The National Union of Students is taking part in the strike, and UNISON has voted to join UCU’s national day of action in universities on the same day, as students in more than 50 towns and cities prepare to walk out
Press release from Socialist Students
The national executive of the National Education Union (NEU), the largest education union in Europe, voted unanimously last week to back the International Youth Strike on Friday 20 November, when students in more than 50 towns and cities across Britain will walk out of schools, colleges and universities under the slogan “fight for our future, not their wars”.
In its motion, “Support the International Youth Strike: ‘Fight for our future, not their wars’”, the executive resolved to “express support for the right of young people to peacefully organise, protest and make their voices heard, including those taking part in the N20 day of action”, and to “oppose disciplinary action against students participating in peaceful protest activity, including detentions or other sanctions, and to support campaigns defending students’ rights where required”.
The union will also tell members about the strike through NEU communications channels, including how they can “safely and responsibly support participating students’ rights in line with safeguarding requirements and legal obligations”, and will advise members who wish to volunteer as stewards at local student demonstrations. Bristol NEU has already passed its own motion offering practical support for the students’ 1pm protest on College Green, such as hi-viz jackets or the cost of hiring a sound system, and backing members who volunteer as stewards where organisers ask for them and safeguarding arrangements are in place.
The National Union of Students (NUS), which represents over 7 million students, announced on 28 October, in its response to the chancellor’s autumn budget, that it is taking part in the youth strike. NUS said the budget “does nothing for students”: the chancellor had done nothing about unfair student loans in England, had slowed the growth of the minimum wage for people aged 18 to 20, breaking a manifesto promise, and had given no detail on funding universities and colleges. Students had been left out of the conversation, NUS said, and “that’s why NUS is taking part in the youth strike”. It is asking students to sign up to take part on the day.
The University and College Union (UCU) has called a national day of action over the crisis in higher education on the same day, and wants to see rallies, protests and events in every university. UNISON, which organises support staff in universities, has now voted to join it. “Every university in the UK protesting on the same day,” the two unions said.
Socialist Students national chair Adam Powell-Davies said: “We warmly welcome the NEU’s support. No student should be punished for peacefully standing up for their future, and when students walk out on 20 November they will know that Europe’s largest education union is on their side. Teachers see every day what years of cuts have done to our schools and colleges, and through their union they are standing with the students who are fighting back.
“With the NUS taking part, and UCU and UNISON calling for protests in every university on the same day, 20 November will be a day of action right across education. As the NUS says, the budget did nothing for students. Labour has cut university teaching grants two years running while planning to raise military spending to close to £80 billion a year by 2029. That is why we say: fight for our future, not their wars.”
The International Youth Strike was called by youth and student organisations from across Europe at a meeting in Cologne in June, where Socialist Students was present from Britain. Students in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and other countries will also take action on 20 November, and in Italy the CGIL, the country’s largest trade union confederation, has called a 24-hour general strike on the same day.
Walkouts are planned at more than 100 schools, colleges and universities, and the main London protest is at 12pm in Parliament Square. Friday 20 November is also World Children’s Day, the anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives young people the right to express their views on matters that affect them and the right to peaceful assembly. Teachers, lecturers, support staff and parents are invited to join students on the day.
Earlier this month, Andy Burnham revealed Labour’s plan to axe the pensions triple lock in 2030, aiming to reduce state spending. Their proposal is to weaken the state pension, meaning that, by 2050, retirees will have had an estimated £50 billion pinched off of them.
The triple lock was introduced in 2011 off the back of disgracefully high rates of pensioner poverty in the UK. It was a government commitment, which went above their legal requirement, to increase the state pension each year by whichever of the following three percentages was the highest: average wage growth, inflation, or 2.5%.
The Triple Lock has typically been seen as untouchable, as pensioners are such an important voter base. However, amid global crises and the weakening of traditional capitalist parties, governments are increasingly willing to roll back longstanding concessions to cut costs and protect profits.
Despite what the media may suggest, the average pensioner is not wealthy. Although the Triple Lock has helped reduce pensioner poverty, rates have begun to rise again. With the current state pensions amongst the lowest in the G7 countries, Burnham’s proposal risks pushing more pensioners into serious financial hardship.
