The student protests in France and Spain are in the news, and some of this news is reaching the USA. I think these student movements are very important. While the mainstream media focus on “violence breaks out,” etc., the protests in the main are non-violent, now (in France) with the students’ parents and the general population marching in support. And the protests are spreading beyond national borders. Where this is going is hard to say, but I would like to note that these protests are mobilized in part by the increase in national defense expenditures among all European countries, and thus the shortage of money – the “austerity” - that governments are implementing in order to spend more for the military. In this sense, the ability of European governments to “buy off” protests by implementing “reforms” is highly constrained, and of necessity the governments’ “go to” strategy must be repression. This of course will only spread the protests, at least in the short term.
There are 3 reasons for the increase in NATO military expenditures
1. Russia’s war on Ukraine, beginning in 2022, along with Trump’s threatened detachment of the US from NATO, has frightened European governments, leading to increases in military spending.
2. In 2014, during Obama’s presidency, NATO mandated that each country would increase its military expenses to 2 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). A report on how this went as of 2024 can be read here.
3. The NATO summit at The Hague in 2025 mandated that member states must spend 5 percent of GDP on “defense” by 2034, of which 3.5 percent would be spend on “traditional” military things and 1.5 percent would be spend on “broader defence- and security-related” spending, such as investments to defend critical infrastructure and networks, bolster civil resilience, and strengthen defense industrial bases. [Read More]
THE STUDENT PROTESTS
Many of the student protests are focused on Europe’s “affordability crisis,” from a young, working-class perspective. This is most notable in France, with a focus on decaying schools and lack of teachers, and in Spain, with a focus on (un)affordable housing and bleak prospects for graduates from non-elite high schools. The French student strikes have now spread to Belgium. In Germany, recent student strikes reflect opposition to militarism, as the government takes steps to impose a military draft (so far only for boys). An international student strike against war is scheduled for November 20 [Learn More].
I’m sure there are many more student protests that I’m not considering. In the UK for example, young people were the power behind the pro-Palestinian and climate-crisis demonstrations. Pro-Palestinian demos were/are also strong in Italy, Turkey, and many other countries. The prospects for radical, working-class, youth-led anti-capitalist movements, perhaps united across national borders, seems to me to be a real possibility. And student movements now are acting at the beginning of their school year, not in May or June as so often happens. Will “the movement” spread to the USA, as France 1968 inspired the Columbia strike, and as the “Arab Spring” helped inspire Occupy? You never know.
Here are some reports & videos from/about the European student uprising.
France
(Video) French High School Students Lead Mass Protests over School Funding, Inequality; Thousands Arrested
From Democracy Now! [October 6, 2026]
---- Nearly 2,000 French high schools are blockaded or closed today amid massive student-led protests over school funding and inequality. The demonstrations began in September at a single school in the economically deprived suburbs of Paris, where students protested teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated school buildings beset by rats, falling debris and more. But the scope of the protests has widened amid a violent crackdown by French police. French authorities have arrested more than 5,000 people, largely underage students, since the movement began. Violent police tactics have led to serious injuries. One protester lost an eye after being hit by a rubber bullet, while another lost a hand when he picked up a police stun grenade. We hear from an anonymous protester who describes the violence meted out on students, who “aren’t even adults yet,” and from Claire Vigneau, general secretary of Fédération Syndicale Étudiante, the French student union, who reports from a protest in Rennes, Brittany, “where we are trying to escape from the policemen that are chasing us with tear gas and with water cannon[s].” “The amount of spending that France has done on education has stagnated, if not declined,” explains French American journalist Cole Stangler. “The critiques that high school students are making are actually very similar to what teachers’ unions have been saying for quite some time.” [See the Program]
(Video) Can the French government meet students’ demands?
