EUROPE RISES: YOUTH AND WORKERS ON STRIKE!
STATEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN LEFT
“Educate yourselves because we’ll need all your intelligence.
Rouse yourselves because we’ll need all your enthusiasm.
Organise yourselves because we’ll need all your strength.”
— Antonio Gramsci
The EL supports the call by trade unions for general strikes in France (5 November), Spain (11 November), Italy (20 November) and Belgium (23 November).
Across Europe, young people, joined by workers, are taking to the streets in their hundreds of thousands. On 17 October alone, massive demonstrations took place in France, Italy and Portugal, while in Albania and Serbia, a new generation is revolting against authoritarianism and corruption.
Tax the rich, not our future!” protesters declare in France.
“Money for education, not for war!” reads a slogan in Italy.
“Higher wages to protect our purchasing power!” is the demand in Portugal.
These slogans could just as easily be heard in any of these countries.
The struggles are the same.
The streets of Belgium, Germany, Spain and Greece have also filled with young people rising up in anger against soaring rents, an elitist education system and compulsory military service.
And everywhere, those in power respond with intensified state repression and the same tired accusations: young people are being “manipulated”, and protests are dismissed as acts of vandalism. These accusations are used to delegitimise the movement of hundreds of thousands of people expressing their dissent peacefully.
Neither the governments nor the European institutions can escape their responsibility.
The European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council must respond to the demands of young people and society at large.
They cannot conceal a deeper truth:
That education, housing and employment are in crisis.
That the current system is running out of steam.
That militarisation and war are the only vision for society it has left to offer.
That young people no longer see a future for themselves within this system.
They have decided to change the course of history.
The struggles are converging — within countries and across borders.
We call for solidarity with the trade union mobilisation in France and the general strikes in Spain and Italy.
We unequivocally condemn the Albanian authorities’ brutal use of force and demand the immediate release of all political detainees of the Flamingo movement.
The Party of the European Left supports the “Student List – Students Are Winning” in Serbia’s early parliamentary elections on 25 October.
The European Left stands on the right side of history. We will not sacrifice human rights, social justice or climate justice for geopolitical convenience. We therefore commit our political family to immediate, concrete action.
Yes, in this turbulent autumn of capitalism, everything can change. The gulf between abundance and deprivation can finally be bridged. Beneath the rubble lies hope. And in that hope, we find a sober reason for optimism.
Everything can change. Everything.