Yossi Schwartz, ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 18.10.2026
For some liberals, humanity has lost its brain, and the world is a crazy place. Not so for working-class revolutionaries who know that to prevent WWIII, it is time to overthrow the imperialist classes.
A large wave of demonstrations and protests is taking place in various European countries, including France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Albania, India, and Sri Lanka, and in many states in Latin America, over the crisis of the cost of living, the conditions of education, and the prices of fuel and housing. A crisis that began in 2008 and is deepening; the bourgeoisie has no solution and is concentrating on military investments.
In France:
Huge demonstrations by students and high school students (who have been continuing various protests for weeks), trade unions such as the CGT, and the “Yellow Vests” movement (Gilets Jaunes). The protests led to road blockades and strikes in Paris (in the Place de la République), Marseille, Lyon, and other places. The immediate causes were teachers’ and principals’ difficult conditions, neglected schools, rising fuel and energy prices, inflation, low wages, and the protection of public services. Violent clashes broke out between demonstrators and violent police forces; thousands of arrests were reported, the use of tear gas, stun grenades, and clubs, and, on the other hand, an arson response (including the Tourist Office in Lyon and a police station in Marseille)
In Portugal:
rallies and demonstrations and in the cities of Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra. The Confederation of Trade Unions (CGTP) called for action under the slogan “Higher wages, better pensions and public services”. The immediate causes were a surge in the prices of basic goods, housing, and low-income goods.
Italy:
Italian police clash with protesters in Milan, Bologna.
The clashes echoed the violence in neighboring France, where tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday in some of the country’s most violent attacks on the protests in years.
Demonstrators clashed with Police during an anti-government protest organized by the Italia in Piazza movement, at Piazza Duomo in Milan, on October 17, 2026.
Italian Police fired tear gas on Saturday at protesters who reacted by throwing stones in the square in front of Milan’s Gothic cathedral, Italian media reported, while there were also clashes in the city of Bologna following protests over the cost of living.
Police in Bologna used a water cannon to try to disperse crowds and made seven arrests.
In Milan, police using riot gear tried to clear hooded protesters from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the luxury shopping arcade on one side of the cathedral square
Italian pro Zionist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, facing an election next year, condemned the protesters. She wrote on X/Twitter, “Demonstrating is a right. Turning our cities into battlegrounds is not.” As if the police were not the violent force
Police closed the central Duomo (Cathedral) metro station during the attack. Several people were reported injured, and arrests were made, according to Italian media reports.
The event in Italy was inspired by neighboring France, where tens of thousands of people, angered by rising costs and declining public services, took to the streets on Saturday in
In Albania:
In the capital, Tirana, student demonstrations were held that were met with police violence.
The immediate reasons are protests against government corruption, high education costs and limited opportunities, and high youth unemployment.
The police used means such as tear gas and water cannons; the demonstrators threw objects and set fire to government buildings.
India:
The focus of the current protests (October 2026): A wave of large-scale demonstrations is taking place in New Delhi and Mumbai, led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) youth movement and opposition elements.
Immediate reasons for the protest: Public outrage following a comprehensive update of voter lists that removed some 130 million names, which protesters and opposition elements claim is intended to harm voters and benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist and racist ruling party (BJP). The demonstrators are demanding the resignation of the head of the Election Commission, Jaynesh Kumar.
The New Delhi police banned demonstrations in some locations (such as Jantar Mantar), arrested hundreds of protesters and activists (including CJP leaders), struck subway stations, and restricted mobile internet access in some areas of the capital.
The protest began in July 2026 when student and youth protests were held against unemployment and corruption in exams, which led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan
Sri Lanka:
On October 16, 2026, a protest march was held in front of the President’s Secretariat in Colombo (near the Shenzarin-La residence), accompanied by a heavy, violent police presence.
Sri Lanka is still reeling from the severe economic crisis that erupted in 2022 and sparked the mass protest movement known as “Aragalia” (The Struggle), which led to the resignation of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid shortages of fuel, food, and medicine, and power outages.
