Young people who refuse to become victims...

Young people who refuse to become victims of unemployment, poverty, dictatorship, fascism, cannon fodder for the next world war, who do not want to submit to an increasingly unjust and violent social and political order...

You will be told that it is not a few young people, even if they are waving good ideas, who will change the world, who will stop the march towards world war, who will prevent the militarization of society, who will avoid the economic, financial, and social crash, who will find a solution to the gigantic debts, who will stop the social, ideological, moral, and psychological decline, who will develop new perspectives for the world, for all of humanity. Well, that is false : the latest wave of revolts in the world has demonstrated once again that youth is the flame of revolution and that any real change in society cannot be achieved without them.

You will be told that it is not a revolutionary minority that can play a historic role in social transformation. Well, that is false : the French Revolution (1789-1793) was indeed led by revolutionary minorities and it irreversibly uprooted feudalism. And this is just one example. French society, which claims to be republican, too often forgets that "republican" originally meant a supporter of the revolution to overthrow the old social and political regime ! Today, politicians who call themselves "republicans" are resolute opponents of any social revolution !

But what makes this revolution necessary ? A revolution is a violent act that can only happen if the alternative is much worse. And that is the case : if the revolution does not triumph, the world will descend into the world war that everyone is already preparing for. And not only into war, but also into poverty, unemployment, and the panic linked to the collapse of all the economic and social forces of capitalism, into the products of this fear : dictatorship and fascism. We have seen what these situations produce. Everyone has had the opportunity to see entire fields planted with crosses beneath which millions of 18-20 year-olds rest. Those who want to say "not me !" still have the opportunity to do so... This requires preparing a world other than that of capitalism, which inevitably leads to barbarism and the slaughter of war.

Yes, a minority that offers perspectives to an entire society in a dead end, that refuses to obey an increasingly unjust social order, that refuses to recognize outdated social rules, that is not afraid to move towards a new world, that is not afraid to address the most deprived, that does not regret that capitalism is living its last moments but on the contrary wants to take advantage of it to open the doors to a new world, yes such a minority can play a great historical role in the phase of generalized fall, of giant breakdown, of dead end of the old economic and social system that we are experiencing.

It is not with a few generous ideas that we will save the world, some will tell us... To take the example of the French Revolution, a few ideas that were carried by the masses did indeed shake not only France but the world of the time. Everyone recognizes the influence of a few philosophers of the Enlightenment (Diderot, Voltaire and Rousseau in particular) and of a few radical politicians (and women) like Marat, Babeuf, Robespierre and Olympe de Gouges. Leaders of the masses are often less cited but just as important for revolutionary history : Roux, Leclerc and Varlet. It was in the minds that it was first necessary to "take the Bastille" and that meant ceasing to obey in the minds of an unbearable social and political order. This is what the Blanquis, the Marxes, the Lenins, the Trotskys, the Rosa Luxemburgs and many others subsequently did. At a very young age, they already put forward ideas that very few people accepted, but which subsequent events led millions to recognize during major revolutions. And this is what is needed again today.

They failed, those who reject a new revolution will tell us. The enemies of the French Revolution also said that feudalism had triumphed, and we know what ultimately happened. Revolution, socialism, and communism have failed to transform the world, they tell us. While it is true, and everyone knows it, that capitalism dominates the entire world and is still prevalent, even in Russia and China, it is not true that socialism and communism have definitively failed, even if those who defend their perspective are few in number. It is false that Stalinism represents communism and that the latter was actually tested. Stalin’s slogan of "socialism in one country" was never Marxist or revolutionary. It was the capitalist countries that isolated the Russian Revolution and transformed it into a caricature, using the policies of the Stalinist bureaucracy to do so. The so-called Stalinist "socialism" did not overthrow capitalism because it no longer aimed at that goal, nor at power for the workers. As for capitalism, it is certainly still in power, but the ruling classes themselves recognize that it has reached... an impasse because it is... dead (the power is there, but the economic mode of operation no longer works). And this is why the question of a society that does not have capital as its goal always arises.

In fact, capitalism is coming to an end. It is socially and economically dead. The system has reached its highest level of capitalization, that is, of capital accumulation. And this was indeed its objective because the system never aimed to produce goods, nor to market them, nor to improve the standard of living of the population, nor to improve science and technology, but to increase invested capital and reinvest in the production of surplus value, that is, of new additional capital extracted from the exploitation of human labor. In this area, it has reached an insurmountable limit : if it still manages to increase its capital (notably by stealing public money or by speculating), it is no longer by investing in production because it cannot find enough profitable investments in proportion to the growth in capital. The share of total capital that is reinvested in it is constantly decreasing. This is the basis of all current crises : financial crises, speculative crises, public and private debt crises, bankruptcies, social crises, etc. This is the limit of capitalism. This is what requires us to propose a new mode of production, a new stage for humanity.

