Rabat – France is heading toward another day of social unrest on October 17, as trade unions, student activists, “yellow vests” and other movements seek to unite to protest against dysfunctions in education and public sectors, in addition to the cost of living.
The campaign titled “Yellow Vests and Youth, Our Struggles Meet,” calls on students, workers, farmers, firefighters, teachers, healthcare workers, climate activists, and pensioners to join forces. Organizers want to turn separate protests over education, wages, fuel prices, and public services into a broader movement against austerity and declining purchasing power. The campaign’s appeal also criticizes rising household expenses and what it describes as an unfair distribution of wealth.
The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) has backed the high school and university protests, calling on its members to stand alongside young people during the October 13 mobilization. Its national leadership has also urged workers to organize workplace assemblies and build closer ties between student protesters and employees.
Its Toulouse University Hospital branch has called for mobilization on October 13 and 17. The Solidaires union has also encouraged workers to join the October 17 protests in Dijon.
CGT Secretary-General Sophie Binet also called for a major overhaul of the government’s 2027 budget, warning that it “sacrifices young people.” Speaking today on LCI, she rejected what she described as “cosmetic announcements,” arguing that they would not address the depth of public anger.
Binet pointed to plans to cut 1,588 teaching positions, reduce university funding by €200 million and freeze housing benefits and student grants. “We cannot play Russian roulette with our children’s future,” she said.
The union has urged the government to abandon austerity measures and address demands for better-funded schools, improved working conditions and stronger public services.
The video game workers’ union STJV has called for strikes and demonstrations on both dates.
Four organizations have signed the wider campaign’s appeal, including Coordination régionale Bloquons tout Île-de-France, Indignons-nous, Bloquons tout, Maintenant! and Peuple RÉVOLTÉ. Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel and Ecologists leader Marine Tondelier have also expressed support for the wider protests.
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The movement comes as France faces growing anger over deteriorating school infrastructure, teacher shortages and inequalities in access to education. On October 9, Reuters reported that student unions planned to continue their protests despite the government’s promise to deploy 3,000 qualified teachers to schools facing the greatest shortages.
But the scale of the response from French authorities has raised concerns of its own. Between September 21 and October 8, police arrested 6,877 people in connection with the high school protests, according to figures reported by Le Monde, with most detainees being minors.
Critics have questioned whether police custody has become a tool to discourage young people from protesting. An opinion piece in Le Monde argued that the widespread use of police custody risked deterring young people from joining future demonstrations, noting that more than six in 10 detainees faced no prosecution.
The Syndicat de la magistrature, France’s magistrates’ union, also criticized the police response as “brutal” and “not adapted” to the protests, according to TF1 Info.
Amnesty International separately called on authorities to protect young people’s right to peaceful assembly and investigate reports of dangerous police use of tear gas, batons and rubber bullets.