From Aljazeera [“Inside Story”] [October 7, 2026]
---- The French government is facing an existential dilemma: people are calling for more, but the means to meet those demands have shrunk. France’s public debt exceeds the size of its economy. And Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has proposed budget cuts in the midst of a cost of living crisis. The changes are likely to affect healthcare, pensions and education. Students are angry. They complain that schools are already overcrowded, understaffed and ill equipped. Conditions, they say, would only worsen if the budget is slashed. How can the government manage expectations and put its finances in order? [See the Program]
Why French Students Are Revolting [from Sunday’s newsletter]
By June Loper and Harrison Stetler, The Nation [October 2, 2026]
---- The elephant in French classrooms, as just about anyone who has recently taught or studied in the country’s education system will tell you, is stretched resources. Classes are filled to the brim, with teaching increasingly delegated to intermittent instructors. … The scope of the protests is perhaps best summed up in the clampdown that has followed, as media and government figures alike harp on the exceptional incidents of violence, such as the burning of Lycée Nelson Mandela in Nantes. On October 1 alone, nearly 2,000 people were arrested, with scores of schools now closed by administrative order and conducting online courses, in an effort to mitigate the effects of the blockades. As of Friday afternoon, however, the situation shows few signs of slowing down. A day of national mobilization and strikes is called for October 6. [Read More]
SPAIN
(Video) Forcible Eviction of 87-Year-Old Madrid Woman Sparks Protest Encampment over Spain’s Housing Crisis
From Democracy Now! [September 28, 2026]
---- The eviction of 87-year-old María del Carmen Abascal Martín in Madrid, after an investment fund bought her apartment building and more than tripled her rent, has become a symbol of Spain’s rising cost of living and sparked nationwide protests against corporate greed and wealth inequality. Over 600 protesters are now camped outside Madrid’s regional government headquarters demanding new tenant protections. ...in’s government this week. Housing in Spain, as in much of the world, “is really connected to tourism, really connected to having and buying a house to make a speculation,” says socialist parliamentarian Tesh Sidi, who is calling instead for the guaranteed right to housing and “the right to have an affordable life.” Sidi, the only Sahrawi member of the Spanish parliament, also comments on Spain’s colonial relationship to Western Sahara and the state of Sahrawi rights and self-determination. [See the Program]
GERMANY
(Video) Berlin Protests: Students Reject Military Service as Germany Rearms
From Times Now World [September 26, 2026]
---- Thousands of students joined a nationwide school strike in Berlin on Friday to protest Germany’s new military service system and the possibility of compulsory service. Demonstrators marched through the German capital, criticised increased military spending and placed military letters into a shredding box, while police detained some protesters and pushed back crowds. Germany’s military service law, which took effect in January, does not restore general conscription but requires young men to complete a mandatory questionnaire on their willingness and suitability to serve. Military service remains voluntary for now, while mandatory medical assessments for men born in 2008 or later are scheduled to begin in July 2027. If voluntary recruitment falls short, the Bundestag can consider needs-based compulsory service. [See the Program]
Students strike across Germany in protest against military service
By Bethany Bell, BBC [September 25, 2026]
---- School strikes are taking place across Germany to protest against the possible reintroduction of compulsory military service. One of the organisers of the strike, Bela Breitner, from School Strike Against Compulsory Military Service said the federal government was “serious about gradually reintroducing compulsory military service”. At one protest in Hamburg, demonstrators waved flags and held up banners emblazoned with the words “We won’t take part in your wars”. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has made boosting Germany’s military a priority following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A new law introducing voluntary military service came into force in January, with the aim of recruiting volunteers to increase the number of soldiers. … The organisers of the protests, say the trigger came after some 18-year-olds in the northern German towns of Kiel and Flensburg, were sent official invitations for medical exams, even though they expressed no interest in joining the army on their registration forms. The group says over a hundred demonstrations are planned across Germany, including in Kiel, Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. … Germany’s former Chancellor, Angela Merkel, ended compulsory military service in 2011. But now, in the face of perceived threats from Russia and heavy pressure from Germany’s traditional ally, the US, Merz has vowed to transform the Bundeswehr into Europe’s strongest conventional army. The Bundeswehr currently has around 186,700 troops. By the early 2030s, Germany wants to raise the number to 260,000, supplemented by around 200,000 reservists, in order to meet new Nato force targets and strengthen Germany’s defences. [Read More]
Fourth nationwide school strike in Germany: 45,000 protest against conscription
From World Socialist Web Site [October 1, 2026]
---- Tens of thousands of school students across Germany once again took to the streets against the reintroduction of conscription. According to the “School Strike Against Conscription” alliance, more than 45,000 people took part in around 100 cities in the September 25 protests. In Berlin alone, 3,400 students demonstrated, 1,900 in Hamburg, 700 in Munich and 600 in Kiel, with several hundred also in Dresden, Leipzig, Frankfurt and Nuremberg. It was the fourth nationwide school strike in 10 months. The strikes show the continuing opposition among young people to the return of conscription and the war policy bound up with it. At the same time, the German government has begun compulsory medical screening of young men and has dramatically stepped up rearmament, war propaganda against Russia and social attacks. The widespread anger at the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz was most recently expressed in the state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in which the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) suffered heavy losses. [Read More]
ITALY
(Video) Italy Erupts: Rome Student Protest Escalates! Cavour Occupied As Flare Burns On Israeli Flag
From Mirrow Now [October 7, 2026]
---- Students occupied Rome’s Liceo Scientifico Cavour as school protests spread across the Italian capital. Demonstrators called for more funding for education instead of war and militarisation, while criticising what they described as growing police repression. The protests followed assemblies and pickets at several Rome schools, with students saying they were inspired by recent demonstrations in France and Germany. Student groups have announced further mobilisation against war, militarisation and what they describe as increasing repression. [See the Program]
Thanks to the student movements, Europe may be about to have serious changes. But that’s all from me, for now.
Frank Brodhead
For Concerned Families of Westchester
