A note from Amine

Amine Zidouh

A living archive

I started this page at the school gates, following high-school students demanding buildings fit for learning, enough teachers, and room to breathe in overcrowded classrooms. Their demands began with the material reality of school: the conditions in which they were expected to learn.

But a classroom is not just any “room.” Demanding better conditions within its walls also means asking what those walls are meant to make possible. In France, the republican school holds an almost sacred place in the collective imagination. Shaped by revolutionary ideals and successive republics, its promise is that birth should not decide destiny; that school should nurture independent thought and form des citoyennes et des citoyens, citizens able to think, question, and participate as equals. The distance between that promise and everyday school life is part of the story I want to tell.

The artworks below are pieces I discuss in the podcast. I brought them together alongside photographs of placards from the streets to preserve the movement’s words, images, and imagination after the headlines move on. Alongside these, I will include visual essays from the Issues space, exploring the questions and histories this protest brings into view.

But I never wanted an archive to mean a closed chapter. Like the protest itself, this page is still unfolding, still becoming something else. As the student struggle becomes part of a wider social movement, I want to make room for the voices and demands widening its horizon.

I will keep a dedicated space for the high-school students, their demands, and how their struggle evolves. Alongside it, I will open new spaces for the broader movement taking shape.

I invite you to follow these widening paths with me, without losing sight of the school gates where this story began.

French Politics · Podcast series

France’s High School Protests

(ongoing)

Listen from the beginning · Oldest to newest

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Read the Issues behind the high-school protests

The visual archive · Artists’ work

Artwork Images of dissent

Drawings, street interventions and reimagined objects alongside the high-school protest series and Who Owns the People?, on the yellow-vest movement and October 17 mobilization. The artwork numbers match the references in the audio.

Click an artwork for a closer look and artist details.

Explore the wider protest movement

Signs from the streets

(click an image to see its translation)

Keep exploring The Issues

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Teaching and learning

Intended audience: Undergraduate students in French studies, history, political science and related fields; independent adult learners.

Suggested uses: Guided reading, seminar discussion, comparative political analysis and media-literacy activities.

After using this resource, learners should be able to:

Explain the historical and political context of the movements examined.
Analyze how slogans, images and media narratives frame protest and political legitimacy.
Develop an evidence-based comparison of movements, claims or representations.

Use the objectives that correspond to the material available on this page. Collection pages provide entry points to individual resources; unfinished or unavailable material is not a completed learning activity.

Original materials © Dr. Amine Zidouh / French Politics, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 unless otherwise indicated. When sharing or reproducing covered material, credit Dr. Amine Zidouh and French Politics, link to the source and license, and identify changes. Images, protest signs, artworks and other third-party materials are excluded. See Rights, Credits & Educational Reuse for scope, attribution and the as-is disclaimer.

Image credits and third-party reuse information

Dr. Amine Zidouh confirms that French Politics has permission to display these images for educational purposes. This permission does not transfer to visitors. Images, protest signs and artworks are excluded from the website’s CC BY-NC 4.0 license; separate documented licenses, public-domain status or legal exceptions may apply independently.

Artwork 1

Credit: Jean-Marc Rochette (@jeanmarc_rochette)

Rights status: Educational site-use permission confirmed by Dr. Amine Zidouh; excluded from the website CC BY-NC 4.0 license

Dr. Amine Zidouh states that he personally obtained permission for French Politics to display this material for educational purposes. Permission documents have not been independently audited in this record. Site-use permission is not a sublicense to visitors; obtain independent rights for reuse where required. The mural artist credit does not identify the photographer; photographer identity is not recorded here.