We reject the cynical argument that cutting pensions is beneficial for young people or could fund support for NEETS (young people Not in Employment Education or Training). Even if it did, what happens to us when we retire? Already, 43% of working-age people cannot afford to save enough for retirement. Cutting pensions today risks leaving tomorrow’s retirees in even greater poverty. Instead of blaming each other, workers of all ages must unite and realise that there is a group of people in society hoarding the wealth that could finance Gen Z, and it’s not the pensioners!
Defending the Triple Lock will require trade unions to organise workers and pensioners in mass protest and strikes. Students must also play a role, and mobilise for the international youth strikes on 20 November, emphasising that fighting for our future also means fighting for our pensions!
Burnham has outlined a plan to use the money saved on pensions to fund a National Care Service – but why should it be one or the other?
Only through a socialist transformation of society could the constant fight for scraps of welfare truly end. A system based on collective, democratic ownership would put human needs before profit, ensuring everyone gets to enjoy a secure future and a dignified retirement.
Students in 50+ towns and cities walk out on Friday 20 November, backed by the National Education Union, as Italy’s largest union calls a general strike for the same day
Press release from Socialist Students
Socialist Students, which is organising walkouts and protests in more than 50 towns and cities across Britain on Friday 20 November, congratulates Serbia’s students on their victory in Sunday’s parliamentary election. It shows what young people can win when they organise.
On preliminary results, the Student List, formed by the student movement that has led mass protests across Serbia for almost two years, has won 140 of the 250 seats in parliament, an outright majority. Aleksandar Vučić, who resigned as president in September to run for prime minister, conceded on Sunday, saying “it is clear that we have lost the election”. His misnamed Serbian Progressive Party, in reality a right-wing neoliberal party, in government since 2012, goes into opposition.
In January 2025, as teachers, lawyers, health workers and farmers joined the students’ protests, the prime minister resigned. Student plenums, open daily assemblies where every student has a vote, vetted every Student List candidate. The list’s programme promises free education, affordable flats for young couples, tax relief for young families, a drastic cut in medicine prices under state control, a doctor in every village.
Socialist Students national chair Adam Powell-Davies said: “Almost two years ago Serbian students blockaded their universities. On Sunday they defeated the party that has run Serbia since 2012. They won because they organised democratically, in mass meetings where every student had a vote, because workers came out alongside them, and because they fought for what young people everywhere need: jobs, homes and services. Keeping those plenums going and extending them to the economy, the media, and other aspects of society is the best way to make sure the new parliament delivers.
“Young people all over the world have no trust that their governments will give us a future, so we are fighting for one ourselves. Last year youth movements brought down the governments of Nepal and Madagascar. In Britain, Labour has cut university teaching grants two years running while planning to raise military spending to close to £80 billion a year by 2029. On 20 November students across Britain and Europe will protest for free, properly funded education and a future worth having: fight for our future, not their wars.”
The International Youth Strike was called by youth and student organisations from across Europe at a meeting in Cologne in June, under the slogan “fight for our future, not their wars”. Students in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and other countries will take action on 20 November. In Italy, the CGIL, the country’s largest trade union confederation, has called a 24-hour general strike across all public and private sectors on the same day, against the government’s budget and the arms race, and the Italian Unione degli Studenti has called a national school student strike. The next German school strike against conscription is planned for the same day.
In Britain, the national executive of the National Education Union, the largest education union in Europe, voted on 22 October to support the right of young people “to peacefully organise, protest and make their voices heard, including those taking part in the N20 day of action”, and to “oppose disciplinary action against students participating in peaceful protest activity”. The University and College Union has called a day of action in every university on the same day over the crisis in higher education. Socialist Students is writing to trade union branches and trades councils across the UK, asking them to back the strike and join the protests.
Walkouts are planned at more than 100 schools, colleges and universities, and the main London protest is at 12pm in Parliament Square. Friday 20 November is also World Children’s Day, the anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which gives young people the right to express their views on matters that affect them and the right to peaceful assembly. Teachers, lecturers and parents are invited to join students on the day.
