I was recently watching videos of the high school student mobilizations in France. I was truly inspired. Especially when I saw a sign that read, “We will be the youth of the revolution.”
Their actions came right after public service workers (like teachers and health care workers) went on strike. Students embraced and upped teachers’ demands. Police forces unleashed vicious fascist repression, especially in working-class immigrant neighborhoods.
In South Africa, high school students have mobilized around the fight to bring back their peers. More than 11,000 high school students were left out at the start of the year. In the 1980s, South African high school students played a key role in the “Liberation before Education” movement.
In Chile, after the 2027 budget was released, thousands of high school students took to the streets. Some carried a banner that read “From the classroom to the class struggle” (“De la sala de clases a la lucha de clases”). Others carried posters with “My education is not your business” (“Mi educación no es tu negocio”)
India has 100,843 schools that have only a single teacher. About 2.9 million children are enrolled in those schools. And the public education infrastructure has been crumbling. These conditions have helped ignite waves of high school student mobilization across the country.
These are just four examples of high school student mobilizations that have taken place this year. While the spark that has ignited this explosion may vary, all these mobilizations point to the failure of capitalism and to the rising attacks on the entire working class.
The wars between the big imperialists, like China and the US, in Iran, Palestine, Congo, the Ukraine and countless of other places, are part of the cause of this situation.
As the capitalist crisis deepens, attacks will increase. And fascism will intensify to maintain and sustain capitalist dominance. The working class is not and will never be passive.
Student mobilizations have taken place in almost every part of the world. This generation (“Gen Z”) is looking towards the future. A future defined not merely by a struggle of resistance, but by an offensive revolutionary struggle.
When this generation embraces the struggle to mobilize the masses for communism, it will mark the end of capitalist domination and the birth of a new world. A world in which every human being lives a life of dignity in every respect.
The International Communist Workers’ Party invites all students to fight for this world. To fight for communism. To join and build ICWP collectives everywhere!
—Retired teacher in Los Angeles (USA)
Read Communist Education for a Classless Society here