Let’s not fear the death of capitalism ! This brutal and definitive fall may seem difficult to understand. How can a society that has reached the highest peak of wealth and power, of economic and technological capabilities, fall by itself ? All the ruins of ancient societies provide answers to this question : when these societies reached their limits, they collapsed into social revolutions.

Well ! Some will tell us, capitalism is still here in 2025, even if it fell seriously in 2008-2009, and it has always recovered from the many crises it has suffered and even from world wars. This is true, but the problems that caused the fall are more serious than ever. Capital is blocked in its ascent, and this is not temporary because the more it grows, the more the share of this capital that can no longer invest grows, the more speculation climbs, the more central banks and states are forced to go into debt to prevent the fall of trusts, banks, stock markets, financiers, insurance companies, all of big capital. The propertied classes know that their system is at the end of its rope. It is the people who are not informed, who do not know that they absolutely must prepare a new perspective for humanity. This is the task of young people who want to work to advance human society instead of simply repeating that no society other than capitalism is possible, without having tried it, without having thought about it seriously.

Yes, it is possible to prepare for another future ! This does not consist of reforming institutions, participating in them, making demands within the system, or negotiating with capitalists and their representatives at the head of states. The only truly revolutionary perspective : the power of the councils of the working people ! These elected and revocable committees are the only true democracy as long as social classes and class struggle exist ! Reformists are violently hostile to this perspective. Far from seeking to rethink the world, they are content with ineffective activism against exploitative society, its wars, its dictatorial or fascist tendencies.

The force is the working people themselves, provided that they seize revolutionary ideas and make them their own through the fall of the capitalist system. We are not going to bring about this fall ; we would be incapable of it if the system did not self-destruct. But it is up to us to discuss and establish another future. Every society, every social system, has limits, and once these limits are reached, it collapses and only allows for new progress if there is a social force capable of taking over and possessing revolutionary programs and perspectives, ideas and theories. It is up to us to provide for this if we wish to play such a historic role !

To all the Gavroches of the world : bring your parents into the social revolution and overthrow the rotten exploitative system and the murderous capitalist states !

For children, it is vital to end the dominant social system in its deadly phase.

The capitalist system, definitively blocked since 2007, is in the process of general collapse and its reaction to this situation is fatal in every way for children.

Massive state aid to capitalists, to compensate for the blockage of the profit machine formerly based on productive investments and the exploitation of human labor, is destroying the budgets of public services and the first victims are children, through nurseries, schools, universities, social assistance, housing assistance, assistance for the unemployed, assistance for single women, maternal and parental leave, all social assistance which is reduced to the bare minimum.

In the health sector, the same is true, as we saw during the Covid pandemic : children have been victims in a thousand ways, they and their families have suffered the consequences of illnesses, deaths, injuries, orphans, and physical or mental disabilities. Society has in no way taken into account or supported child victims. There is no campaign to support child victims of Covid... Diseases other than Covid are also multiplying, leading to a massive increase in infant mortality and injuries and disabilities. The stress caused by all this is also skyrocketing.

The collapse of the system means increased difficulties for families, the first victims of which will be children, due to the rise in unemployment and poverty.

And more poverty means more children who become victims of economic exploitation, slavery, forced labor, sexual exploitation, abuse, beatings, threats, and death.

War strikes in every corner of the world and children are in no way protected from its consequences, from death, injuries, disabilities, loss of their families, their homes, their jobs, their security, their health, as we have seen from Afghanistan to Syria, from Libya to Iraq, from Gaza to Ukraine and so on... Here again, the solidarity of the "international community" is completely a sham.

Dictatorships and fascisms are multiplying all over the world, mortally threatening the safety of families and children.

Another, even worse, if possible, mortal threat looms over the world’s children : the world war that seeks to make them cannon fodder and bombing fodder. Every increase in arms orders means an equivalent increase in the number of children who fall victim to the horrors of war.

A capitalist world whose dynamics are completely dead can only be a tomb for all children ; it must be overthrown as quickly as possible.

Where will the youth go ? To the bourgeoisie or the proletariat ? To fascism or communism ?

A symptomatic point of an era is the way society treats its youth.

