Politics in 'materialist terms': Gen Z in Albania, Italy, France and India protesting for 'fairness'

Gokce Tuncel joins us live now. She holds a doctorate in sociology from EHESS and is a postdoctoral researcher at Université Paris-Créteil. Thank you so much for joining us, Professor Tuncel. We've just seen these protests in Albania. We saw in India the youth-led protests. We're also seeing in France, of course, coming up tomorrow, a massive protest is scheduled, and even in Italy, all led by the youth. As someone who is a sociologist of collective action, what are people, even like us here in media, What are we most missing about these student protests? I mean, I guess what is the common point of this protest in Albania, in Italy, in France, even in, and also in India, not even, is that they want, I mean, this generation wants fairness. In India, fair exams and fair elections. In Albania, a say over who owns the coastline, end of corruption and decent education. And in France, equal access to school and university. What is really striking about this Gen Z movement is that how clearly they see their material conditions, right? Like housing, diplomas, school buildings. They already think about politics in materialist terms, which is a powerful sign of politicization, although most of them are first-time activists. So there is no, at the beginning, no party, no union. This is their first mobilization. and they are really angry about the the promise that is broken but not for everyone and they see that so their parents could buy a flat on on one salary today in France for example it takes about 50 years of income in the best case to own a flat unless you inherit so bourgeois families already own several flats and pass them on staying with education elite lycées in France give their students the best valued files so they do not they fast track they bypass the selection process and the youth sees that understands that and and wants equality and wants um i mean wants the restoration of social contract with basic social needs and service public service that's amazing to think about that because you uh touching on a point whereby these students can see what they don't have what they're missing it's right there right in front of them this material aspect and yet these protests which have just proliferated they've exploded into life they've all started pretty much in the humble beginnings of a classroom just talk to me on that point how is it able to then just you know go from something so small to something so big in such a short space of time so i guess um we can also mention um the the because there's an accumulation of uh of anger of course and distrust uh to institutions so first of all this is covid generation uh they saw for example the state find billions overnight uh for them there is no money for schools doesn't convince them anymore um they know that they will earn less uh they know that there is no uh jobs uh waiting for them because the diplomas are not sufficient uh um in this time and they know also that they will live in a much hotter world than their parents so for example in france the heat wave was extremely hard on students most of the classrooms in suburbs especially were in 36 38 degrees they passed very important exams in these conditions So what I wanted to say is that the anger is there and the distrust on institutions and the frustration also about this social contract, which is very important in France, is the right to the free and decent education is a constitutional right. So they use especially, I mean, again, these are the first time activists mostly, by using, for example, social media, by disseminating their modes of actions, the discussions, so they are able to be organized very quickly, and also diffusing the modes of actions also very quickly. Imagine, for example, the movements of 2010 and 2013 also, there was Twitter at the time. So multiply Twitter by five with Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Snapchat and all of that. So it becomes a powerful tool for organizing, not for the political project of these young people. A very quick last question, if you don't mind. Is it dangerous, though, to paint all of these protests with the same brush? I guess we can. I mean, it is not dangerous, I would say. These protests in different cities are different protests with different dynamics. For example, in regard to police repression, it is not the same thing in Albania and in France. But we can paint this with the same brush, meaning that, for example, in France, the students who are in the central high schools of Paris are calling for action for the students in the suburbs of Paris. Meaning that there is a solidarity between this elite of the society and the ones that are feeling excluded, which we are seeing in Albania also. They want structural changes. They do not want short-term solutions. In that sense, I can say that we can paint them with the same brush, I guess. Absolutely. India very much in a unique situation there with the voter roll. and Italy following on from France's example as well. Thank you so much, Gokce Tuncha, for joining us here on the World Roundup Show. And that is where we have to wrap it. There's more news coming up in just a few minutes. Please stay tuned.