National union of the students of France

The National union of the students of France ( UNEF ), refondée in 2001, is a Syndicat studied which takes again the denomination of sound predecessor. Its goal is to make it possible to the students to express their opinion on the management of the university infrastructures, that it are the Recherche, the university restoration, the student residences, or the problems of Discrimination.

It is present on the majority of the Université S of France. After a scission during the Années 1960, during which several organizations bear name UNEF, the UNEF is refondée in 2001 by joining together two of the organizations asserting this name. Except the two decades following the scission, name UNEF is since nearly one century almost impossible to circumvent for the coeds questions. She is recognized like representative.

Its current president is Bruno Julliard, student with Lyon and member of the Tendance national majority. On Friday, November 30, 2007, he announced at the Agency France presses that he would leave his functions within the trade union studied on December 8th, 2007, for " reasons personnelles" , he affirms.

History

Organization

Structure

Associations general of the students (OLD)

A General association of students (OLD) is a local section of the UNEF. In Paris region there is OLD by university (OLD of Paris 1, OLD of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, etc) whereas in the remainder of France there is OLD by university town (OLD of Lyon, OLD of Caen, etc), except for some exceptions (OLD of Aix-Marseilles, OLD of Lorient-Valves).

OLD can gather various Committees of union action (CASE), in general one by university site.

The OLD one are directed each one by an office made up of a president, a general secretary and a treasurer elected every two years by the local Congress, during which the members of OLD choose the orientation of the UNEF as a voter on the various proposed texts by the tendencies.

The UNEF is made up of 58 OLD, often representative of a city (except on Paris). Each OLD belongs to a tendency, which is determined by a vote on motions at the time of the local congresses of OLD.

Inner working

The Congress

The sovereign body of the UNEF is the National congress which meets every two years (the last one took place with Lille in March 2007). The delegates who compose the Congress are elected by the local congresses, which takes place in each OLD before the National congress, with proportional of the scores carried out by the texts of orientation proposed by the tendencies.

The National congress elects in its turn an administrative Commission with proportional of the various tendencies. It is this administrative Commission which elects the National office.

The National collective

Between two National congresses, it is the National collective (compound of the administrative Commission and the presidents of OLD) which acts as " parlement" trade union by applying the orientation adopted in Congress.

The National office

The National office is the executive body of the UNEF. It applies the decisions of the Congress and the National collective and ensures the bond between the OLD one.

The National office is composed of about thirty members resulting from the various tendencies. It is in its center that the president, the vice-president, the general secretary and the national treasurer sit.

Audit Board

The Audit Board is elected by the Congress. It takes care of the good application of the statutes and the rules of procedure of the UNEF.

Tendencies

The UNEF recognizes the possibility for its members of gathering in “tendency”. The goal of a tendency, is to propose a trade-union orientation which it will be able to defend inside the UNEF. To have an official existence, a tendency must be constant by at least three presidents of OLD in two different academies. At the time of the congresses, each tendency presents a text of orientation about which the members of the UNEF must come to a conclusion. The result of this vote determines the orientation of the trade union that each one will have to respect into external whatever its opinions and allows the distribution proportional stations in the national authorities and local.

Tendency national majority. It accounts for 80,06% of the UNEF. It contains three groups: majority of the majority, the sensitivity DEMONSTRATIONS which are its allied since 1994, and the sensitivity Syndicalisme for the Equality which joined it in 2005.
Tendance for a unit and democratic UNEF (TUUD). It is resulting from the gathering of the militants of the Tendance all together and part of the militants of the National Majority. It accounts for 13,05% of the UNEF. It contains the Sensitivity for an UNEF Independent and Trade-union (AM).
Tendency trade-union recasting (TRS). It accounts for 6,89% of the UNEF.

Persons in charge

Presidents of the UNEF

See also: List of the presidents of the UNEF

Its current president is Bruno Julliard, student with Lyon and member of the Tendance national majority. He should be replaced with the head of the trade union by Jean-Baptiste Prévost the December 8th 2007.

The old ones of the UNEF

External operation

Bonds between the UNEF and the political parties

During its history, the UNEF knew many evolutions in its reports/ratios with the political parties. Between 1946 (Charter of Grenoble) and the Fifties, association is transformed into a true student trade union. Consequently, various parties go, according to the periods, being tempted to weigh on this organization coed because of her importance.

