As an unprecedented and combative youth movement has emerged over the last few weeks, the *Union communiste libertaire* (UCL) calls for the strengthening and support of high school student mobilizations, for the convergence of our struggles on October 17, and for the reinforcement of our grassroots organizing efforts everywhere.
For several weeks, the high school student movement-protesting against deteriorating study conditions-has demonstrated impressive strength, combativeness, and a capacity for renewal. Originating in working-class neighborhoods within mainland France and the overseas territories, the movement voices the fundamental demands of students and teachers who are bearing the full brunt of the decay of public services. Unreplaced teachers, dilapidated buildings, overcrowded classrooms-and, in some cases, even infestations of cockroaches or rats-are the daily reality for thousands of students in working-class high schools. Beyond these immediate study conditions, what is being denounced is the educational segregation they perpetuate: while the children of the bourgeoisie enjoy conditions that enable them to "succeed in their studies," children from working-class backgrounds are consigned to crumbling high schools and steered, at an early stage, into academic or vocational tracks they did not choose. When they voice their grievances, they are met only with contempt and police repression.
The revolt in working-class high schools has since been joined by students from city-center high schools-who have also engaged in blockades in solidarity with their peers-as well as by university students, who have their own reasons for expressing their anger. The threats to eliminate housing subsidies (APL) and the one-euro meal program-and, above all, the unjust "Welcome to France" reform, which imposes registration fees of several thousand euros on non-European students-fully justify the decision of students to join the movement.
The state's only response has been widespread police brutality. The massive use of weapons capable of causing mutilation-even against minors-has rightly caused shock. The arsenal of police barbarity has expanded to include new, vile tactics: the use of vehicles as battering rams in several cities, sexual assaults against high school students, and an attempted drowning of a student in Belfort. These incidents serve as a further, alarming indication of the extreme level of brutality exhibited by police forces.
This movement encapsulates the defining issues of our time. On one hand, there is a popular aspiration for equality, public services, education, and a different future-one where all children are cared for. On the other, there is the unbridled sadism of thugs in uniform and those who issue their orders. The questions raised by this movement extend far beyond the high school and university student population, or the education sector alone.
It is therefore urgent that we do not leave these students to face this alone; expanding the movement is the order of the day. October 17th-a date that has been circulating on social media for months-will serve as a focal point for this effort. It will be an opportunity to show that we all have good reason to be angry at this rotten society. On October 17, we will take to the streets-for our dilapidated schools; for a public hospital system gasping for air after decades of budget cuts; and for those who have died at work or at the hands of the police. In the face of such contempt and violence, it is time to respond with collective struggle.
Millions of us understand that radical social change is necessary. Achieving this will require far more than just marching on the 17th. It is urgent-everywhere-to build class-based organizations capable of serving as a counter-power to the world as it currently exists. Strengthening a combative trade unionism, multiplying general assemblies and neighborhood organizations, and bolstering all our fighting structures-this is the immediate priority for building popular power. Ultimately, the self-management of production and of society as a whole remains the horizon toward which we must strive: a way to restore to the masses the power to act-a power from which they have been dispossessed by the State and capital.
Union Communiste Libertaire, October 16, 2026.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?17-octobre-Continuer-la-lutte-renverser-la-vapeur
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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