Alain Touraine: “Protests in France are about fear of the future”

In an interview with Die Zeit, French social movements expert Alain Touraine delivers a scathing criticism of the student protests in France, which he sees as being led by a desire to “defend acquired rights” and by “fear of the future”.

“In France, all strikes are now being called ‘social movement’ but their only success has been to lame public transport,” Touraine comments cynically. These protests are “not a fight for future opportunities” but for “acquired privileges”, according to the French sociologist. Whereas the events of May ’68 were built on optimism and forward-looking belief to make society better, the current protests are dominated by “fear and mistrust”. “In those days, people struggled for a new social dynamic, whereas now dynamic and flexibility are seen as factors of insecurity,” says Touraine.

He also makes the link with the suburban protests of French immigrants last year. Both movements have been inspired by a feeling of discrimination and exclusion but the difference is that the immigrants are excluded and the students fear that they will become excluded in the future. France needs a new vision of the world and new concepts of common welfare (‘Gemeinwohl”), according to Touraine.

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