After 1968, the UNEF, very weakened, is clearly divided into three tendencies, each one directed by a political group. The National office is formed members of PSU. The two minorities Revival and Trade-union unit are directed one by Communists, the other by trotskists lambertists. In 1971, direction PSU gives up the student trade unionism and is withdrawn, leaving face to face the two oppositional tendencies. Each one convenes a congress then: there are from now on two UNEF, each one being claimed the true one. One takes the practice to distinguish them by the names from the old tendencies: the UNEF Revival (or UNEF-Re) and the UNEF Trade-union unit (or UNEF-US)

The UNEF known as Revival then SE ( Solidarity coed ), constantly had leaders members of the Communist party whereas the UNEF-ID ( Indépendante and democratic ), resulting from the union of the UNEF-US and various organizations coeds is initially directed by students lambertists who follow Jean-Christophe Cambadélis to the Socialist party in 1986. The crisis of 1993 (part of the leaders up to that point cambadelists of the majority reproaching the president, P. Campinchi, to have put the UNEF-ID at the service of the Jospin ministry) led to a division of the direction then to the election with the congress of 1994 of a direction close to the Left Socialist of Julien Dray.

According to the current management of the UNEF, in 2001, the reunification between the UNEF-ID and a small portion of UNEF known as SE widened the audience of the trade union, enabling him to distend its bonds with the political parties. The explosion of the Socialist Left in 2002 devoted the final rupture between the direction of the UNEF and Julien Dray. The direction of the UNEF then follows Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the current Nouveau World, with Henri Emmanuelli, then Henri Emmanuelli with the NPS, which leads to the union of the old majority with the tendency directed by militants of " Gauche" news; , heiress of the tendency known as rocardienne of the UNEF-ID.

The current president of the UNEF, Bruno Julliard, was responsible for the movement of the young Socialists in Haute-Loire until in 2003. Several members of the National office signed the text NPS presented to the Congrès of Mans by Vincent Peillon, Arnaud Montebourg, Benoit Hamon and Henri Emmanuelli. In an interview published on the site of the CME (Conservatory of the memories coeds), Pascal Cherki, old of the UNEF-ID and S.O.S-Racism, current assistant of the mayor of Paris and directing NPS, asserts his role in the rupture of the UNEF with Julien Dray and the installation of a new direction.

In addition, of the members of the revolutionary Communist youths (youth organization of the LCR) also militates with the UNEF, where, as within the UNEF-ID, they are found for the majority in a minority tendency (currently the TUUD). Since 2001, militants of the French Communist party also find themselves within the UNEF, in very small number, and without being organized in tendency or sensitivity, thus, but more rarely, than of the Verts, which more easily move towards FAC green.

The question of the influence of the political affiliation of its members about the trade union remains posed. The adversaries of the UNEF always denounced its subjection to political organizations. Between 1971 and 2001, each of the two UNEF denounced the other as with the service of a political group.

All in all, the militants of the UNEF do not claim apolitical attitude, which seems to them to be the open door with corporatism, but of political independence. This choice enables them to affirm that the decisions of the UNEF are caught in its center, and not under the influence of an political organization. They can thus widen their horizon of reflection, open with the whole of the company and consequently not to be locked up within the framework of the university world. The UNEF wants to be thus independent of the political parties in order to be able to preserve its aptitude required answers to all the problems coeds and social, without a political positioning not coming to limit the debate and its means of action.

Structures associated with the UNEF

During its history, different the UNEF took part in the creation of many structures of the life coed, among which in particular FSEF, MNEF, LMDE, ESIB, FERUF, UCEF,…

Moreover, the UNEF current is also member of the following structures:

EPSE (Expertise and prevention for the health of the students), this association was created in 2003 on the initiative of LMDE, and with the assistance of the UNEF, in order to carry out surveys for better knowing the sanitary situation and social students;
the CIDJ, Documentation Youth and Information center;
the OVE, National observatory of the life coed;
OTU (university Tourist bureau), created in 1929;
the FFSU, French federation of the university sport;
the FUAJ, Plain Federation of the inns of youth;
the National council of Youth (CNJ);
the Armed Commission Youth (CAJ);
ISIC, (International Student Identity card).

Representativeness

The UNEF has a role of representation of the students in the local instances and main roads.

Representativeness with CNESER

The UNEF is in 2006 the first organization coed with CNESER with 5 elected officials out of 11, in front of FAGE, PDE, the PLAIN the Cé and the other organizations without national elected official (FSE, CUS Studied, EMF…).

Representativeness with CNOUS

With the CNOUS, it is the second organization coed with CNOUS behind FAGE, with 2 elected officials out of 8, following the call to the boycott of the elections with the CROUS.