There are times when we talk to them about new constructions, new theories, new research on how the world works, and when we make a Diderot, a Galileo, a Darwin or an Einstein a model and times when we polarize young people on the one hand on the ideology of the Kalashnikov, on a Bin Laden and, on the other, on the ideology of freedom through bombing, on the new crusaders like Bush and Hollande-Valls !

Are we telling her that her future lies in knowledge, in studies that will allow her to gain recognition and jobs, or are we telling the majority, on the contrary, that there will be no place for her after her studies, whether she succeeds or not ? And if there is no future other than unemployment and precariousness, lack of employment, housing and social recognition, are we offering her as a path... violence, that of fascism or terrorism ?

Are we telling young people that workers are their future, that they must fight together for jobs, or, on the contrary, that it is the workers who have taken their jobs, who have eaten away their future retirement, who, through their demands accused of corporatism, have stolen public funds and who, through their supposedly exaggerated demands, have destroyed jobs ? Are young people being pushed towards social, union and political action or towards a disgust with democracy and a taste for a strong state, for sovereign functions ? Do we want to show young people that they have a future in the social and political struggle or that their future is to choose between Le Pen and the Bataclan ?

Are we calling on him to love humanity or to despise and hate it ? Are we telling him that past generations built a society or, on the contrary, that they destroyed the planet, its future and that they only thought of serving themselves at the expense of new generations ? Are we presenting the struggles of the popular classes as an element of the fight for the freedom of all or, on the contrary, as a rearguard fight, as an antiquity not to be preserved, as an outdated ideology of the "class struggle" when there are no longer classes but only one people ?

Is she called upon to work with others or to cultivate a fierce individualism ? Is she cultivated in her a sense of the social and the public or, conversely, is she immersed in the spirit of the superiority of the private and the personal ?

Are we pushing her to love the community or to hate it ? Are we pushing her to think she needs to exchange ideas with others or to exchange gossip ?

Is it being pushed to think that youth must free themselves from shackles or to free themselves from the ideas of freedom ? When it is attracted by ideas of radical change, is it by that of social revolution or by that of fundamentalism, armed struggle or war ?

Is she calling on him to understand the world or is she asserting that this is impossible, absurd, and useless ? Is she being told that science aims to seek an explanation of how the universe works, or is she being told that this project is false and dangerous ?

Is she calling for him to make world history, or is she saying that the past is the past, that there are no lessons to be learned from it, and that we should just laugh at it and move on ?

Is it calling him to become a scientist, researcher, engineer, worker, nurse, or to become a soldier, spy, police officer, prison guard, judge, or to work in intelligence and counterterrorism ? Or even, is a part of society calling him to become a terrorist or fascist ?

Does it call on him to build the world or to destroy it ? Does it offer him positions in production, research, design, protection of human society, or in destruction, repression, and oppression of it ?

Are past wars presented to him as horrors not to be repeated or as inspiring examples of heroism and brotherhood in the trenches ?

Do we denounce the violence of the world or do we present it as necessary evils, wars and the bombing of civilian populations as a means of fighting dictatorships and terrorism and, on the other hand, the wars of dictatorships and terrorism as a means of freeing ourselves from terrorism and the dictatorship of the great powers ?

Are we spreading among young people confidence in the future of humanity or, on the contrary, mistrust in the capacity of human society to surpass itself, to go further, to build a new world ?

Is current history presented to him as the continuation of that of the past, as a fight for freedom against slavery or, on the contrary, is current history presented as the end of all history, as a society which is the insurmountable horizon ?

Even if the current dominant ideology claims otherwise, times change and public opinion changes too, depending on what the ruling classes try to implant in people’s minds and on real changes, which are also radical at critical times.

The world isn’t always the same. And changes are sometimes brutal and violent. In just a few years, the face of a society is completely transformed. It only takes a short while to no longer recognize what made a world, to no longer understand how everything changed or why.

There are times of momentum, enthusiasm, construction, progress, where the ruling classes see everywhere only perspectives to embrace, areas to conquer, productions to develop, energies to mobilize to build, to design, to invent, to discover, to search, to improve, to extend, to conquer.

There are times of heartbreaking questioning, when the ruling classes no longer know what their future holds, how they will maintain their domination tomorrow, fear the day when we learn that everything is collapsing, are afraid of losing everything they have accumulated. In these periods, the ruling classes also turn to young people, but for a completely different purpose. They make them their soldiers, their pawns, their armed gangs, their fascist troops, their fanatics, their camp guards, and sometimes their genocidaires. This does not happen overnight, but when the ruling classes are determined, they can achieve it if the exploited and oppressed classes do not know how to address these young people and offer them another perspective.