Activists and civil society organizations in Sri Lanka have expressed solidarity with the student and youth protest movements in India over the past few months (including in July 2026), saying the struggle continues Sri Lanka’s attempts to achieve “a whole-system change”.
Argentina:
In October 2026, clashes erupted in Buenos Aires when thousands of students, academics and trade unions took to the streets in front of the parliament to protest budget cuts by President Javier Milei, who is trying to impose the crisis of the Argentine bourgeoisie on the masses and universities and state education; the police dispersed the demonstrators with tear gas and water cannons. This was preceded in September by the “March of Rage” against economic policy in favor of the capitalists.
Mexico:
In October 2026, stormy demonstrations in Guadalajara against the backdrop of a severe water quality crisis (stinking, sediment-filled tap water) led to clashes with the police, arrests, and a reprimand from President Claudia Sheinbaum to the local police for using force. In addition, protests by families of missing people and teachers continue.
Bolivia:
During the first half of 2026 (May-June), Bolivia experienced a wave of widespread protests, road blockades, and checkpoints that imposed a kind of siege on La Paz, El Alto and Cochabamba against the backdrop of a fuel crisis and a severe economy, which led to the resignation of ministers and violent clashes.
Chile:
In October 2026, clashes broke out in Santiago after the government proposed cuts to education budgets, alongside traditional demonstrations by Mapuche groups and indigenous organizations on Columbus Day (October 12) demanding territorial rights.
Colombia:
Organizing for a general strike. In October 2026, warnings and preparations were made for protests and shutdowns in Bogotá (such as on October 14) against government policies and amid violence and social security concerns.
The ruling classes and their mass media accuse the protesters of using violent means and, in Europe, they blame the Muslims and, in all countries, the far left. The reasons for the protests are;
- The deep economic capitalist crisis that began in 2008 and goes down in the form of a spiral
2. The policies of the capitalist government that try to force the working class and the lower middle class to pay for the crisis of the capitalist system.
3. We live in the period of the historical crisis of capitalism. A period of revolutions, counter-revolutions, and wars. For extensive explanation, see Manifesto: The Revolutionary Struggle in the Era of Capitalist Collapse, in the IV Congress. The new and interesting question is why prerevolutionary protests are occurring now. The answer is the defeat of the USA and the Zionist states in the war against Iran. It has not only a psychological effect but also deepens the economic crisis because oil prices have risen. As Trotsky explained:
“I am not sufficiently acquainted with the life of the individual Latin American countries to permit myself a concrete answer on the questions you pose. At any rate, it is clear to me that these countries cannot solve their internal tasks without a simultaneous revolutionary struggle against imperialism. The agents of the United States, England, France (Lewis, Jouhaux, Toledano, the Stalinists) try to substitute the struggle against fascism for the struggle against imperialism. We have observed their criminal efforts at the recent congress against war and fascism. In the countries of Latin America, the agents of “democratic” imperialism are especially dangerous, since they are more capable of fooling the masses than the open agents of fascist bandits.
I will take the simplest and most obvious example. In Brazil there now reigns a semi-fascist regime that every revolutionary can only view with hatred. Let us assume, however, that England enters a military conflict with Brazil on the morrow. I ask you: on whose side of the conflict will the working class be? I will answer for myself personally—in this case I will be on the side of “fascist” Brazil against “democratic” Great Britain. Why? Because in the conflict between them it will not be a question of democracy or fascism. If England should be victorious, she will put another fascist in Rio de Janeiro and will place double chains on Brazil. If Brazil, on the contrary, should be victorious, it will give a mighty impulse to the country’s national and democratic consciousness and will lead to the overthrow of the Vargas dictatorship. The defeat of England will at the same time deliver a blow to British imperialism and will give an impulse to the revolutionary movement”.[i]
Endnotes:
[i] Leon Trotsky,Anti-Imperialist StruggleIs Key to Liberation,An Interview with Mateo Fossa (September 1938)