By Betsey Piette
October 20, 2026

Protests by youth and students over failed education systems that began in late August in several former French colonies and then spread to continental France have now spilled out into a global struggle over failed public services, rising living costs and prioritized military spending in capitalist countries that increasingly impact the very futures for Gen Z youth.

Protests led by youth in France were joined by teachers, nurses, firefighters, parents and some “yellow vest” activists on Oct. 17. They brought over 800,000 people to the streets of Paris and 140 other cities in France. The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), one of France’s major unions, backed these protests, adding demands for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services.”

The newspaper Le Monde reported Oct. 18 that police tried to prevent gatherings at several designated meeting points in Paris, particularly in front of train stations, that had been announced earlier. Demonstrators were banned from entering the historic Place de la Republique in the center of Paris, with police firing tear gas and charging at protesters as they entered the area.

According to Al Jazeera, Oct. 18, the faces of the three figures representing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity at the base of the plaza’s monument were painted with black tears.

In central France, protesters in Limoges, who were able to overwhelm police, used a battering ram to breach the town hall before setting the building on fire. In Lyon, demonstrators targeted a local tourist office, setting it ablaze. Severe clashes with police were also recorded in Marseille, Bordeaux and Strasbourg.

More than 2,400 people were arrested and two deaths were reported. Protest organizers noted, however, that most protests went as planned. Organizers were critical of the bourgeois media for focusing coverage mainly on violent clashes, especially when the police were the source of much of the violence.

Evidence of this brutality is beginning to surface.  According to Drop Site News, in the city of Saint Etienne, a high school student lost a hand. In Guadeloupe, one of France’s neo-colonies in the Caribbean, another teenage girl is reported to have received a sublethal bullet in the temple. World Riots reported that a 22-year-old paramedic died in Paris after being beaten by police. A 17-year-old girl permanently lost an eye after being struck by a tear-gas canister fired by police in Mulhouse.

Denouncing police brutality during the protests, budget cuts and the deterioration of public services, on Oct. 19, college students from the Ecole du Louvre blocked access to the famous museum in support of the high school youth movement.

From Minneapolis to Saint Denis

In Saint Denis, a suburb north of Paris, students from the Paul Eluard High School — among the first to strike in mid-September — held a peaceful cultural event. Dakota / Boricua rapper Tufawon traveled from the U.S. to France to join the event. He shared the experience he and many others drew from the resistance to  Operation Metro Surge carried out by 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis this year.

Tufawon said that the youth in Saint Denis were responding to “many incidents of discrimination and injustice in the schools on the outskirts of Paris. Learning conditions are horrible. Back home, we have similar conditions with segregation in the schools, with the most marginalized communities hit the worst.

“We see the same dynamic of state repression here that we faced back home. I am always inspired by youth when they take a stand against oppression and colonialism.” (youtube.com/shorts/C7bPrQ5diFw)

Global character of protests

These protests have taken on a global character, spreading to other countries, including Belgium, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Albania, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. In India, the lack of educational opportunities has been a major focus of the youth uprising that took the name Cockroach Janta Party after government leaders used the name “cockroach” in an attempt to insult them.

In Florence, Italy, on Oct. 16 over 2,000 students from 15 schools demonstrated against government education policies under the banner of “No Meloni Day.” Palestinian flags were prominent in the crowds, as demonstrators chanted “We are all anti-fascists!” and other slogans targeting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. (theflorentine.net, Oct. 17)

Elsewhere across Italy, youth demonstrated against education funding cuts, deteriorating school buildings, the rising cost of living and proposed restrictions on the number of foreign students in individual classrooms. The protests coincided with a children’s climate strike in Florence.

Other demonstrations took place in Rome, Turin, Genoa and Cagliari. In Milan, protests against rising living costs began peacefully but ended with riot police using teargas to disperse the crowds. Demonstrators threw paving blocks at the police, set fire to barricades made from bar tables and severely damaged a state police car. (theflorentine.net, Oct. 17)

Spiraling housing costs 

In Lisbon, Portugal’s capital and largest city, people marched on Oct. 17 to protest rising living costs, in particular soaring housing costs, which increased by 124% between 2015 and 2024. The General Confederation of Portuguese Workers called an earlier protest in Lisbon for better public services and pension and wage increases. Protests also took place in Porto and Coimbra.

Demonstrators set up a tent camp similar to the one established in Madrid, Spain, three weeks ago by protesters demanding action to address their housing crisis. (theguardian.com, Oct. 18)

Earlier in the week, teachers and students in Madrid began an indefinite strike to demand stronger public education support and an end to regional governments’ policies promoting school privatization. Tens of thousands of students emptied classrooms to protest in the streets. The strike was mobilized by a joint union front that included branches of the General Union of Workers, the Workers’ Commissions and the General Confederation of Labor. (breakthroughnews.org, Oct. 16)

Protests rocked Tirana, Albania’s capital, where demonstrators demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama over university conditions and high tuition. The Guardian reported that protesters threw rocks and other projectiles at police, while police fired rubber bullets on the demonstrators for the first time since earlier protests this year when the “flamingo movement” opposed attempts by Trump family members to take over protected wildlife land. A court, banks and post office in Tirana were set on fire. (Oct. 17)

In Belgium, where secondary and university students are striking against higher university fees and educational “reforms” they argue will limit low-income families’ access to higher education, large crowds demonstrated in Brussels and Liège on Oct. 17. Cars were overturned and projectiles thrown at police who used water cannons and tear gas against protesters.

Militarization vs. social programs

In Germany, students protesting the austerity closely linked to rearmament and militarization are demanding no reinstitution of military conscription, along with better learning conditions in schools.

Beyond Europe, student-led actions against proposed education cuts have broken out in Chile and Brazil and against graduate unemployment disparities in India.

Within these protests there is a common thread linking Gen Z’s opposition to military spending, especially in opposition to their governments’ support for Israeli genocide in Gaza. Many protesters are raising the slogan: “Books not Bombs!”

In a message from Saint Denis Mayor Bally Bagayoko recorded on Oct. 17, he speaks directly to the youth of the world: “I say to our friends and inhabitants of the Overseas Territories [France’s neo-colonies] that we trust them entirely, that they belong to our ranks. I also speak to the European youth and to the international youth to say: seize this dynamic because it also belongs to you.”