Appeal to the high school and university student movement throughout France

1. The current social movement is of global and historic significance. ‘Gen Z’ is showing that it rejects the future of misery and war that capitalism promises for all of humanity. This movement in France has become a ‘benchmark’ on an international scale: in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Chile. Within a matter of days, messages of solidarity have been pouring in (via social media) from all over Europe in support of the school pupils facing brutal repression by the police state – repression that is “unrestrained” (in the words of the Minister for the Interior, Laurent Nuñez). All these messages declare: “Your struggle is our struggle! Everywhere we face the same problems!”

2. In universities, a great many general assemblies have decided to distribute leaflets at railway stations and other workplaces to call on all workers to join this movement. A movement that does not spread is a movement that dies! If May ’68 made history, it was because, after the students, the workers too joined the struggle. May ’68 meant 10 million strikers.

3. All our actions must therefore aim to expand the movement. Does the call to march and ‘take’ Matignon on 13 October help to build this momentum? No. All the forces of repression will be deployed to cordon off, encircle and protect the seat of government. It is a trap, a dead end.  Wouldn’t marching en masse towards the working-class districts be more effective in expanding the movement? In growing our numbers? In convincing more and more sectors that this struggle is that of the entire working class? School pupils, students, employees, the unemployed and pensioners united in a single struggle! It is possible! It is up to us to go and seek them out.

4. To take all these decisions, to reflect together on the most effective methods of struggle, we must defend our general assemblies, which are open to all: students, the unemployed, workers in precarious employment, active and retired employees, from both the public and private sectors. Autonomous, well-organised general assemblies that vote and grant mandates. General assemblies capable of joining forces with other general assemblies and sending large delegations to the nearest workplaces to convince employees to join this movement. In 2006, during the struggle against the First Employment Contract’ (CPE), which exacerbated the precariousness of young workers, these assemblies were the lifeblood of the movement. And it was this very momentum of expansion that forced the government to withdraw its bill. Today, we can go even further!

The future belongs to the class struggle!

International Communist Current, 10 October 2026