basis. On April 25, however, the president of the EHESS invited the unions to dialogue. “What I expect from them? A clear and clear condemnation of the damage that has been committed on the site. Afterwards, we can discuss everything.”