October 13, 2026
The International Action Center salutes the rebellious youth of France whose protests are becoming more revolutionary by the day. They started on Sept. 17 when striking teachers in Créteil, a working-class Paris suburb, were joined by students demanding more staff. By Oct. 6, student protests had shut down 2,000 out of 3,700 high schools across the country, while engaging in daily mass demonstrations over severe teacher shortages, lack of resources in schools and deteriorating learning conditions. The protests have been joined by teachers and other union members.
University students also joined the protest, with 90% of universities mobilized to block 57 campuses. October 8 demonstrations that included both high school and university students put forth 10 common demands. These include the abolition of the racially biased French university admissions platform; an emergency plan for decaying school buildings; massive recruitment of staff; replacement of absent teachers; a reduction in class size; the hiring of nurses, teaching assistants and social workers and lighter class schedules.
Even before high schools were shut down in France, in late August, high school students in Mayotte, Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion — former colonies of France — staged their own walkouts over similar deteriorating conditions impacting their education.
Books or bombs?
These protests are not taking place in a vacuum. Schools in France have grown increasingly undemocratic and more segregated. But it has been cuts in social programs, including education, matched by increased military spending for imperialist wars that sparked the actions. While the military budget has grown year after year between 2017 and 2023, the annual budget for higher education has declined 15%.
France’s 2027 budget projects a permanent cut of over 1,500 teachers. Projected cuts in social spending would be $60.47 billion, while an additional $7.2 billion per year will go to the military.
Protesters carried signs in support of Palestine, along with Palestinian flags. They are connecting the increased militarization with the government’s support for Israel. The student movement is also unfolding as NATO is pressuring France and other European governments to massively increase military spending. This generation of youth is being told to accept austerity while Europe experiences one of its largest military buildups in decades. Protest signs have declared: “Money for schools, not war” and “Fund high schools, not genocide.”
Students protesting against education and budget cuts in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 7, 2026. (Photo: Lilli Förter)
While the students are asking for more teachers and decent schools, the state has repeatedly deployed violent riot police against them. Police have used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the crowds. Thousands of students have been arrested, and hundreds have been injured.
But the youth, many of them from migrant families, are coming out despite the state repression. Many of the young activists participating in the protests have expressed fears that they see no future for themselves under the current capitalist system. Conditions under capitalism are slowly killing young people, who are now saying they are not going to take it anymore. In the words of Malcolm X following the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, this is a case of: “the chickens coming home to roost.”
Right-wing pundits, including those at Fox News, are voicing concern that this youth-led movement could spread and threaten the control of the capitalist 1%. While they are worried, we have reasons for revolutionary optimism.
These protests have taken on a global character, spreading to other countries, including Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Brazil and India, where the lack of educational opportunities has been a major focus of the Cockroach Janta Party. In Spain, tens of thousands of young people have taken to the streets to demand housing justice. In Rome, high school students began occupying their schools on Oct. 5 under the slogan “Let’s do as in France.”
In Chile, protests are taking place against proposed education cuts led by students and unions. Common Dreams noted that they said: “Young people can’t get hired. Can’t afford rent. Can’t afford a house. Can’t see a future. … The streets are the only place left. This is going global.” (Oct. 8)
It is just a matter of time before these youth and student rebellions spread to other imperialist centers, including the U.S.
