Under the motto “Gen Z rules,” young people from all over the country are mobilizing to protest on Saturday. This was followed by agitation and defamation from politicians, the media and the police. But instead of giving in to the divisions, we must now take to the streets! There are enough reasons. – A comment from Basti Jung.

The German police like to take a two-pronged approach to PR matters: On the one hand, the spokesman for the Thuringia state police shows understanding for the concerns of the so-called Generation Z, who want to protest in their thousands across the country on Saturday. The topics they cover are complete“honorable”– as long as everything remains peaceful. On the other side, however, is his Bremen colleague Jochen Kopelke, who is also the federal chairman of the police union. In the picture interview he rails against it in the most outrageous manner“riot migrants”who can expect “no mercy” from the state during the protests.

“Good cop, bad cop.” But the “bad cop” variety seems to dominate in public right now. Admittedly, the Union in particular is currently scoring points with such rage baits: the Brandenburg Interior Minister from the CDU predicts something like this“French conditions”. His party colleagues from Stuttgart want to have a ban on demonstrations examined. And the Berliner Junge Union wants that right awayBundeswehr hunt down the demonstrating youth– which not even the Basic Law, which they praise so highly, allows without further ado.

Presumably other fanatical demands of this kind could be found. But what quickly fades into the background in the debate: What do these young people actually want to protest for? What is “Gen Z Rules” about?

There are enough reasons to fight for your own future!

Everyone has the images in their minds: For several weeks, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly young people, have been protesting in France for a fairer education system and against the Macron government's massive economic attacks on France's population. As a result, 90 percent of all universities were temporarily blocked, and there were riots with the police in many places. There are protests of this kind in our neighboring countryalmost every year.

Bluoqons Tout: “We will block our school a hundred times and more”

What is not so publicly known is the fact that the current wave of school blockades was first initiated in the former French colonies. On the island of Mayotte near Madagascar, a university was blocked for over five weeks - not by students, but even by teachers and parents, who were thus against the lawdevastating lack of financial and human resourcesprotested. In French Guianaprotested at the beginning of Octoberalmost 300,000 people against broken toilets, crumbling buildings and a lack of teaching staff - the school system there follows the French one.

After the protests in France, Spain, Belgium, Albania and other countries, young people in Germany now also want to protest. Tens of thousands of young people are expected nationwide for the upcoming protests under the motto “Gen Z regulates” – this could be the start of one of the largest youth movements in recent years.

On the – presumably official –Initiative websiteThe motivations of young people are mentioned: rising costs of living, an unfair and broken education system, increasing surveillance, the climate crisis and of course the planned reintroduction of compulsory military service. The youth organization International Youth, which was involved in planning the protests, writesin a statement: “Even if the protests look different, the reasons that drive us onto the streets are the same everywhere.”

One reason is that the federal government is cutting spending on education by one billion euros next year. Another reason is that there appears to be enough money for the defense budget and an additional 30 billion euros are being pumped into war preparations. And another reason is that in most cases young people are simply not taken seriously - by politicians, the police and many media outlets.

What outrages us more: burning barricades or demolished schools?

One thinks of the education strike movement in 2009, the Fridays for Future climate protests in the late 2010s, or the current school strikes against compulsory military service. All too often the tenor was: “Just go to school first”. As if young people were incapable of forming their own opinions.

No wonder young people need to make their voices heard somehow. The clashes and looting in France are often rather spontaneous and - admittedly - quite chaotic outbursts of anger. And yet they don't just happen by chance.

When we think of the protests in France, we think of the images of the burning town hall in Limoges, of torched cars and smoking asphalt. But we must not forget the images that should actually be about: More than thirty students squeezed together in a 40 degree classroom, rats and mold in the school building, overworked teaching staff - and not to forget the racist normal situation in the Parisian banlieues, which repeatedly leads to murders of migrant young people by the police.

Police murder of 17-year-old sparks revolts in France

The question could be asked: “What is a burning garbage can compared to everyday capitalist life?” Or how it isBerlin branch of the “Gen Z regulates” initiativeformulated on Instagram: "While German-made bombs are thrown at schools in other countries, in this country people are discussing whether and how bad it would be if a Gucci store were expropriated by the masses" - what is meantGerman arms deliveries to the Saudi Arabian government, which in turn in 2015targeted bombing of several Yemeni schoolsand thus caused some deaths.

They want to intimidate and divide – we stick together!

But what does this mean for the upcoming protests? While at the same timethe first demonstration bansare planned by the authorities, it must be noted that the incitement against the youth protests can quickly have an effect. It's like a kind of "preventive repression": statements like Kopelke paint a picture in people's minds, which then justifies later police violence and arrests. And parents quickly worry about which demonstrations they are actually sending their children to.

Individual organizers of the initiative have already dropped out or are publicly distancing themselves. And the Federal Student Conference (BSK) also wants, according to oneweak explanationon their website they clearly stay away from the protests on October 31st. Just a few days before, they were explicitly showing solidarity with the protests in France - but they are probably not ready for a combative effort in Germany for a worthwhile future. Which could also have something to do with the fact that the BSK is calling for the reintroduction of compulsory military servicedo not take a clear positionwant.

In any case, giving in to this rush is the wrong approach. Instead, it is now important to show that this rhetoric, this fear-mongering, this delegitimation are tools to intimidate us and our legitimate protest. This is only possible if we push back attempts at division from above instead of submitting to them. The fatal consequence would be a division of forces between “good and peaceful” demonstrators on the one hand and “bad and violent” young people on the other - the protest would remain in forms that are pleasant to capital and would change little in the long term.

The working and learning youth deserve cross-current and combative protests: it is important to put common interests in the foreground and fight. Against an anti-social education policy, against the insane warmongering at the expense of young people and for a future worth living.

This Halloween is the beginning – Gen Z will follow it too!

Older generations should also play a role here. You often hear that Gen Z now has to bear a lot that the Millennials and Baby Boomers didn't tackle sooner. There may be something to that - at the same time, it is now important to stand up against the attacks on us as a working class across generations. Because the Merz-Klingbeil government is attacking us all with its “reform marathon” in pensions, health insurance and housing and parental benefits. Young and old.

The costs of the crisis? Not on our backs!

We can also learn something from the French movement in this regard. After the youth protests had lasted for a few weeks, the unions, teaching staff and even a few local politicians joined the protests - to support the demands of the youth and partly to protect them from police violence.

We can build on that. But we also have to understand that in terms of the culture of protest and also the extent of the attacks from above, the conditions in Germany are different in some respects than in France. Nevertheless, the claim to learn something from the neighboring country in the upcoming Gen Z protests is a correct one.

Let's make sure that it doesn't just be a "scary Halloween" on Saturday, but that a movement emerges that can actually make a difference. The conditions are ripe: Chancellor Merz is more unpopular than ever before, significant sections of the youth are ready to fight and the Europe-wide youth strike on November 20th is just around the corner. And if we actually become a serious factor in political events, Kopelke's regular chatter will also be in vain.

The postIncitement against youth protests: Gen Z can defend itself – and should!appeared firstperspective.