The Sunday Times, the Sun and GB News have all run stories about the 20 November walkouts, and Melanie Phillips wrote about the protests in France in her column in the Times. Responding to a request for comment from GB News, Socialist Students national chair Adam Powell-Davies said:
“Socialist Students is a democratic, student-led campaigning organisation in schools, colleges and universities across the UK. It fights for a socialist transformation of society to meet the needs of all, not the profits of a few. Our members organise campaigns and protests against war, climate breakdown, poverty and discrimination, and link student struggles with workers’ struggles on and off campus.
“Young people will not sit quietly while our schools, colleges and universities are cut and billions are found for war. On Friday 20 November, as part of the International Youth Strike, thousands of students across Britain will walk out and protest alongside hundreds of thousands of young people across Europe. Socialist Students is organising protests in over 50 towns and cities, and over 100 educational institutions so far.
“The National Education Union, the largest education union in Europe, has voted to back young people’s right to protest and to oppose disciplinary action against students who take part. University staff in the University and College Union have called a day of action in every university on the same day. Teachers, lecturers and parents who are concerned about safety are welcome to join us on the day, and we are inviting them. Parents and teachers joined the walkouts we organised against Trump’s state visit last year.
“20 November is World Children’s Day, the anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the UK ratified in 1991. It gives young people the right to express their views on matters that affect them, and the right to peaceful assembly. No student should be punished for using those rights.
“Chris Philp says parents want their children in lessons. So do we: lessons with specialist teachers, in classes that are not overcrowded, in buildings that are not falling apart. Underfunding does far more damage to education than one day of protest.”
Background
The NEU’s national executive passed a motion last week supporting the International Youth Strike. It resolved to “express support for the right of young people to peacefully organise, protest and make their voices heard, including those taking part in the N20 day of action”; to “oppose disciplinary action against students participating in peaceful protest activity, including detentions or other sanctions, and to support campaigns defending students’ rights where required”; and “to provide members with information about the N20 International Youth Strike through NEU communications channels, providing members with how they can safely and responsibly support participating students’ rights in line with safeguarding requirements and legal obligations”. As the Sunday Times reported, the NEU is also exploring having members volunteer as stewards to keep the protests safe and peaceful. Socialist Students enthusiastically welcomes the support of the NEU.
The University and College Union has called a day of action in every university in the UK on Friday 20 November, with protests, rallies and union meetings to highlight the crisis in higher education.
The International Youth Strike was called at a meeting of youth and student organisations from across Europe in Cologne in June. Students in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and other countries will take action on 20 November.
The largest education union in Europe, the National Education Union (NEU), has voted to support the International Youth Strike taking place in Britain and all across Europe on November 20.
The motion to support the International Youth Strike, which was passed by the NEU’s national executive yesterday, included resolutions to:
“Express support for the right of young people to peacefully organise, protest and make their voices heard, including those taking part in the N20 day of action.”
“Oppose disciplinary action against students participating in peaceful protest activity, including detentions or other sanctions, and to support campaigns defending students’ rights where required.”
“To provide members with information about the N20 International Youth Strike through NEU communications channels, providing members with how they can safely and responsibly support participating students’ rights in line with safeguarding requirements and legal obligations.”
! Socialist Students enthusiastically welcomes the support of the NEU.
As students, we stand united with workers organising against attacks on our education. From Albania to France, India to Argentina, the fight for high-quality, free education has been a central part of the international youth movements that have spread globally this year.
For us, a major aspect of the International Youth Strike slogan – ‘fight for our future, not their wars’ – is the fight against education cuts, student debt, tuition fees, and for fully funded public services. Socialist Students says that means building a movement to take wealth, resources and technology out the hands of the billionaires – towards a socialist society based on meeting the needs of all, not the profits of a tiny few and their wars.
We also warmly welcome the initiative of the NEU to offer practical solidarity to students choosing to protest on November 20, such as stewarding peaceful protests on the day, and backing any campaigns against disciplinary action that students might face.
On Sunday 15 November at 3pm, five days before the walkouts, Socialist Students is hosting the N20 International Youth Strike rally at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL. Fight for our future, not their wars!
