Adam Gillman, a national organiser for Socialist Students, was invited to attend the conference of Sindicato de Estudiantes, which organises tens of thousands of school students in the Spanish state. We publish Adam’s contribution to the discussion:

Hello comrades, it’s an honour to speak at your congress, 40 years after the founding of Sindicato de Estudiantes.

Young people, and the working class alongside them, have erupted in inspiring mass movements across Europe and the world. From the cockroach movement in India, to the movement in France, and of course the movement in the Spanish state against the housing crisis.

Capitalist governments are frightened of the potential. These movements have toppled governments such as in Nepal and Serbia, and won significant concessions. However, the prospect of war, austerity, climate chaos – all a result of the crisis-ridden capitalist system, are felt everywhere.

Of course, we have heard today how this is affecting you in the Spanish state, but in Britain we face similar attacks. Our entire education system is chronically underfunded, with staff being threatened with redundancies, students facing cuts to courses and even entire university campuses being closed down, this is while uni students face thousands in tuition fees.

Colleges and secondary schools, are also underfunded and some FE colleges have had courses cut after students enrolled. In the secondary schools, class sizes are on average over 30 students per class.

Academisation has seen schools be put into the hands of trusts, charities and even in some instances, private education trusts. This has led not only to underfunding being managed even more brutally, but also greater bullying and repression of both staff and students.

Students can be put into isolation/internal exclusion – solitary confinement conditions – forced to stare at a wall with a camera watching them for most or all of the day. They can get this for minor offences such as not having a top button up on a uniform, or even organising a walkout in school.

The level of student organisation in Britain is much lower than in the Spanish state, and hasn’t existed in the secondary schools since the 1980s, although there have been walkouts against the Iraq war, the 2010 anti-fees movement and 2019 Fridays for future. With 20 November, this has the potential to change, with students organising walkouts and protests at their schools on the day. Socialist Students is discussing with students and helping to rebuild this tradition in Britain.

On 20 November, we’re going to see a huge movement with hundreds of thousands taking action all across Europe (and the world). This could have huge positive effects on consciousness and organisation, but capitalism will still be here on 21 November.

Capitalism is a system in huge crisis, that will be preparing for more attacks. As the attacks ramp up, the capitalist governments will be bolstering more racist and divisive ideas. European governments are divided, not by whether to increase defence spending, but by how much. They are preparing the ground for more austerity.

This will not be solved without the socialist transformation of society, where the vast wealth and resources of society are not controlled by the capitalists for profit but instead by the working class for the needs of all.

It’s great we’ve been able to co-ordinate this huge youth movement through the international anti-war youth network. However, there are still many opportunities for us to coordinate internationally, such as an international mobilisation of solidarity with young people in France if Le Pen wins the presidential election and implements even more repressive measures in France, or in Manchester against the G20 summit next year. But we need to point the way forward to what sort of society replaces capitalism and the governments that defend it.

There is an international conference of the network being planned for February. Socialist Students will be proposing and fighting for the network to become an international revolutionary socialist youth network, that doesn’t only coordinate on how to fight against austerity and the rise of militarisation, but actively fights to replace the crisis-ridden capitalist system that causes it with a socialist society.

We would like to invite Sindicato De Estudiantes to join us in fighting for this.