This doesn’t happen overnight because it happens in stages. We have to grab this youth by the guts, we have to make them believe that they are despised, that they are not taken into consideration, that their future has been stolen, that the workers of previous generations have gorged themselves, mortgaged the world, and pursued illusory goals. We have to cultivate in them an exacerbated individualism. We have to make them believe that they, alone, have prospects. We have to make them believe that their mobilizations are a social force that can do without the working class, socialism, communism, and even trade unionism. The next step will be to tell them that they can do without democracy, which they equate with political farce, and above all that they can do without unions, without any form of workers’ and democratic organization. There, we arrive at fascism...

Youth can easily be mobilized en masse, but it can be mobilized in one direction or the other. The compass can turn at great speed. And youth do not have their own compass. They turn according to the prevailing wind.

She is told to believe she is Charlie, then she is told she is voting for Le Pen, and then she is told she wants to become a soldier or a spy.

History shows that young people can be manipulated and turned en masse against the working and popular classes, against democracy. Mao’s Chinese "Red Guards," Pol Pot’s youth groups in Cambodia, German SS groups, and terrorist troops from Boko Haram to Daesh have all demonstrated this.

But youth can also be the flame of revolution. The Parisian street urchins of 1789, 1793, 1830, 1848, and 1871 demonstrated this, as they did in the Russian, German, Spanish, and many other revolutions.

But whenever youth have played a revolutionary role, it is because they have acted alongside and even behind the popular classes and the workers.

This is the perspective that the ruling classes want to close down, suppress, eradicate. They want young people to despise workers, reject them, even fight them. Among the youth, they want the young wolves with long teeth who scrape the ground to prevail, to assert themselves, to lead their friends, to serve as a pole for others, to demand their due, to not fear rudeness, barbarity, impudence, violence.

The ruling class allows itself to condemn young people to unemployment, precariousness, economic dependence on their parents, lack of housing, future and recognition and, at the same time, to hold a glorifying discourse on young people, considered heroic because they made the Bataclan, because they are fighting the war in Mali, because they made the war in Libya, because they are fighting the war in Syria, because they are liberating people, it seems, with bombs !

The ruling class is manipulating young people against society as a whole. This is the era of the Years of Lead.

The cause is neither cultural nor circumstantial. It is fundamental. The capitalist system cultivates excessive pessimism because it is pessimistic about its own future, because it is incapable of breaking out of the impasse it reached in 2007.

He certainly claims the opposite. He continues to claim that it is the only possible society. He continues to assert that the "end of communism" makes it definitive, eternal, but he thinks exactly the opposite and prepares for the revolutions to come by discrediting communist ideas, communist organizations, and even all workers’ organizations.

The ruling class that denies history is precisely the one that feels that the meaning of history is coming to an end.

But this won’t happen automatically. The working class must become the pole around which the oppressed gather. Of course, we are at the opposite end of the spectrum from such a situation because opinion is shaped by the ruling classes, and they are essentially working to destroy this perspective.

If they prevented the crisis from resulting in an economic collapse in 2007, if they injected trillions of dollars into the economy and continue to do so, it is in no way to restart the economic machine. The latter was precisely seized up by the excessively high level of previous capital accumulation, incapable of finding sufficient profitable productive investments, so much so that speculative investments took over and States and central banks are forced to constantly distribute income to them and thus maintain destructive speculation. They do not do this for an economic but a political purpose : to break the working class in its own eyes and in those of the petty bourgeoisie, youth, oppressed classes, women, minorities, the poor, migrants.

All these social classes are set against the workers, assimilated to the union leadership, and presented as profiteers, without prospects, without any proposal for the future, just ready to cling to their achievements to the detriment of others !

It will be up to us, the workers, to reverse this situation, to demonstrate that the working class is not fighting for corporatist goals but that it has political and social proposals that break with capitalism, capable of offering a future other than this finite world.

Will youth be drawn in by new Hitlers on one side and new Bin Ladens on the other and thus caught between two fires, will they be the new cannon fodder in a new world war between the imperialist blocs, once again in the name of freedom and once again to protect the capitalists and the bankers, or will they once again be the spearhead of the world socialist revolution, the forefront of the struggle to radically change the world ? This answer depends on each of us and our ability to understand the situations that will present themselves to us. If the ruling classes can manipulate public opinion, they cannot so easily manipulate the economic and social situations that will come, which depend first and foremost on economic collapses, the next financial crises, and also the next social revolutions that may break out tomorrow in Eastern European countries, in Latin America, in China, or in the rest of Asia, and even in Africa, where it is clear that the class struggle is far from dead.