Hear from youth and student organisations building the strike across Europe:
Eesha Khurana, Socialist Students
Union Étudiante (France)
Rete della Conoscenza (Italy)
Sindicato de Estudiantes (Spanish state)
Comac (Belgium)
Young Greens (England and Wales)
Linksjugend [‘solid] (Germany)
The rally is part of Socialism 2026, taking place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November in central London.
The organisers offer special ticket prices for freshers, college and school students, and 10% off if you book by 13 November, as well as hostel beds for the evening. Visit socialism.org.uk for details.
Adam Powell-Davies, Socialist Students National Chair
Amidst the mass youth movement in France, a Socialist Students delegation travelled to Paris on October 17-18 for an important meeting building towards the 20 November International Youth Strike. 27 organisations attended from eleven countries, to discuss next steps leading up to and after November 20.
This was the second in-person meeting of a Europe-wide network of youth, student and anti-war organisations that was initially formed at the start of this year to coordinate international action against war and militarism. The first meeting, held in Cologne on 14 June, launched the call for an International Youth Strike on November 20 (N20) under the slogan, ‘fight for our future, not their wars’. This was the slogan proposed by Socialist Students members, who argued that the struggle against war should be connected to the wider fight against the capitalist bosses and their profit-first system, which robs young people of a future in all ways – whether that’s through creating wars, fuelling climate change, or attacking our education and living standards.
‘Fight for our future’
Events since the Cologne meeting show why it was right to make the idea of ‘fighting for a future’ central to N20; it is a red thread running through all the movements that young people in Europe are now a key part of, which are spreading across the continent. That there were more than double the number of organisations in the Paris meeting than there were in Cologne is one indication that the idea is coming into its own. Reports to the meeting indicate that there will be at least tens if not hundreds of thousands of young people taking action on N20.
As one speaker from the Italian student organisation Rete della Conoscenza pointed out, a few months ago the youth fightback in Europe was being led by tens of thousands of German students fighting against the threat of conscription. Since then, they have been joined by hundreds of thousands more in many other countries. The political level of the meeting was raised by these ongoing events, in particular by the frontline reports from a number of organisations currently leading youth struggles in France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
The meeting also heard that an organisation in Albania had recently been in touch about joining N20, as had youth organisations in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and a number of other countries outside of Europe where there have also been massive youth-led movements. Delegates to the meeting joined the massive demonstration in Paris on the Saturday afternoon.
Given the shifting fronts of the youth fightback in Europe and internationally, with different specific issues being raised in different countries, there was an important debate over to what extent N20 should still be framed as an international day against war and militarism. The consensus was that ‘fight for our future, not their wars’ should continue to be used as the main overarching slogan across Europe, but with an understanding that different organisations can adapt this slogan to the specific issues that they feel can best mobilise young people in their own countries.
War and militarism
In response to some organisations who worried that this position meant diluting opposition to war and militarism, Socialist Students argued that an emphasis on ‘fighting for our future’ would in fact strengthen the fightback against war, as it would increase the potential for N20 to be picked up by young people as a means to take the fight to their own capitalist governments, who are the ones carrying out the drive to war and re-militarisation. A more narrow focus on war and militarism, without exposing how these issues are connected to the entire capitalist system which attacks ‘our future’, would make it less likely for N20 to play a role in increasing the level of international working-class organisation and consciousness needed to end war and the crisis-ridden capitalist system that produces it.
What happens after?
Another important feature of the discussion was around what should happen to the current informal network building the International Youth Strike after 20 November. The consensus was that, while N20 has the potential to be a major day of international youth action, it should only be a start to a process of re-building international youth and student organisation. It was therefore agreed that all organisations currently involved should continue working together beyond N20, while attempting to expand the network further by reaching out to other organisations in our own countries.
The meeting agreed to hold an in-person conference in Italy in February 2027, which will be an opportunity to reflect on the experience of N20, as well as planning the next steps for re-building a European and international youth movement against capitalism. Unlike the two previous in-person assemblies, which have been smaller and composed largely of representatives from the national leaderships of the organisations, the February conference is planned to be bigger and open to the wider activist layer within the participating organisations.
