The National Union of Students of France (''Union nationale des étudiants de France'' or UNEF) is the largest national students' union in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is historically close to the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

, with many of its member joining the party after leaving student life. It works to represent the interest of students for national and local governments, political parties, the government bodies concerned with higher education and their administration of the universities. The organisation is also active on the international arena.

History

1907: UNEF foundation by the merging of many AGEs (''Associations Générales d'Étudiants'', Students' General Associations) from different towns at a meeting held in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

1946: Adoption of the Charter of Grenoble which define the student as a "young intellectual worker". Since then, the UNEF has considered itself to be a part of the

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

. The creation in France of the students'

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

and welfare systems are the result of UNEF activism 1950s: The UNEF led the protest for independence of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

1968:

May 68 Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which h ...

revolt. On 27 May the meeting of the UNEF, most outstanding of the events of May 68, proceeds and gathers 30.000 to 50.000 people in the Stade Sebastien Charlety. 1971 to 2001: The UNEF was split between UNEF-SE (''Solidarité Étudiante'', Students' solidarity) (linked to the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...

) and UNEF-US (''Unité Syndicale'', Union Unity), which later evolved into UNEF-ID (''Indépendante et Démocratique'', Independence and democracy) (linked to the Internationalist Communist Organisation and close to the

). 1986: The UNEFs led a victorious strike against student fees and selection at college admission 1995: Major protests against a government project of minimum wage for youth lower than for other salaries 2001: The UNEFs eventually reunified under the name 'UNEF'. 2001: Yassir Fichtali elected new chairman 2005: Bruno Julliard elected new chairman 2006: The UNEF played a major role in students' contestation of the prime minister

Dominique de Villepin Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (; born 14 November 1953) is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac. In his career working at the Ministry ...

's Contrat première embauche. 2007: Jean-Baptiste Prévost elected new chairman 2011: Emmanuel Zemmour elected new chairman 2014: William Martinet elected new chairman 2016: Lilâ Le Bas elected new chairman 2019: Mélanie Luce elected new chairman

Democracy

Today, the UNEF is still composed of the different AGEs. There is one AGE in each town where a university is located, except in Paris, where there is an AGE by university. Membership is individual: every student can choose to join the AGE of his/her home town. The UNEF holds a national conference every two years. National conference is the sovereign body of the UNEF and decide the UNEF policy. Conferences are contested by factions: * Majorité Nationale (''National Majority''): 80% of the votes in 2007 * Tendance pour une UNEF Unitaire et Démocratique (''For a unitarian and democratic UNEF''): 13% * Tendance Refondation Syndicale (''Union's refoundation''): 7% The conference also elects an administrative commission (''Commission Administrative'') to be the UNEF 'parliament' between conferences. The commission elects the National Board, the executive body.

Creation

The UNEF has created many national federations: * CECED (''Comité Étudiant Contre l'Extrême Droite'', Students' Committee against Far Right) * FERUF (''Fédération des Étudiants en Résidences Universitaires de France'', Resident Students Federation) * UCEF (''Union des Coopératives Étudiantes de France'', Union of Students' Cooperatives) * FENEC (''Fédération Nationale des Étudiants Chercheurs'') The UNEF has also participated in the creation of different bodies related to students: * MNEF, then replaced by LMDE in 2000 (''La Mutuelle Des Etudiants'') which operates the students' social security system * ESIB in 1981, named ESU in 2007 (European Students Union)

Sexual violence

In the international background of allegations against

Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films includ ...

by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', the French daily newspaper ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' published in November 2017 two detailed articles on alleged sexual harassment and predation supported by former UNEF presidents, Jean-Baptiste Prévost and Emmanuel Zemmour."Harcèlement sexuel : la parole se libère à l’UNEF
" ''

'', 17 November 2017."Enquête sur un système de violences sexistes au sein du syndicat étudiant UNEF
" ''

'', 28 November 2017. In an editorial, more than 80 UNEF female members and militants have come forward to accuse the Union of "sexual violence". In December 2017, the president of the UNEF chapter in Nice, Paul Morançay resigned for covering up rape claims. Most members of the chapter have since resigned. In spite of multiple "pressions", the daily newspaper ''Libération'' published in February 2018 a long article with sixteen testimonies of female activists who have suffered from rape, sexual harassment and abuse within the organisation.Laure Bretton et Ismaël Halissat, « Abus sexuels : les témoignages qui accablent l'Unef »
'' Libération'', February 19, 2018.

Segregation

UNEF has been the subject of controversy in 2021 when its president said during a radio interview that the union was holding meetings where white people were not allowed.

References

External links

Official site of the UNEFESU Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Union Nationale des Etudiants de France Students' unions in France 1907 establishments in France Student organizations established in 1907 Union Nationale des Étudiants de France