By Tony Murphy
November 6, 2026
New York City
Continuing the momentum of a righteous, youth-led movement that has spread to other countries, France’s five major unions held a general strike on Nov. 5 that turned out 1.5 million people and immobilized parts of the country.
New York City, Nov. 5, 2026, across from the French Consulate in solidarity with the general strike. Photo: John Catalinotto
A third of all the country’s high schools were either shut down or disrupted. Some 90% of France’s 70 universities were blockaded or closed. Various train lines and metro stations were shut down. Tourists with pre-booked tickets to the Eiffel Tower were informed that the tower was closed.
On the same day, two days after the U.S. midterm elections, activists held a socialist-led solidarity protest at the French Consulate in New York City, the world center of capitalism, to support the general strike. While these activists welcomed the U.S. electorate’s resounding rejection of Trump and his fascist MAGA movement, their consulate protest elevated the greater power and revolutionary potential of the youth-and-worker uprising now spreading like wildfire throughout the globe.
Both phenomena are driven by suffering caused by capitalism, racism and imperialism.
The timing and location of the consulate protest were chosen to support the workers’ strike against the French government, whose cops have responded violently to youth protesters — while also calling out the role of France in oppressing African countries and French “overseas departments,” as well as the youth in metropolitan France whose families came from those places.
The consulate protesters also flew Palestinian flags, which have been ubiquitous throughout the uprisings in France and other countries.
The New York action was slated to take place at the consulate building but was moved across the street when police erected a dense network of barricades in front of the consulate, completely blocking pedestrian foot traffic. Compared to the millions who have been marching through Europe, India and Bangladesh, the solidarity protest turnout was modest — though from the heavy cop presence and barricades, you would think the Bastille itself was being stormed on Manhattan’s wealthy Upper East Side.
“That’s how threatened they feel,” said Sara Flounders from Workers World Party as she opened the rally. “And in France today, tens of thousands of cops are being deployed after already having made over 10,000 arrests [since mid-September], using tear gas and water cannons against people fed up with endless war.”
“Just as our comrades and friends are taking to the streets to oppose the imperialist foreign policy of France and the West,” said Ché of the Bronx Anti-War Coalition, “we have to do the same thing here in the United States, because their struggle is our struggle. It’s the same exact struggle that we are fighting right here against imperialism, against the systemic underfunding of our schools.”
This sentiment echoed the slogan on the rally’s banner, which read “Solidarity with the Student and Worker Global Uprising — Coming Soon to the U.S.” as it was expressed by other speakers. Alii from the Iran Anti-Imperialist Left Alliance spoke at the rally.
Same problems in the U.S.
“We have the same problems here at home in the United States that the French youth are fighting against,” Fernando Almovadar said. “And those problems are existential and borne of the greed and destruction wrought by capitalism.”
Rally placard slogans solidarized U.S. socialists with the targets of French and U.S. imperialism, reading “France Out of Africa” and “Bring the Fight Home: End the Empire.” Other placards read “From Bronx to Brussels, Stop Police Violence” and “Youth of the World Say Free Palestine!”
“We want to particularly salute the African and Arab migrant youth in France who really got the uprising going,” said Workers World’s first secretary Larry Holmes, who proposed the consulate solidarity action. “We want to thank them, and we want to salute how this has spread around the world, because now the tide is turning.
“Before this, the brunt of the world struggle against empire was on the shoulders of countries like China and the Palestinians, Iran and the countries of Africa and Latin America. But now it’s workers and students and youth rising up in every country and especially at the centers of world imperialism — and guess what? It’s coming here.”
The solidarity action initiated by Workers World was supported by Bronx Anti-War Coalition, December 12 Movement, Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard, Code Pink NYC, CUNY 4 Palestine, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Haïti Liberté, International Action Center, Laundry Workers Center, Palaver Collective and United National Antiwar Coalition.
To view the talks from the rally, go to www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDIUQ6o7uHw8
