An investigation has identified 101 organizations across 9 countries, including the U.S., that are coordinating, organizing or amplifying protests in Europe. The growing protest ecosystem is up from 54 organizations identified on Monday. Most of the groups are adult-led, while 33 organizations, or one in three, are led by students or youth. The network represents a nexus of the red-green alliance, merging Islamist organizations symbolized by green with far-left, communist and socialist groups represented by red.
Protest expansion and upcoming dates
Two days after an estimated 500,000 demonstrators poured into streets across France in clashes that left parts of Paris and other cities burning, French activists called supporters back into the streets on Saturday, Oct. 24, for a new protest billed as “Acte II,” with 212 mobilizations planned according to a digital map. A growing number of communist, socialist and hard-leftist organizations are also answering a call for a coordinated European youth strike on Friday, Nov. 20.
The network includes groups that proudly use the Antifa moniker, such as Action AntiFa16, an organization described in the Angoulême, France, Acte II announcement. Organizers in France are utilizing the website 17octobregiletjaune.net for logistics and communication. The domain was registered on Sept. 15 by an anonymous user. Faced with curfews and security measures by French President Emmanuel Macron, organizers added a new demand: “Macron must leave and make way for the people!” Leaders are coordinating on a Telegram messaging channel, sharing logistical details and graphics.
Following Acte II, organizers have planned another action on Oct. 31, known as “Acte III,” featuring “yellow vests, demonstrations and roundabouts, all over France,” alongside further actions on Nov. 5 and Nov. 14. Activities are even listed for April 3, 2027, (“Noisy spring”) and May 29, 2027, (“Day against agrochemistry”), listed to take place everywhere in France. Calvados student organization Solidarité Étudiante 14 is collaborating on the Oct. 24 mobilization.
International amplification and the youth strike
Across the Atlantic, U.S. leaders are amplifying the protests. University of California at Berkeley academic Hatem Bazian, founder of anti-Israel Palestinian organizations including Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine, shared videos from the protests. Bazian drew connections between the Oct. 17 riots in Paris, explosions at the Al Alhi Hospital in Gaza on Oct. 17, 2023, and protests on Oct. 17, 1961, in Paris by Algerian demonstrators that led to a confrontation with police. Hamas officials blamed Israel for the hospital deaths, while Israel attributed the blast to a failed, errant rocket launched from within Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Bazian did not respond to a request for comment.
European unrest is also receiving support from pro-communist organizations, including BreakThrough News, CodePink and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, funded and supported by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai who supports the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping. BreakThrough News planned an online discussion titled “Europe’s Youth Uprising,” featuring hosts Rania Khalek and Zoe Alexandra alongside France-based journalist Rafael Karoubi.
For the Nov. 20 action, far-left groups are promoting an “International Youth Strike” via youthstrike.org, which an unidentified person registered on Aug. 2. Their manifesto declares that “the exploitation of workers, climate breakdown and war are not failures of the system but the essence of capitalism.” The British organization Socialist Students stated it will participate in the Nov. 20 strike in coordination with 30 other European youth and student groups, urging young people to join a movement based on Marxism.
