‘Generational gap’: Just like in the 1960s, student protesters ‘delegitimated by the powers that be’

‘Generational gap’: Just like in the 1960s, student protesters ‘delegitimated by the powers that be’

let’s get the thoughts of Eric fan he’s a professor of Sociology at Pari wheat University uh Eric thanks so much for joining us here uh we’ve seen those reports in the United States obviously the protest they’ve also spilled off into uh Australia they’ve been in France now it’s not just a US Trend but we’ve also seen massive police presences throughout these universities why is it so heightened this time well what’s interesting is that uh we’ve seen recently the president of Colombia University who was um at a hearing uh on April 17th uh Congressional hearing and the president was bullied uh by Republican uh Representatives just like all previous presidents from Harvard and Penn had been bullied until eventually they had to resign now the president of Colombia decided she might as well give in to the pressure and the next day uh she called in the police however that move would seem to be um exactly what the representatives wanted um proved counterproductive that is it has mobilized people it has created a spectacle of repression and this is not just in the US it has reverberated in different countries including France where I live but also in Europe and throughout the world so what it means is that in fact repression uh reverberates also with what happened in the past it says something about uh the movement that mobilized against the war in Vietnam and today uh what we can see is that this takes on historical resonance which I think has been underestimated by politicians they did not understand that young people could feel very strongly about all this well this goes onto a theme that we have seen throughout history as you say we saw student uprisings against the Vietnam War we saw student uprisings against apartate in South Africa the Arab Spring uh the United States invasion of Iraq now we’re seeing student uprisings against the treatment of Palestinians what side of History uh do you expect this will be seen well it’s interesting when uh you look at opinion polls in different countries whether it be in the US in Germany in the UK um in France as well oh there’s a generational Gap so what it means is that the people in power are on one side and that young people are taking risks to defend another side now what is interesting is that just like in the 1960s uh the students are delegitimated uh by the powers that be they’re accused of being anti-semitic but also of being violent uh they’re accused of all kinds of things of creating chaos that was uh Joe Biden’s uh phrase but of course when we hear Joe Biden um not understanding students it’s very easy to understand that there’s a generational Gap and we heard the student uh who was speaking in the interview before I spoke um it was quite clear that the question is also what’s going to happen in November and obviously uh it’s not just Arab Americans as is probably going to be the case in Michigan who will not vote for Joe Biden but it’s also young people so one has to wonder what is the logic behind uh Joe Biden’s position his siding in many ways with Republican Representatives on this issue that is there all on one side and the other taking a position that is against student mobilization instead of saying it’s a legitimate position and we could have a democratic conversation there’s only repression now that I think is very costly for the Democratic party and for the Democratic candidate to be and do you think just a final follow-up do you think that that could really actually impact the results of the election then yes indeed I think in the short term um we may Wonder um if these are not the votes that will not be um there for Joe Biden uh he might lose the election on this issue um that’s one thing but there’s also not just the near future but history and I think if we compare what happens today to what happened uh during uh the Vietnam War then perhaps 20 years from now or 40 years from now this will be remembered with a difficult to understand how could politicians not see what was going on not just in Israel and Gaza but also what was happening in the new generations how come there was such a lack of understanding of this generational Gap it will be a question which we will most likely ask ourselves for Generations as long as Humanity really exists I dare say Eric thank you so much that’s Professor Eric F sociology professor at whe University

While Bernie Sanders has repeatedly stood shoulder to shoulder with President Joe Biden, promoting their joint accomplishments on health care and the environment at formal White House events, Sanders is bluntly warning that the crisis in Gaza could be Biden’s “Vietnam”. Sanders is Biden’s most powerful emissary to progressives and younger voters who will be a crucial electorate this November. As pro-Palestinian student protests continue on university campuses across the country, FRANCE 24’s Jean-Emile Jammine is joined by Eric Fassin, Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political Science, Department of Gender Studies and the Laboratory of Gender and Human Sexuality Studies, LEGS (CNRS / University of Paris VIII / Paris-Ouest).
#UnitedStates #protests #ProPalestinian

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