In Paris 1, every lunchtime, it's the same thing: students queue in cramped cafeterias to buy expensive and tasteless meals, before waiting in front of broken and too few microwaves and eating while seated. on the floor or in class. During the Poing Levé legal and union hotlines, numerous testimonies confirmed that the majority of students are fed up with this daily life. “ Cher », « shabby », « not enough space and we wait in the cold “, several students testified, complaining about a daily life where eating lunch is unaffordable and uncomfortable. The students' stories reveal a trivialized situation, the consequence of political choices by presidencies serving elitism and by the government which seeks to put young people to work as early as possible and therefore has no interest in helping them. more precarious to eat properly.
Faced with the trivialization of the deterioration of student life, Le Poing Levé carried out several actions to reveal the deterioration of the situation: legal and union hotlines at the start of the school year which allowed students to find solutions to their problems registration and paperwork, a day of solidarity mobilization on the Tolbiac campus on October 16 and the launch of a petition demanding concrete solutions.
The petition launched by the Raised Fist, demanding €1 meals for all as well as living spaces and university restaurants in all centers, has already gathered the support of more than 2,000 students. A student from Paris 1 comments: “ We're fed up with old sandwiches that aren't complete, no real canteen, nothing left after 12:30-1 p.m., it's shameful “. Indeed, to eat, the approximately 45,000 students of Paris 1 most of the time only have access to a small “Crous & Go” cafeteria on their campus, selling meals to reheat, sandwiches filled or chocolate bars like self-service dispensers. Every lunchtime it's first come, first served: the stalls empty in less than an hour, forcing latecomers to pay more outside. There are tens of thousands of Paris 1 students who do not have access to a meal at their place of study – and very few have access to hot meals – which impacts their conditions for studying.
In a sidewalk microphone filmed by Le Poing Levé, a student denounces that “ even if you are on a stock exchange you have to pay more than one euro but non-stock exchange holders are not rich either “. A testimony which corresponds to what the national survey on student precarity by Poing Levé revealed: while 82% of students live below the poverty line, precariousness is a significant obstacle to the possibility of studying. And yet, the CROUS, supposed to offer catering at reduced prices, is skyrocketing its prices: €1.30 for a can, €3.40 for a raw vegetable sandwich, privatization of coffee machines, etc. Even though more than 20% of students go through food banks to have enough to eat, these indecent prices for tasteless meals constitute a revolting situation.
During the solidarity day organized by Le Poing Levé, students discussed the university's very meager food offerings and shared a rare moment of conviviality on the campuses of Paris 1. One student even confided that without the free-price food stand run by the collective, she wouldn't have eaten anything all day as the products are so overpriced at the university's CROUS.
The failure of the CROUS structures also affects workers, subjected to hellish pace and unbearable working conditions. In the various cafeterias of Panthéon-Sorbonne, Le Poing Levé went to chat with the CROUS workers. The staff is forced to serve on the line and endure hellish speeds. In reality, this is what the “CROUS formula” consists of: reduction in staff numbers, increase in turnover and reduction in portions. The fights against student precariousness and against poor working conditions are therefore closely linked.
The various testimonies show that food insecurity, academic pressure and difficulty meeting basic needs are extremely common problems among young people, to which the CROUS is far from providing a response. Finally, student precariousness fully participates in the well-oiled machine of social selection by degrading the living conditions of a growing portion of student youth. On the occasion of the student elections which are being held in Paris 1 from November 19 to 21, Le Poing Levé defends its program against student precariousness, as part of the fight for a free university free from oppression, and which does not operate on the backs of exploited workers.