In 2006, one notes a strong regression of the UNEF in the Boards of directors of the CROUS and the CNOUS. Indeed, because of the consecutive blocking of the universities to the mobilization against the CPE in which it took part, the UNEF announced the boycott of these elections (all while maintaining its lists of candidates, their withdrawal not being more possible). It is noted in addition that tens of incidents were indexed in this day of elections with more than 60 universities out of 84 disturbed even occupied by students strikers. The results of the CNOUS were confirmed by the rejection of a recourse of the UNEF asking for the invalidation of this election. On the other hand, the elections of the CROUS of the academies of Versailles, Poitiers, Paris, Dijon, Nancy, Toulouse, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Montpellier were cancelled (paradoxically, that did not call into question the composition of the CNOUS). The UNEF thus obtains 2 elected officials out of 8 with the CNOUS, behind FAGE (4 elected officials) and in front of PDE and the PLAIN (1 elected official each one). In December 2006, the result of the 4 academies (of which that of Paris) whose poll is remade is favorable to the UNEF, which arrives at the head in each one of them.

Local representativeness

In the local instances (central Conseils of University, Conseils of UFR, and Boards of directors of CROUS), the UNEF has also a great number of elected officials, which allows him - between others to obtain many buildings in the Universities. It is the organization best represented in these councils, as the results testify some to the last elections with the CNESER of 2006 (see higher).

The UNEF would have, according to the newspaper Bretzel , a strong national notoriety based mainly on the discipline of these militants who are distributed the university sites the day of the elections and diffuse thousands of leaflets massively, whatever the reality of the local establishment of the UNEF , method which was taken again by the Confederation coed with the support of CFDT.

Positioning

Student social plan

UNEF asks installation of new Social plan student, which would succeed that which was closed in 1997, i.e. series of measure social intended for the students, to cure the difficult situation with which much of them is confronted (problem of housing, obligation to pay itself to finance its studies,…).

This social plan would include/understand the acceleration of the construction and the restoration of the cities U, the access of the foreign students to the French system social securities, the immediate increase in the number and amount of the purses, while waiting for a recasting of the current system and the installation of the allowance of autonomy.

Allowance of autonomy

Major claim of the UNEF since the end of the Second world war, the Allocation of autonomy, such as it is conceived today by the majority of the UNEF, should be universal (granted to any person n the other hand of a project of formation, possibly with an age limit on the condition of envisaging the cases of resumption of studies) and individualized (it would take account only of the clean situation of the student, and either that of her parents as for the current system): his incomes, if he still lives in his parents, etc Each student would then be held to make an individual statement of his incomes.

Democratization of higher education

This claim leaves the report that today higher education was massifié more (there is more than 2,2 million students) that really democratized: the failure remains very strong in first cycle. Preparatory classes with the Universities (" CPGE ") can be regarded as loop lines of the first cycles of the University, just as of the short lines considered selective like IUT, where the framing is more important than in First cycle university " classique" and rates of success much higher. The students resulting from a modest milieu have much less chance than the others to obtain a diploma of higher education, but it should however be noted that the influence of the medium of origin is exerted well before the entry in higher education.

The UNEF advances several proposals to allow this democratization of higher education: end of division between Universities and Universities, multiplication of the courses in small groups and the TD vis-a-vis the lectures, a greater interdisciplinarity of the allowing course of the changes of die to limit the errors of orientation,…

The UNEF took part in the negotiations on the law Pécresse and, after obtained (with the other organizations coeds) the absence of the selection at the entry in master 1 and the national control of the registration fee, association judged the text balanced . However, the UNEF judged with returned that Valerie Pécresse had not held her budgetary promises, denounces " a budget misleads the oeil" in it; who would push the universities to be turned to the private one, and invited to take share with the movement against the law. According to certain journalists, she does not wish to let herself overflow by more radical organizations.

Method of the control of knowledge

The UNEF preaches the adoption of a charter of the examinations guaranteeing a certain number of rights to the students. It would in particular make it possible to guarantee the anonymity of the copies and the session of correction, to remove any eliminatory note, or to authorize the student to make call of the decision of the jurys of examination.

Real equality of the rights

The concept of equal rights is distinguished from that of equal opportunity. The equal opportunity supposes that each one is likely same to succeed at the beginning whereas the equal rights must make it possible to give to all the possibility of doing it, and thus to correct the inequalities permanently. The UNEF is opposed in particular to the progressive registration fee which modulates the registration fee according to the income of the students (a lawsuit against Science-Po, the Institute of Political Studies, was brought on this point) because they break this equality between the students.

Helps with the students

The UNEF in general develops guides for the students, or for categories of students like the employees or the foreigners whose problems can be particular:

the guide of the student rights
the guide of the foreign students
the guide of the paid students

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