By World BEYOND War, March 5, 2026
World BEYOND War stands in full solidarity with the European students striking today, March 5th 2026.
As Europe is undergoing increased militarisation and conscription is being re-introduced in many European countries, youth are mobilising against preparations for war. On December 5th last year, around 55,000 students walked out across Germany, showing that the next generation will not simply accept preparations for war as inevitable. Now, a coalition of collectives from across Europe has called for a second strike on March 5th.
Below is the joint statement from the coalition of student groups.
The Rich Want War – We Want A Future!
On the 5th of March, students across Europe are coming together to make their voices heard. As Youth and Students against Militarisation and Conscription, we demand fundamental change. Be part of the movement that shows that young people refuse to be ignored.
As democratic, peace-oriented, anti-capitalist youth organisations, we collectively stand against the growing militarisation. We are witnessing massive investments in the military sector that enable wars in the first place, while at the same time funding for education, healthcare, social services, culture, climate mitigation and youth is being cut. This logic is interconnected: Europe is rearming for war — in pursuit of economic interests and imperialist claims to power and domination.
Meanwhile, the youth in Europe is robbed of perspectives for a good future every day: many of us grow up in poverty, sit in run-down school buildings, cannot afford housing and are unsure if they will be able to find good work in the future. These are the results of political decisions that put profits over our future. This is the future that we are supposed to “protect” with weapons and war? We say: No! This is why we will take to the streets on the 5th of March!
At the same time, war and the military follow patriarchal logics: all those who do not conform to heteronormative gender norms are marginalised and violently oppressed. Wars do not protect us from suffering; they reproduce a system full of femicides, patriarchal violence and structural oppression.
This development does not stand alone. Capitalism is in a deep crisis and seeks to stabilise itself through nationalism and authoritarian tendencies. Our very foundations of life are being systematically destroyed in the process. Both fossil fuels and military arms are weapons of mass destruction, based on an economy of destruction of life and sustained by politics of dehumanisation and domination. Fossil imperialism is pushing us towards collapse. Wars and the industries that profit from them are a central part of the climate catastrophe.
The consequences are particularly severe for young people. Young people are being forced into military service — partly through direct conscription, partly because they are robbed of alternative perspectives outside the military. This primarily affects poor and racialised communities. While funding for education is being cut, arms corporations and military officials are being courted in schools and universities.
At the same time, resistance is increasingly criminalised. Anti-militarist and anti-imperialist demonstrations and initiatives are increasingly subjected to state repression. Alongside open violence, attempts are made to render us compliant through isolation, intimidation, and psychological pressure.
This repression is part of a broader system of exclusion. The so-called “Fortress Europe” is fencing itself off and deporting people to war and crisis zones that it itself has created. We know that exploitation, interventions, and oppression are what produce these conditions of flight and death in the first place. So-called defence alliances, like NATO, threaten and attack other nation states and autonomous democratic projects for imperialist interests. We reject the rearmament and its tales of protection from some external threat. Peace must be a result of the solidarity between peoples, not through military alliances of states that do not act in our interests.
To end this suffering, we must break with the existing system, dismantle the various structures that carry on its militarisation and build a free and democratic society.
For all these reasons, we are organising an international mobilisation date across many European countries, with demonstrations and actions to be held in many different cities. Our objective is to make this date a first step towards the creation of further and wider mobilisations, and the building of an international student and youth movement against war and imperialism.
On March 5 and beyond, we are taking to the streets against war, militarisation, and climate destruction – for international solidarity, democratisation and gender liberation.
The post The Rich Want War, We Want a Future – European Students Striking appeared first on World BEYOND War.
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