On September 18, students at a high school in the suburbs of Paris took to the streets to protest the appalling conditions at their schools. In response, the movement spread throughout France, with hundreds of roadblocks, protests, marches, and occupations at high schools and universities, supported by education workers. The French nation-state, which has historically trampled upon, slaughtered, and plundered peoples across the globe, is also complicit in the genocides in Africa and the Middle East to this day in order to impose its interests. For the past nine years, Le Pen and Macron have been playing a game of contrived confrontation for appearances’ sake, which in reality throws the doors wide open and undermines the normalization of totalitarianism, Islamophobia, repression, and fascism—in order to save the liberal system and the interests of the bourgeoisie. But the youth, now as in 2023, following the racist murder of 17-year-old Nael by the police, are showing the way forward for resistance. High school and college students are rising up against the deterioration of education, budget cuts (while the military budget continues to rise)—which are turning infrastructure into ruins—and a rapid reduction in staff (teachers, social workers, and others).
Protesters are once again facing deadly state repression: over 1,000 arrests in two weeks, hundreds injured by tear gas, rubber bullets fired by the cops at people’s faces, and even explosive grenades. One child was maimed by them. And while the cops—for whom a law is set to be passed in July that will allow them to kill—continue to beat even children without interference, the government continues to legitimize the repression and criminalization of young people by openly choosing to speak out and perpetuate, in the mainstream media, the narrative of extreme violence by protesters. They believe that the myth of the delinquent youth (usually of immigrant background) —with which TV channels have been trying for years to brainwash society, paving the way for the recent changes to the Penal Code and the Attal Law in 2025 and increasing the criminalization of minors—will normalize their violence. But once again, young people are showing us the path of resistance at any cost, and of organizing for a better world—against those who are stealing their future and trying to silence them.
As the Youth Structure and Children Structure of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika on Alexandras Avenue, we recognize the duty of young people to be on the front lines of the struggle at all costs. By the same logic, in order to protect the interests of the elites, the cops indiscriminately kill minors in Greece; using the same myth of youth delinquency, they shape criminal codes to further criminalize them; they conduct body searches on children in the street; they arrest students—even middle schoolers—and hold them in cells when they organize to demand the obvious right to better conditions in their schools; they snatch young people and minors from the neighborhood, threaten them with rape, and label them as terrorists. And that is exactly how they ended up at our great march for reconnection and continuity of struggle, openly pushing and shoving the neighborhood children— children aged 5 to 12 who, through their courage and defiance, showed that no matter how hard they try, the youth from the grassroots cannot be intimidated. We keep the flame of struggle alive from every corner of the earth until we win.To the war waged by the state and capital against the most vulnerable segments of society, we respond with:
RESISTANCE—SELF-ORGANIZATION—SOLIDARITY
THEY DO NOT TERRORIZE US—THEY ENRAGE US.
Children Structure and Youth Structure of Community of Squatted Prosfygika