Student Uprising from
FRANCE to PALESTINE:
SEIZE THE FUTURE
October 6, 2026. Over 450,000 people marched in the streets of France as parents, teachers, and labor unions joined high school students fighting for their future.1 Nearly 2,000 French high schools were blockaded or closed amid massive student-led protests over school funding and inequality.
Video: On the streets of Paris fighting for education
The Spark. On September 21, students and staff at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, a working-class suburb of Paris, walked out over chronic teacher shortages, large class sizes, and poor building conditions.2 Using social media, the protest rapidly spread throughout France, where public school students face teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, and dilapidated school buildings where ceilings partially collapse during class and are infested with cockroaches and rats.3
“We are 35 per class; we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms. With 35 degrees Celsius [95 degrees Fahrenheit] in summer, it’s unbearable. There aren’t enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms.” 4
Just like the anti-I.C.E. demonstrations in the U.S., the French government attacked the students.
We know the story. Talking heads and the media yell “riot,” and the government sends in their armed goons to “restore order” by attacking peaceful demonstrations. More than 6,000 people have been arrested since the protests began, and about 300 high school students and school staff have been injured.1 The police are using tear gas, sting-ball/stun grenades, and LBD guns that fire hard rubber or plastic projectiles.
But like the movement against the I.C.E., police violence is making the student movement stronger.
The students’ fight for a better education is merging with a developing working-class movement for economic justice, peace and political power.5
French dockworkers and mariners have blockaded ports to protest surging fuel costs and last year blocked arms-related shipments bound for Israel. Public transit workers are on strike. A general public sector strike took place on September 29 and included teachers and educational staff, healthcare workers, firefighters, local government staff, and tax officials. A nationwide five-day strike by French pilots and cabin crew is planned from October 17–21. A broad cross-sector strike is scheduled for November 5.
Over the last year, US high school students across the country have walked out in protest of ICE and also in support of Palestine. Today – October 7 – is the 3rd anniversary of the beginning of the Zionist genocide in Gaza and Israel. Tens of thousands of high school and college students struck today in protest. US high school students face problems similar to French students: teacher shortages, outdated and broken facilities, and a system that often fails to meet their needs. From Nepal to India to Mexico and the US, students are not waiting for empty promises. Fossil Fuels produce one climate disaster after another. AI is crippling public education and taking our jobs. The only future capitalism promises is Gaza.
New generations are not fooled. The student-working class struggle in France is our fight as well.
We have the same enemy and the same goals – peace, justice, and a future for our children. We know that capitalism destroys our future. That is why capitalism resorts to fascism to wage war against us.
The fight is between those of us who supply the collective labor that produces wealth and the private corporate owners who steal that wealth. – the capitalist class – the people who own AI, the media, the factories, the banks, and the political parties.
We are living in revolutionary times. AI has changed the world. We cannot go back to the old system – we must go forward.
It is up to the international working class to build a world where wealth is publicly controlled and divided equally among the peoples of the world, where war, genocide, and ecocide are relics of the past.
We can do this! We must do this!
Working Class Unity
Reach Out
Clasp Hands
Lock Arms
Stand Shoulder to Shoulder
March in Step for Our Common Interest
Ignore All those Who attempt to Divide US.
General Gordon Baker II
Labor Leader, Detroit, Michigan
References
- https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/world/europe/france-student-strikes-protests.html
- https://www.reuters.com/world/high-school-students-paris-deprived-suburbs-spark-national-protest-movement-2026-10-03/
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/02/student-protests-shut-schools-across-france
- https://time.com/article/2026/10/02/france-student-protests-arrests-injuries-school-closures/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/briefing/france-in-crisis.html
