Following are two commentaries that I find helpful in understanding what’s currently happening in France and other countries in Europe. The first of these is written by photojournalist Guy Smallman who is on the ground in Paris.
Saturday, October 17th saw the biggest student uprising in France since the defeat of Sarkozy’s CPE legislation in the mid 2000s. An estimated 800,000 protested across the country. Saturday was billed as the mother of all protests as the movement of secondary school students was to be joined by the famous “Yellow Vests” . . . a loose knit movement of largely working-class protestors who brought France to a standstill eight years ago when demos against fuel hikes became a decentralised direct-action movement against inequality. They caused massive economic damage to the French state and regularly fought the cops off the streets. They were largely unconnected to the organized French left and trade unions. Their unruly campaign achieved a lot of its objectives causing Macron to scrap a raft of neoliberal proposals.
Yesterday they had little or no presence on the protest in Paris but there were plenty of the trademark high-vis garments on display. Being worn by their children. The state has thrown everything at the secondary school students who have imposed militant blockades of their schools over the appalling state of education. The repression has achieved little other than making the protests more militant. Students have been blinded and mutilated by the cops rubber bullets and stun grenades. Over 6,000 (majority of whom are under 18) have been arrested, yet still they march and disrupt.
It is also very clear that these mobilisations are about much more than just the state of secondary education.
These protests are militantly antifascist. There is a very genuine fear that after 8 years of neoliberal misery, inflicted on the French people by Macron’s technocratic failures, the door is now open for fascist Le Pen at next year’s Presidential elections. For the youth of France this thought is utterly abhorrent.
They fully understand the real causes of their pain and their anti-racist instincts have been cemented by the behavior of the cops towards students of colour. Particularly in the poorer suburbs of the cities, like the banlieues of Paris. Many of them chant the chorus of antifascist anthem “Porcherie” by ’90s punk band Beruier Noir. A song written over a decade before most of them were born.
The other issue that dominates is Palestine. Generation Z care little for the billionaire owned outlets of the mainstream media. Their news comes from sources like Instagram where the ongoing livestreamed genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank has become a focus for the injustice they see everywhere coming from the “Epstein class.” Racism against French Muslims, particularly Algerians, has also played its part.
[. . .] It was clear that the incredible numbers seen in Paris and across France had brought the youth to a place where they had lost their fear and decided it was payback time for weeks of police brutality and a rotten system that is robbing them of their future. They fully understand how the broken economic model they endure is hurtling them towards a fascist dystopia full of social, economic and environmental ruin. Why the fuck should anyone be expected to behave themselves in such circumstances?
The following photographs were taken on the streets of Paris yesterday (October 17, 2026) by Guy Smallman.
Here’s the second piece I’m sharing today. It’s written by Carmen Eckard who posted it earlier today on Facebook.
Something enormous is happening in France right now, and I don’t think Americans are paying nearly enough attention.
Yesterday, somewhere between 550,000 and 800,000 people took to the streets across France. Not for a concert. Not for a celebration. They’re furious about the cost of living, the condition of their schools, and a government they believe has stopped listening to ordinary people.
And here’s the part I find especially interesting. This whole movement started with high school students.
For weeks, French teenagers have been protesting overcrowded classrooms, crumbling school buildings, teacher shortages, and education cuts. They’ve blockaded schools and demanded better conditions. And instead of quietly going back to class, they’ve managed to ignite something much bigger.
Workers joined them. Labor unions joined them. And then members of France’s famous Yellow Vest movement, the people who brought the country to a standstill over fuel prices and economic inequality back in 2018, started showing up too.
Now you’ve got teenagers standing alongside people who are worried about putting food on the table, paying their electric bills, and surviving on their wages or pensions. Different generations, different problems, but a whole lot of shared frustration.
And yesterday it exploded.
There were demonstrations in roughly 110 locations across the country. In Paris, police used tear gas and water cannons as clashes broke out. Shops were looted. Cars burned. In Limoges, a historic city hall was set on fire. There was serious destruction in several other cities, too.
I want to be clear about something. Hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully. The people setting buildings on fire and looting businesses were not representative of everyone who came out to protest. You can support the right to protest and still recognize that destroying public buildings and terrorizing people isn’t helping anybody.
But I also think it would be a mistake to let the images of burning cars become the entire story.
Because the story is that hundreds of thousands of people have reached a point where they believe their government isn’t responding to their needs. And it began with kids asking for decent schools.
Think about that for a minute.
Teenagers complained about the conditions in their classrooms, and their frustration connected with something that was already simmering throughout the country. Parents were frustrated. Workers were frustrated. Retirees were frustrated. And suddenly all those separate complaints became one enormous national movement. France’s government says approximately 550,000 people participated. Organizers say 800,000. Either way, that’s an extraordinary number of people.
President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the violence, and the government has promised to prosecute those responsible for the destruction. That’s understandable. But the bigger political problem isn’t going to disappear when the streets are cleaned up.
People still have to buy groceries. They still have to pay their bills. And those students still have to go back into the same classrooms that started all of this. I’ve always found it fascinating how often young people are the ones who finally force a society to confront problems adults have spent years tolerating.
And there’s something worth thinking about here in America, too. Not because our circumstances are identical to France’s, but because frustration over education, wages, inequality, and the cost of simply existing certainly isn’t unique to the French.
It’s remarkable how many enormous political movements begin with ordinary people asking for things that really shouldn’t be extraordinary.
A decent education. A livable wage. Affordable necessities. A government that listens.
France is showing us what can happen when enough people decide they’ve had enough. Whether its leaders respond to the underlying problems, or simply to the unrest, is going to matter a great deal.
Related Off-site Links:
French High School Students Lead Mass Protests Over School Funding, Inequality; Thousands Arrested – Democracy Now! (October 6, 2026).
“Savagery”: Horrific Injuries as French Police Crack Down on Nationwide Student Protests – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams (October 6, 2026).
“This Is Going Global”: Anti-Austerity Protests Spread From Spain and France to Chile, Belgium, and Beyond – Julia Conley (Common Dreams (October 8, 2026).
Tens of Thousands March in Solidarity with Students in France – Democracy Now! (October 14, 2026).
“The Government is Trembling”: Protests Erupt in France, Spreading to 140 Cities – Brad Reed (Common Dreams (October 17, 2026).
