10/10/2026
While secondary school students are still the nucleus of the protests in France, virtually all educational unions-as well as many other trade unions-have announced participation in the nationwide strike on October 13.
Yesterday at the Place de la Bastille, 25,000 students and union workers resisted police attempts to forcibly remove them. Interviewed protestors spoke about “the convergence of struggles”. In an interview this morning, Jean Luc Melenchon stated that “the Bastille has been retaken”.
Forty-four years ago, Mitterrand abandoned his socialist agenda after sustained pressure from the media, US and European capital leaving France, and the erstwhile European Monetary System launching repeated speculative attacks on the Franc. The same exact playbook is used every day against socialism.
Today France, like the UK, like the rest of Europe, lies gutted by the hounds of neoliberalism and austerity. The billionaire class sits on its throne, pointing the finger at the migrant, at the socialist, at the students who protest.
They tell us that it is those who have never held the reins that have driven the fu***ng caravan over the cliff. We are informed that communism, nary a breath of which exists in this capitalist hellscape, is destroying our future.
France is at a crossroads but so is the rest of the world.
Capitalism, especially in its neoliberal and conservative manifestations, has brought us to our current state. We can either continue accepting the scraps from the table or take a fu***ng seat at it.
AR