This movement is growing
Socialist Students members argued that the February conference should lead to an international socialist youth network, with some kind of basic founding statement clarifying why fighting against capitalism means fighting for a re-organisation of society based on need, not profit. But whether that is agreed or not, we emphasised that the main goal of the network should continue to be organising joint action between young people internationally, which could then be a starting point for allowing further discussion and debate between organisations on the way forward. As one concrete suggestion of future action, we raised the possibility of an international mobilisation to Britain on 27-28 November 2027, when the G20 grouping of capitalist powers is set to meet in Manchester.
A Socialist Students delegation has returned from an International Youth and Student assembly in Paris on 17 and 18 October, which brought together youth and student organisations from across Europe to prepare for the International Youth Strike on Friday 20 November.
Called under the banner of ‘fight for our future not their wars’, the International Youth Strike is expected to see hundreds of thousands of young people walking out and protesting across Europe on November 20. In Britain, Socialist Students is expecting protests in at least 50 towns and cities, with the main London demonstration taking place at 12pm in Parliament Square. Walkouts are also now confirmed at more than 100 schools, colleges and universities across England and Wales.
The Paris assembly met during a mass movement of school students in France, with delegates to the meeting joining a massive demonstration in Paris on the Saturday afternoon. 27 organisations from eleven European countries attended the meeting, including many that are currently leading the youth action in their own countries.
The Paris assembly followed on from an earlier international anti-war meeting held in Cologne on June 14, which first put out the call for an International Youth Strike on November 20. Socialist Students attended as the founding organisation initiating the International Youth Strike in Britain.
Socialist Students national chair Adam Powell-Davies, who was part of the Socialist Students delegation to Paris, said: “School students in France are showing what young people can do when we organise together against the bosses’ austerity and war. On 20 November, students across Britain will walk out alongside young people across Europe, because our futures should not be sacrificed to pay for their wars.”
Across the world, young people are beginning to take to the streets expressing anger at the lack of a future being offered to us under capitalism, and in opposition to war and militarisation.
This wave of youth demonstrations is particularly visible in Europe, where the threat of increasing militarisation and military conscription looms. In Germany, nationwide school strikes against conscription have mobilised 55,000 young people. Inspired by these mobilisations, an anti-war youth assembly was formed and met in-person in June, bringing together 20 socialist youth organisations from 8 countries across Europe to organise an international youth strike ‘fighting for our futures, not their wars’, on 20 November. Socialist Students was invited to be part of this.
Students and young people in Britain have been a feature of the mass movement in solidarity with Palestinians and against Israel’s war on Gaza – including through university campus encampments. And in 2025, when Donald Trump was invited by the Labour government for a state visit, Socialist Students led school and college walkouts.
It was the success of this action, and coverage of it in the press internationally, that helped us find other youth groups internationally.
But it is necessary to build on these successes. The growing anger among young people provides an opportunity to build a united fightback of youth internationally, against war and militarisation.
However, to do this we need to understand what is driving the increase in war and why governments across Europe are pouring billions into rearmament, at the expense of our public services and education. The threat of increasing wars and conflict is rooted in the increasing tensions between capitalist powers internationally. Fighting for an end to war therefore means fighting the rotten capitalist system that produces it and building a socialist alternative.
Capitalism is in crisis. Across the world, economic growth is slowing and productivity has stagnated in many of the major capitalist economies. At the same time, governments face growing debt and are driving down the living standards of the working class in an attempt to protect the profits of the capitalist bosses. International capitalist institutions like the IMF and OECD have warned of a weakening global outlook due to trade tensions and instability.
But crisis is inherent to the capitalist economic system, based on profit and competing capitalist interests and competing capitalist states. When crises happen, competition between capitalist powers sharpens. The struggle for resources and political influence becomes increasingly backed by military power, fuelling further conflict.
The US, China and other powers are competing to protect their economic interests and expand their influence. In doing so, governments and states are not simply choosing to be aggressive but are responding empirically to the pressures created by the unstable capitalist system.
Growing international tensions
One element of this is the growing tensions between the US and China. The US has dominated the global economy and international political system for decades, but China’s rapid economic growth has challenged that dominance, and the US is now in relative decline. China has expanded its trade and investment across the world, while the US is attempting to defend its position. As each power strengthens its position, the other is pushed to respond.
In Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a turning point. The British government’s 2025 strategic defence review describes the Ukraine war as marking a ‘new era’, with “state-on-state war returning to Europe”.
This is driving increased militarisation across Europe. In Britain, before he left office, Starmer announced the plan to raise annual military spending to £80 billion per year by 2029 – an increase of £25 billion from the previous year. This funding is lifted directly from the pockets of the working class, with the Labour government making cuts in the form of increased taxes, reduced disability benefits, and reduced investment in the NHS, schools, housing, and other public services.
Working-class and young people won’t simply accept cutbacks to our services to pay for weapons and war. Many will however, have anxieties about increasing military threats. These threats are ramped up by the capitalist politicians and the media to try to justify spending on the military in the name of ‘defence’. The whipping up of nationalism by the capitalist class is part of that.
In fact, young people and workers in Britain have more in common with workers and young people in Germany, Italy or China than with a British billionaire.
We all face rising unemployment, unaffordable housing and climate catastrophe, while they live in luxury. And it is us and our friends and relatives who are most likely to be fatalities in wars and conflicts.
Young people across Europe are coming together to take part in the international youth strike on 20 November. The fight against war must be international. A socialist transformation of society would be the basis by which to replace competition between capitalist states with solidarity between the international working class.
However, an international approach begins with understanding and organising against our own governments. In Britain the drive towards militarisation is already having consequences for workers and young people.
We are already seeing militarisation creeping into our education system. 35 UK universities have entered the Defence Universities Alliance, which is a competitive arms research programme partnered with the UK government. Universities receive some income from this alliance. Amid an education funding crisis, this shows why we need universities and colleges to be fully publicly funded, and under the democratic control of the working class and students.
There are limits to how far governments can go to increase militarisation at the expense of the working class. Economic stagnation means that governments have less to spend. Former Defence Secretary John Healey resigned over Starmer’s reluctance to increase defence spending as far as he wanted. While Burnham has refused to commit to Healey’s target by 2030, he has retained Starmer’s £80 billion spending commitment and appointed Healey as Chancellor.
But pressure from the working class has also limited the government’s power to act. It was working class anger at Starmer’s cut to winter fuel payments for pensioners and disability benefits cuts that forced U-turns.
In 2023 Tory home secretary Suella Braverman was sacked due to her threats to ban protests against the genocide on Palestine. This is the largest and most sustained protest movement in the UK since the historic 2003 protests against the invasion of Iraq.
The fight against war and militarisation is happening across the world as well. Across Europe, governments are using the threat of war to justify increased military spending while workers face austerity and attacks on living standards. The EU has relaxed its fiscal rules to allow increased defence spending, while governments continue to impose restrictions on other areas of public spending. Rearmament is being prioritised as public services are starved of investment.
The German government is planning a dramatic increase in military spending, with an aim to match the combined totals of the UK and France by 2030. Furthermore, they have introduced the deeply unpopular conscription, sending out a survey to young people to which only 0.07% responded in favour of going to war for Germany. Tens of thousands of young people have mobilised against the threat of conscription. School strikes have shown that young people are not prepared to accept a future in which they expected to pay for militarisation, either through cuts to living standards or through being sent to fight.
In Italy, a one-day general strike in solidarity with Palestinians in autumn 2025 showed what the organised working class can achieve, students joined the walkouts and protests too. Workers have taken action at ports, demonstrating the industrial power they have to disrupt the movement of military cargo. This demonstrates that workers have the power to stop the machinery of war themselves.
We have also seen the power of youth movements outside Europe. In India, the youth-led ‘Cockroach’ movement mobilised hundreds of thousands around leaked examination papers, corruption and the lack of opportunities facing young people. After weeks of protests, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was forced to resign and the government conceded to several of the movement’s demands.
These struggles all point to the fact that pro-capitalist governments have limits to their power. When workers and young people organise, they can disrupt the plans of governments and force them to make concessions. But this also raises a more fundamental question. If workers and young people have the power to force concessions from the government, why shouldn’t they have the power to decide how society is run? Winning individual demands is important, it can boost the confidence of workers and young people to struggle, but it does not bring an end to the rotten capitalist system.
