> ## 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.

# Who are the High School Anti-Capitalists?
- URL: https://redflag.org.au/article/who-are-the-high-school-anti-capitalists/
- Published: 2026-08-18T23:49:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-18T23:49:23.000Z
- Author: David Ye
- Tags: Students, Activism and Reports

High School Anti-Capitalists is the radical organisation that called thousands of students out of class and onto the streets to protest Pauline Hanson on 13 August. It was a historic 15,000-strong [nationwide walkout](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-13/one-nation-students-protest-pauline-hanson/107033644?ref=redflag.org.au) against the far right. In Victoria alone, students from more than 120 schools, from [Wodonga ](https://www.bordermail.com.au/story/9329523/wodonga-students-walkout-in-challenge-to-one-nation-policies/?ref=redflag.org.au)to Traralgon, joined the demonstration.

Although Pauline Hanson is deeply unpopular among my generation, the anger of attendees was directed at more than one politician or party. Many high school students were there to denounce the entire capitalist system. Callum Bell, a high school organiser and member of Socialist Alternative, declared [in his speech](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcAcGw2C7oL/?igsh=NmR2bTQ5bW54bHJr&ref=redflag.org.au) at the State Library of Victoria: “I think we need a revolution to tear this system down!” Cheers echoed through the city, probably giving corporate executives in surrounding skyscrapers a headache.

Predictably, our protest has driven the political right mad. We’ve been likened to Pol Pot, Mao’s Cultural Revolution and fascists (the last two, incredibly, in the [same article](https://www.spectator.com.au/2026/08/the-pauline-protests-a-day-out-during-maos-cultural-revolution/?ref=redflag.org.au)). James Morrow, co-host of the right-wing talk show *Outsiders*, complained last week: “Mainstream Labor is far to the right of the people who are organising these protests”. James, I’m afraid you’re spot on.

The Labor Party has enthusiastically run capitalism in Victoria for 23 of the past 27 years, ensuring that Indigenous children can be incarcerated for life, while leaving our schools and hospitals in states of chronic disrepair.

At the end of a recent press conference, Premier Ben Carroll whined about our protest: “The best way to change your future in the world is to get an education and to stay in school”. Really, Ben? If you really cared about the state of our education system, maybe you wouldn’t have secretly cut [$2.4 billion](https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/victoria-secretly-slices-2-4b-from-public-schools-delays-funding-promise-20250507-p5lxem.html?ref=redflag.org.au) in funding from public schools.

High School Anti-Capitalists has a radical program that seeks to unite left-wing students from across our schools into a single organisation. We want to channel the anger that young people have towards capitalism into a fighting force.

High schools are oppressive institutions that stifle the expression and creativity of students, and transform teenagers into obedient toilers for our future bosses. The practice of calling our teachers by their titles and last names, the need to ask permission to go to the toilet, and punitive and ridiculous uniform policies are there to keep us submissive.

The school system entrenches the class divide in society, segregating the poor from the wealthy. In underfunded public schools, horror story after horror story emerges. [Concrete falling through the ceiling](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-02/collingwood-college-falling-concrete-ceiling-damage-closure/106501130?ref=redflag.org.au) of a science classroom in Collingwood College. [A floor collapsing](https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/collapsed-floors-and-safety-risks-public-schools-in-disrepair-close-classrooms-20240305-p5f9v4.html?ref=redflag.org.au) in Fitzroy North Primary School. [An entire school](https://www.michaelaepstein.com.au/post/maths-teacher-shortage?ref=redflag.org.au) was left without maths and chemistry teachers for over half a year.

Meanwhile, Scots College, an elite private school in Sydney, built a [$60 million castle](https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/great-scots-the-case-of-the-60-million-castle-and-a-vanishing-camel-20251027-p5n5l0.html?ref=redflag.org.au) before purchasing a $13,000 life-sized taxidermy camel to display in its new library. Then there’s the [$100 million Olympic-sized swimming pool](https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/rooftop-tennis-courts-and-olympic-pools-private-schools-multimillion-dollar-arms-race-20260219-p5o3lw.html?ref=redflag.org.au) at the Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne. And Brighton Grammar’s [$59 million centre](https://www.brightongrammar.vic.edu.au/community/st-andrews-tennis-club-x-the-royal-south-yarra-tennis-club/?ref=redflag.org.au) featuring a replica plane and rooftop tennis courts.

Yet, for the capitalist class, creating a rift between the rich and the poor isn’t enough. The Victorian Certificate of Examination (VCE) and its equivalents across Australia pit students against each other in a cut-throat competition. This undermines any sense of solidarity among classmates, instilling instead a dog-eat-dog mentality of late-stage capitalism.

But high school students don’t always put up with this. We stand in a long tradition of student protest movements, which have been reduced to footnotes—or erased altogether—by the school curriculum. There were demonstrations against the Vietnam War when Victorian Liberal Premier Henry Bolte [threatened to expel](https://vnf.nhan.au/underground?ref=redflag.org.au) students for participating. High school students protested against apartheid as part of the South African Students Movement (SASM), which culminated in the [Soweto Uprising](https://redflag.org.au/article/students-and-the-soweto-uprising/) of 1976.

In North Carolina last year, 30,000 high school students [walked out of class](https://www.live5news.com/2025/11/18/over-30000-charlotte-students-absent-school-protest-ice-operation-reports-say/?ref=redflag.org.au) to protest against President Trump’s fascist Immigration Department thugs. In October 2025, Italian high school students [blockaded and occupied](https://redflag.org.au/article/italys-general-strike-shows-the-way-forward/) their schools following Israel’s attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla. Moreover, high school students overthrew their governments in [Bangladesh](https://redflag.org.au/article/from-hope-to-dismay-what-happened-to-bangladeshs-gen-z-revolution/), [Madagascar](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/17/gen-z-victory-young-protesters-toppled-madagascar-leader?ref=redflag.org.au) and [Nepal](https://redflag.org.au/article/protesting-with-gen-z-in-morocco/) as a part of the “Gen Z” uprisings against austerity, authoritarianism and corruption.

For many young people like me, the gulf between our expectations of the world and reality has grown too large to reconcile: while the [targeted bombing](https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/05/14/gaza-israelis-attacking-known-aid-worker-locations?ref=redflag.org.au) of aid trucks in Gaza was livestreamed onto our phones, mainstream parties and politicians jumped immediately to Israel’s defence, and smeared our anti-war movement.

The years of experience of our members in campaigns led by Students for Palestine and Socialist Alternative have put the High School Anti-Capitalists in good stead to play a role in various movements. On 11 March, the High School Anti-Capitalists drew hundreds of students onto the streets for the tenth nationwide student strike for Palestine since October 2023\. On 24 March, and again on 23 July, the High School Anti-Capitalists marched in solidarity with our striking teachers and education support staff and their demands for better wages and conditions.

Although 13 August was an exhilarating day, we can’t forget that the political situation is pressing and that building the left is an urgent task. With One Nation waiting in the wings and governments around the world bracing for a barbaric imperialist war, attending one demonstration is not enough—we need to grow a movement with permanence and clear aims. We need socialist organisations.

This is the project of the High School Anti-Capitalists. We are a radical organisation of school students across Australia that refuses to moderate our politics when our rulers whinge. We lead movements in response to all the horrors that capitalism creates. And we fight like hell for a better world—a world where the rule of a parasitical minority is replaced with a society built according to human need.

We call on all left-wing high school students to join their local High School Anti-Capitalists chapter. Let’s make the next walkout on 17 September even bigger, so we can put Pauline Hanson—and along with her, capitalism—into the dustbin of history.