A-Infos (en) UK, ACG: French High School Students Rise Up (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

From September 17th, high school students and staff staged blockades 
throughout France. This was to protest deteriorating educational 
conditions. The tempo of these blockades and demonstrations increased on 
September 29th and 30th. ---- Lack of teachers, teaching assistants, 
special needs assistants, and nurses; poorly insulated and unrenovated 
facilities; and untenable class schedules... All high school students in 
France are suffering the consequences of insufficient funding for the 
national education system. This has sparked a nationwide mobilisation 
that is shaking the media and the government.

The national education budget has increased by 30% since 2017, so why is 
the situation in high schools deteriorating? For the start of the 2026 
school year, approximately 4,000 teaching positions were eliminated in 
both public and private schools across France. Then there is Parcoursup 
(1) and its unfair selection system, which relies on "digital filters". 
Then, in higher education, the freeze on housing benefits will prevent 
the most vulnerable from finding accommodation. Not to mention the 
"Welcome to France" decree imposed by the government before the summer, 
a blatantly anti-immigration project that aims to increase tuition fees 
for non-European international students. In short, for all high school 
students, stress is mounting regarding their future studies, all while 
enduring gruelling schedules and conditions that make optimal learning 
impossible.

A mass movement emerged. But on October 1st, the government sent in its 
riot cop attack dogs, and there was brutal repression, particularly in 
working class neighbourhoods. There were mass arrests of students, more 
than 5,000 in one week. Beatings, injuries, flashball shots, tear gas, 
mutilations-the number of injured is high.  This has not, so far, 
deterred the movement, with huge demonstrations across France on October 
6th.

From the Union Communiste Libertaire website:

"Parcoursup is blocking lives." With these words, a high school student 
summed up on Tuesday the reasons for the blockade of his school, a 
blockade that was part of the widespread student movement that has been 
mobilizing for a week to demand resources for education. Understaffed 
personnel, dilapidated buildings, overcrowded classrooms "We lack 
everything" cry the students exposed daily to the stress of constant 
selection.

In working class neighbourhoods, students are sent to programs they 
didn't choose, programs whose curricula are sometimes very opaque. Year 
after year, educational policies are reduced to managing a workforce in 
training and increasingly restrictive regulations. Student mobilisations 
in these neighbourhoods can take on more violent forms and are less like 
traditional demonstrations. How can we be surprised when we know the 
social and racial violence they endure daily? And let's not be mistaken: 
when students take revenge on their schools, they are symbolically 
rebelling against this entire system of oppression and selection. We 
therefore warn staff against the knee-jerk moral condemnation that would 
dismiss this movement out of hand.

All these young people, who refuse to let their gaze towards the future 
be fixed only on catastrophe, make us proud.

This generation is aware of the systematic dismantling of its schools, 
the budget cuts being made at its expense, and the hostility directed 
towards it. In recent years, it has mobilsed against police brutality, 
for climate justice, and so on. This high school student movement is 
therefore not an isolated phenomenon. Its expansion across France since 
the initial blockades in the Paris region, and its alignment with the 
public sector strike on September 29th, is not a coincidence but rather 
the result of conditions shared throughout the country.

There's plenty of money: let's take it all! 450 billion: that's the 
public money from the French rearmament plan, a windfall for the arms 
industry to maintain French imperialism. 655 million: that's the funding 
allocated to developing AI in the public sector, without any 
consultation with employees on the usefulness of this tool, but simply 
to create opportunities for speculation. 1,400 positions: that's the 
planned creation for the police and gendarmerie to continue the 
repression of our legitimate protests. No one can call this a technical 
problem; it's a political choice. It's a class struggle .

The Macron regime is increasingly concerned about this uprising, 
remembering the days of May-June 1968. It notes the frequent attacks on 
high schools by angry students, inflicting millions of euros damage. It 
fears the increasing possibility of workers joining in the movement. 
This accounts for its increasingly brutal repression. The most recent 
horrific incident was on October 6th, when a 15 year old student had a 
hand blown off by a stun grenade.

Parcoursup is a web portal designed by the French Ministry of Education 
and the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, 
which manages the balance between undergraduate places in French 
universities and other higher education institutions, and the 
application of candidates with a high school diploma.

(From Wikipedia).

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2026/10/06/french-high-school-students-rise-up/
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