EXCLUSIVE OPINION by Revolutionary Communist Party of France on recent protests

On Class Struggles in France

Emmanuel Macron’s bourgeois government has now been in office for nearly ten years. Emmanuel Macron and his entire bourgeois staff were chosen by the French monopolies for the long term, given their strong track record in key strategic areas for the French bourgeoisie. From an international perspective, the goal within the European Union and on the European continent was to intensify efforts to take the lead in the imperialist alliance and to strengthen a military and economic capacity that is strategically independent of the imperialist European Union. This international aspect is linked to the national offensives of our bourgeoisie. Indeed, in addition to—and alongside—the race for new technologies, the monopolies are moving toward a war economy in which all sectors are, by and large, subordinated to it. These national and international advances require the destruction of the gains secured during the anti-fascist Resistance, such as public education, our social security system for healthcare, and pensions. Macron’s two presidencies embody this strategy but also reflect these successes—and thus the defeats for the working class and working-class youth—as exemplified by the 2023 pension counter-reform. This has led to a catastrophic state of education in France, which our party has documented year after year. Among the high school students’ demands in September 2026 were, for example, the effective replacement of absent teachers, more non-teaching staff (CPEs, AEDs, AESHs, nurses, etc.), an increase in funding for education, the renovation of dilapidated school infrastructure, and the elimination of selection platforms that bar access to higher education, such as “Parcoursup.”

During these years in office, the intensification of class struggles led to the emergence of extra-parliamentary struggles among the working classes, as exemplified by the “Yellow Vests” movement that began in 2018. This spontaneous movement, which originated in the struggle against the high cost of living, organized democratic spaces as alternatives to those of bourgeois democracy.

The combination of the objective factor of the crisis of the imperialist system, the strategy of our monopolies within it, and—subjectively—a tendency toward extra-parliamentary organization of class struggles has given rise to the movement we have now been witnessing for more than three weeks. The youth revolt—marked by high school blockades and occupations, as well as spontaneous demonstrations—resonated with the Yellow Vests and their resurgence. These developments led to a shift from a youth movement for education to a broad popular movement against austerity budgets and the high cost of living, the first major manifestation of which was the massive demonstrations on October 17 and their unprecedented repression. The leaderships of the CGT and the trade union confederations found themselves overwhelmed by their strategy of acting as social partners and appealing to or pressuring presidential candidates through debates on policy issues or demonstrations featuring personal testimonies.

In this complex situation, our young party—founded in 2016—and its youth wing have been actively involved in diverse ways throughout France to the best of their ability, guided by the slogan we launched two years ago: “Money for the people’s needs, not for war—let’s denounce capitalism!” First and foremost, we have called for the strengthening of a class-based, mass-based union movement capable of supporting and amplifying the struggles of young people in the workplace. Thus, our unionized comrades have called on members to join the mobilization, to defend young people against police repression, and to promote, within their unions, the strike as an essential tool of solidarity in the class struggle.

Politically, our party and its youth wing also worked to broaden the demands in order to direct them toward a clear indictment of the source of all our ills, beyond the bourgeois governments of Emmanuel Macron or anyone else: capitalism. For example, starting in the very first week of mobilization, our youth wing also called for expanding the demands to include an end to all forms of compulsory and unpaid labor, such as corporate internships in secondary and higher education. Finally, another key focus of our party’s work was to support and strengthen the extra-parliamentary initiatives underway in the high school student movement, just as we have done since October 17. Indeed, with the bourgeois presidential elections set for April 2027, our party considers it crucial to begin building a strong popular movement now—one capable of rejecting any bourgeois party, whether social-democratic or not, as an illusory solution to this crisis. It is through experiencing methods of struggle and alternative forms of organization to bourgeois democracy—such as direct democracy—that the masses come to realize that another society is possible, led by a different kind of party: the vanguard party. To this end, our party and its youth wing have engaged in outreach work with young people and workers, in solidarity efforts for victims of police repression through independent financial and organizational channels, and by actively participating, as young comrades, in leading university blockades.