At the crossroads: leaflet handed out on 17 October

Introduction

We publish here the leaflet the ICC distributed in large numbers at the massive demos in France on 17 October.  As the preamble says, “at times like this that it is vital to reflect and discuss things collectively. Because the traps into which our movement can fall are beginning to take shape”.

The shape of the trap laid by police terror and the ensuing aimless violence carried out by a part of the protestors is now very clear, and the bourgeoisie across the world is throwing everything it can into the campaign to present the present movement in France as little more than an excuse for looting and burning. In our international leaflet, published soon after the events of 17 October, we put forward a serious analysis of the significance of this movement.

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For the past two weeks, at general assemblies and at roadblocks, the slogan of the secondary school and university student movement has been: “Hold out until 17 October ”. In the hope of being joined by workers, farmers, the Yellow Vests, the unemployed, pensioners… Here we are. So how many of us are out on the streets in France today? 500,000? 1 million? This figure may give us a sense of strength and lead us to believe that the momentum is building towards ever-increasing numbers of protesters. Yet it is precisely at times like this that it is vital to reflect and discuss things collectively. Because the traps into which our movement can fall are beginning to take shape.

1. The high school pupils’ movement began on 17 September at the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil. Very quickly, it spread to schools in the Paris region, and then throughout France. In response, the state unleashed a ferocious crackdown, using tear gas, beating protesters and locking them up. Out of solidarity, university students joined the struggle.

2. For the past two weeks, general assemblies have been held almost daily at all universities. The debates there are lively. Aware that “a movement that does not spread is a movement that dies ”, a great many assemblies have decided to distribute leaflets at railway stations and other workplaces to call on all workers to join this movement. “We call on workers to organise themselves into general assemblies at their workplaces to decide collectively on their demands and actions. Let us bring these workers’ general assemblies together with those of school pupils and students to decide collectively on the next steps in the mobilisation […]. We are all suffering from austerity, the high cost of living and job insecurity.” (leaflet distributed by students at Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyon in Paris).

3. This wave of mobilisation led to massive demonstrations. On 29 September, and on 6, 8 and 13 October, the processions were large on each occasion, driven by a powerful spirit of solidarity and a determination to fight together. Memories of the May ’68 movement then came to the fore in everyone’s minds. The placard reading “The 6–7 generation is recreating ’68” appeared everywhere. And it is true that the current social movement is of global and historic significance. The movement in France has become a ‘benchmark’ on an international scale: in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Chile. In recent days, expressions of solidarity with the secondary school pupils have poured in (via social media) from all over Europe: “Your struggle is our struggle! Everywhere we face the same problems!”

4. However, if May ’68 made history, it was, above all, because, following the students, the workers also joined the struggle in huge numbers. May ’68 saw 10 million strikers.

And for the time being, this is the very high bar that the movement is failing to clear: that of drawing a large section of the working class into the strike and the struggle. This is why we believe the movement is now at a crossroads. Faced with the exhaustion of the high school students who have been mobilised in the blockades for a month, and with the difficulties faced by the student general assemblies in rallying wage-earning workers, there is an ever-greater risk that a whole section of the movement will fall into the trap of minority and spectacular action: seeking to clash with the police, or occupying this or that symbolic site of power. “On 13 October, let’s take Matignon”: some had already called for this in the general assemblies, which would have sent hundreds of young people to be massacred by the robocops. There are no shortcuts. The only way to continue strengthening the movement is to try to extend the struggle to all sectors. Hand out leaflets at stations. Turn out in force at the gates of factories and all places where workers gather.

5. To stay on course, we must, as in the struggle against the CPE in 2006, defend our general assemblies open to all: students, the unemployed, precarious workers, active employees and pensioners, from both the public and private sectors. Autonomous and organised general assemblies that vote and give mandates. In recent days, more and more general assemblies have been tempted to retreat into slogans specific to high school and university students, or into specific issues concerning their school or university, by focusing on blockades and occupations at the expense of outreach and expansion. This trend is dangerous.

6. We must not fall into the trap of dead-end violence; we must not give in to police provocations, which are bound to occur; and we must uphold what gives our movement its strength (its solidarity, its general assemblies, its determination to unite the entire working class). This is vital for our movement and for those to come. Because this struggle heralds others to come! The social climate, on a global scale, has just changed. The precarious Generation Z—and, with it, the entire working class—is asserting ever more forcefully that it rejects the future of war and misery that capitalism promises us all.

The future belongs to the class struggle!

International Communist Current, 14 October 2026