> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://redflag.org.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # “If they won’t give us a future, we will build one right here” - why the French revolt should inspire high-schoolers everywhere - URL: https://redflag.org.au/article/if-they-wont-give-us-a-future-we-will-build-one-right-here-why-the-french-revolt-should-inspire-high-schoolers-everywhere/ - Published: 2026-11-06T05:04:22.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-06T05:04:22.000Z - Description: Young people everywhere are facing a dire future, and revolt is rightly spreading. It’s clear even to some in the establishment that what’s happening in France is part of a global wave of protest with deep roots. - Author: Odessa Bishop-McMurray - Tags: Activism and Reports, Far Right As one of the organisers of the upcoming nationwide *Students Say No to Hanson* demonstration on 12 November, I’ve had to endure a lot of inanity from the media and the right. Amongst snide remarks about the stages of brain development and warnings of the mortal dangers of missing two periods of class, one accusation keeps coming up: that we’re plotting to bring “French-style riots” to Australian cities. Right-wing journalists seized on an Instagram post we made on 11 October, conveying the inspiration we draw from French student protesters fighting government austerity and the far right. Cue an avalanche of hysterical headlines and news segments: The Murdoch-owned Adelaide *Advertiser* warned readers to brace for “walkouts ‘inspired’ by violent French protests”. Pauline Hanson went on Brisbane’s 4BC Radio to rip into us: > “...They are saying they are inspired by what’s going on in France. What? The *looting*? The *burning*? The *destruction*? They’re *inspired* by that?” Well, we’re not sorry for being inspired by French students. Everyone who wants to see a better world should identify with their struggle. Young people everywhere are facing a dire future, and revolt is rightly spreading. It’s clear even to some in the establishment that what’s happening in France is part of a global wave of protest with deep roots. As former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote this week in *The Guardian*: “A global youthquake is happening. Promises we made young people have been broken—and they know it.” Both far-right governments and “sensible centrists” are taking us on the same trajectory: more racism, more militarism, and more austerity. When states aren’t attempting to re-introduce conscription, as in Germany, they’re funnelling billions into the military-industrial complex while schools crumble. In France, students endure classrooms infested with cockroaches, mould and overcrowding, sometimes numbering 35 students to a class. We’ll likely never be able to afford secure housing or sufficient healthcare. We’ve watched politicians choose fossil fuel companies over the habitability of our planet. For many of us, the establishment’s unanimous endorsement of Israel’s genocide in Gaza was the final nail in the coffin. It’s obvious that the journalists’ and politicians’ pearl-clutching about a few broken Parisian shop windows is a means of avoiding discussion of these issues. And their condemnation of violence rings hollow when they decline to comment on the vastly greater violence that the system inflicts on people daily. There’s the violence that is inherent in running such an unequal society. French youth linger without a future in the slums while the richest 500 families own nearly half the country. Schools and hospitals in France are crumbling, but the latest budget announcement includes 54 billion euros in further cuts to public spending. The police systematically brutalise Black and Arab working-class migrants. The high-profile killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, which sparked a nationwide revolt in 2023, is part of a long history of racialised policing. When these injustices generate resistance, there’s one public service the government can guarantee: the bludgeoning of protestors, tear gas, and potentially lethal stun grenades; exploding a student’s hand, breaking another’s jaw and leaving two 16-year-olds blinded for life. This is an inherent admission that the ruling class has no genuine plan to improve society. They just want resignation from ordinary people, and when that fails, tear gas is their backup plan. But French students have shown that resignation gets us nowhere; Our power comes from the streets, and that’s a lesson the ruling class desperately does not want students to learn. Already, France has shown small glimpses of how these movements can win real gains. While still hoping to crush the movement, the government has already been forced to make concessions. They’ve announced plans to cap class sizes, hire more teachers, and create more university places. This is a tiny fraction of what the movement is demanding, but it proves a timeless truth: a month of rebellion can win more change than decades of asking nicely. A grassroots student movement in Serbia just ended the 14-year rule of the repressive Vučić regime. In Brazil, thousands of students flocked to the streets to successfully halt the advance of far-right presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. It seems like young people are doing a lot of the heavy lifting in confronting the far right, authoritarianism and inequality. This is definitely the case in Australia, where the establishment has spent the entire year cringing and simpering in front of One Nation. It’s taken groups like High School Anti-Capitalists to call demonstrations and try to put up a fight. We’re ready to take on Pauline Hanson again on 12 November because we want to see her politics driven to the fringes of society. More than that, because we have a vision of a future that is free of all inequality and oppression. Join us - we owe it to ourselves and to the brave students across the world fighting alongside us. Speaking outside her blockaded school in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, a 16-year-old protester captured the hope that students all around the world carry: > "They spend all day telling us who we are, what we can wear, and what we are allowed to hope for. But out here on the pavement, next to my classmates, they can't define us anymore. We are writing our own history now. If they won't give us a future, we will build one right here." Details of next rallies: "No to Hanson - Nationwide Student Protest Called by High School Anti-Capitalists" Thursday 12 November Melbourne - 3pm State Library Sydney - 1pm Town Hall Brisbane - 1pm King George Square Adelaide - 2pm Parliament House Perth - 2pm Northbridge Piazza Canberra - 4pm Garema Place [](https://www.instagram.com/highschoolanticapitalistsvic/?ref=redflag.org.au)More information [https://www.instagram.com/highschoolanticapitalistsvic/](https://www.instagram.com/highschoolanticapitalistsvic/?ref=redflag.org.au)