The role of the working class
The working class has a unique position in society. It is workers that produce the wealth and keep society functioning. When organised, workers have the potential not only to resist government’s decisions, but to take democratic control of how that wealth is used.
Capitalism is based on competition between companies for profits and between capitalist states for markets, resources, and economic and political influence. While society is organised around these competing class interests, the pressures that drive militarisation and war will remain.
Working-class and young people therefore need a political organisation that genuinely represents their interests. The Labour government has shown that it is not prepared to challenge the interests of big business, including the arms industry. The Greens have opposed the government’s approach to rearmament and called for greater investment in diplomacy. However, their ideas do not challenge the capitalist system. Officially, they call for Britain to remain in the NATO military alliance with other capitalist powers including the US. The Greens ask how we can make capitalism more peaceful, but we must argue to change the system that produces war.
We need a political alternative that represents the interests of workers and young people and fights for the socialist transformation of society. A socialist society would mean democratically taking control of the wealth and productive resources of society and using them according to social need rather than private profit.
Workers in the arms industry, for example, have valuable skills and productive capacity. With that industry nationalised under democratic workers’ control, decisions could be made collectively to decide how those skills and resources could be used for socially useful production rather than for the creation of weapons and the generation of profit.
However, this does not mean workers should just accept physical attacks against them. Fighting for demilitarisation does not mean denying people the right to defend themselves. The question is which class controls defence, and in whose interests is it carried out? Workers should be able to organise to defend themselves through their own democratic organisations, rather than being forced to fight in the interests of governments and big businesses. The struggle for working-class self-defence can be connected to the wider struggle for workers’ control.
Ultimately, socialism provides the basis for overcoming the divisions between workers of different countries. The working class has no interest in fighting other workers for the profits of their respective ruling classes, they have directly opposed interests.
Workers and young people need peace, decent living standards, and secure futures, while arms companies want profit from instability and rearmament. An international socialist transformation would replace competition between capitalist states with democratic cooperation between working people, removing the material basis on which nationalism and war are continually reproduced.
This is why the fight against war is inseparable from the fight for socialism. The 20 November youth strike is a step towards building the organisation and solidarity of the international working class, and a chance for young people to demonstrate their need to fight for our futures and not their wars.
Becca was a Socialist Students delegate to the June meeting in Cologne, which set the initial plans for the Youth Walkouts on 20 November
As temperatures globally go up and up, many are increasingly worried about the effects of climate change. Young people today are heading into a world of climate crisis, vast economic inequality and militarisation, with little certainty as to what the future holds.
The extreme temperatures across the UK this summer have led to rail lines buckling, over 1000 hospital operations being cancelled, and millions of people being forced to work in unbearable heat. An estimated 2,700 people died prematurely due to the heatwaves in England and Wales in May and June 2026 alone.
At a time when we desperately need massive investment in green energy and other measures to stop the climate crisis, this Labour government is instead pouring billions into military spending, while calling for further cuts to education and public services in order to pay for it.
Once again we see that the current world establishment, representing the interests of the billionaire capitalist class, have no plan to keep us safe. That’s because they defend a capitalist system driven by increasing the profits of a few at the expense of the overwhelming majority and our planet. Competing capitalist nation-states, putting the short-term profit interests of ‘their’ elites before all else, prevents the long-term global planning and collaboration that would be needed to solve the climate crisis.
That’s why we need socialist change to end climate change: a system where the control lies in the hands of the working class, instead of capitalist billionaires; where wealth, resources and technology would be used as part of a democratic global plan of production to meet the needs of all, while also protecting the environment.
Build the International Youth Strike on November 20
On Friday 20 November, Socialist Students will be taking part in a day of protests and walkouts all across Europe as part of the International Youth Strike, in coordination with thirty other European youth and student organisations under the slogan, ‘fight for our future, not their wars’.
Coinciding with the final scheduled day of this year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Turkey, the International Youth Strike is a chance to take aim at all the ruling elites who will gather to talk a load of hot air while doing nothing to stop this crisis.
Over 100,000 students are expected to walk out and protest across Europe on November 20. Join Socialist Students to be part of a movement for socialist change, not climate change, war and all of capitalism’s crisis!
