November 20th: Gen Z - The second act Call of the social struggle construction site Cologne

November 20: Gen Z – The Second Act

Call from the Cologne social struggle construction site 

We should learn to adapt. To function, to compete and to do without. We should settle for jobs that drain us, housing we can't afford, schools that are falling apart, and universities that mold us into usable human capital. We should be grateful if there is something left over at the end of the month. And when we are old enough at some point, we should explain to our children that this is just life.

At the same time, the state is preparing us for war. Billions are being mobilized for weapons, barracks and military infrastructure. Conscription is returning. Our bodies should be recorded, mustered and made available in the event of war. While our livelihoods are being destroyed, we should be prepared to die for the interests of a state that has little to offer us in everyday life.

IN SHORT: WE ARE FUCKED!

Something is stirring in Europe these weeks. Millions of people take to the streets every week and have recently stopped going to school, university or work. Instead, they protest for a better life and against policies that completely ignore their needs.

In Spain, tenant movements are fighting against the so-called rentismo: a society in which living space is seen primarily as an investment property and property becomes a source of income. Some have to work to be able to live, while others earn income solely through their possessions.

There have been huge youth protests in France since September 2026, which are carried out by schoolchildren and students as the “Mouvement lycéen et étudiant”. The anger of young people is directed against failed education policies, dilapidated schools and an acute shortage of staff. At its core, the movement exposes the bourgeois education system as an instrument for social selection, which filters young people according to pure exploitation logic using the opaque algorithm of the “Parcoursup” admissions process. The protest breaks with the ideology of performance equity and shows that schools only cement social inequality.

This has also happened in Germany since October 31st: over 100,000 people took to the streets that day. Even before that, schools were blocked and there were protests at universities. While 100 billion euros are to be invested in the military, schools and universities in Germany are not exactly in the best condition. At the same time, life has become more and more expensive: Shopping in the supermarket costs twice as much as it did 15 years ago, the ticket to get from the suburbs to the city center has become a luxury, and you can only find an apartment at absurdly high rents. Basic needs have become a luxury for many people while the realities of life are becoming more and more about “survival”. Young people in particular are affected by this shit. And to make matters worse, the state now wants to reintroduce compulsory military service. Young people are supposed to become tributes to the state while it otherwise doesn't give a shit about their needs. Military always means arbitrariness, drill and authority as well as nationalism and subservience. 

They want to manage our revolt – or silence it

Even before and after the Gen Z protests, the public debate about a few smoking pots, riots and alleged left-wing infiltration was boiling over. Left-wing organization is made into an enemy, protest is declared a security issue. In terms of content, the Merz regime showed it was completely blank. The Black Red government was unable to provide an answer to a single point of criticism of the Genz protests. Their only message is: You can demonstrate as long as your protest has no consequences. But repression is not an answer to our demands. It is an attempt to make the reasons for our resistance disappear. That is precisely why we must not back down now. Repression is intended to isolate us, intimidate us and drive out the desire to resist. Our response must be solidarity: we inform each other, support those affected, share experiences and leave no one alone. We will not apologize for wanting to determine our own future.

Fight for Our Future, Not Their Wars!

The international youth strike will take place on November 20th. Under the motto “Fight for Our Future, Not Their Wars!” call on schoolchildren and students to leave schools and universities and protest against militarization, conscription, austerity and the destruction of their livelihoods.

It's great that different mobilizations come together on this day: the school strike against conscription, the Gen Z protests and the international tenants' strike. This is not competition, but an opportunity.Gen Z – the second act!Different concerns can become a common movement.

Let's take advantage of this opportunity: Students can block their schools in the morning. Students can close their universities. Tenants' associations can organize rallies in front of the Haus & Grund offices. Not everyone has to do the same thing. But everyone can make it clear on the same day that these conditions are not without alternatives.

We will be traveling with cargo bikes, music and anti-repression flyers to accompany the uprisings. We want to encourage and show that no one has to be alone with the fear of repression. We don't want our resistance to consist only of exhaustion, discipline and renunciation. We want to laugh, celebrate, sing and dance. We want to experience the joy that comes from our uprisings.

Together with millions of people across Europe, we want to paralyze school and university operations and practice resistance against all this shit. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the students in France, the movement for the unconditional right to housing in Spain and Portugal and with the general strike in Italy! We want to show that there is a perspective beyond capitalism, the state and living to survive. We want a society, indeed a world, in which all people can live freely according to their needs. No matter whether rent or military, we oppose this shit, in Cologne and throughout Europe. All hail international solidarity! 

OUR ANGER IS LEGITIMATE!

November 20th, 2026 // 11 a.m. // University meadows

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