Battimamzelle and Cockroaches

“Long live the students, a garden of joy, they are birds that are not scared of beasts or police” (Violeta Parra, Chilean singer-songwriter)

The spirit of protest is alive, floating across the globe like a batimamzelle on a breeze, touching down here, there, who knows where, challenging a global status quo that cares little for the needs of ordinary working people. In recent weeks the peoples of several continents, led by magnificent children, have filled the streets fighting for democracy and demanding government policy and action that serve their interests.

In Western Europe welfare state governments manage “late-stage capitalism” – the current phase of the capitalist economic system – characterised by extreme wealth concentration and income inequality, the domination of corporate monopolies, financial speculation, the commodification of nearly every aspect of daily life, and the rise of low-benefit contract labour and insecurity for workers. Under this economic regime, the state serves elites and fails working people. And the youth have had enough.

TO THE BARRICADES!

High school students are up in arms in France, protesting government budget cuts, rising education costs, deteriorating conditions in schools and teacher shortages. The protests are testament to their organisation, bravery and understanding of the history they are taught in class – that their republic was born of insurrection; that in protest and uprising lie the origin and defence of their freedoms and rights. They have been joined by university students, teachers, parents, trade unions and ordinary citizens. This solidarity has given the movement momentum. Already defeated, Emmanuel Macron has responded with policy concessions, promising deployment of 3,000 qualified teachers and consultations to address student and union demands. But his velvet glove is accompanied by the iron fist of police repression. Brutal police attacks on protestors have led to hundreds of injuries and more than 8,000 arrests — the vast majority of them minors. The world has seen the videos. In a recent article, “The Violence Sweeping France Was Never Really About Schools” in The Atlantic, Thomas Chatterton Williams writes: “Some of these demands may be valid, but the violence fanning out across France has little to do with pedagogical concerns. For some time now, there has been an existential crisis at the heart of French life, rooted in a pervasive sense that the future will never equal the past, that the state cannot achieve what its citizens expect. Their anger accumulates, then it boils over.” The French are fed up with years of political and economic instability created by governments that ignore their core interests.

Protests in Belgium centre on federal austerity measures, budget cuts, and broader funding reductions impacting school meals, supplies, and public services. Belgium’s largest trade unions have organised massive demonstrations, drawing tens of thousands of students and workers. The government has unleashed police violence on protestors like in neighbouring France. Belgians are refusing to shoulder the burden of a national crisis created by governments that do not work for them.

In Spain, protests have erupted against budget cuts and a severe housing affordability crisis, soaring rents and high-profile evictions, all exacerbated by mass tourism and property speculation, making homeownership and rental unaffordable for young people and working families. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s left-wing minority coalition attempted to pass emergency relief decrees, including eviction bans until 2030 and caps on rent increases, but conservative opposition parties voted down the measures, triggering enormous demonstrations across the country. Sánchez has announced a snap general election on 29 November to break the political deadlock. The Spanish are demanding economic policy that places people and not elites at its centre.

DAMN COCKROACHES

In India, students, women, political groups and opposition alliances have taken to the streets in mass demonstrations driven by anger over the disenfranchisement of 130 million voters. The Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which calls itself the “voice of the lazy and unemployed”, is at the forefront. CJP was founded in May 2026 after India’s Chief Justice referred to unemployed youth as “cockroaches” — vile, dehumanising language not unlike what has been introduced into Trini political discourse. Founder Abhijeet Dipke asked on social media what would happen if all the “cockroaches” united. The youthful “cockroaches” quickly amassed in their millions to protest the hopelessness of their systemic abandonment. CJP embraces the Indian Constitution and democratic non-violence but the right-wing Modi government, its days numbered, is responding with police barricades, violence and mass detentions of party members and leaders. With the bravery of righteous indignation Dipke has responded, posting: “This intimidation is not going to work, Modi. The youth of this country are no longer scared of you.” Indians are demanding democracy and a chance at a productive life.

Interestingly, it appears we have cockroaches here. In a recent letter to the Trinidad Express, Amisha Pooran of Tacarigua wrote, “The Prime Minister always says ‘education is the key to success’ — which is contradictory, as many persons who have graduated with undergraduate degrees are struggling to obtain employment. The youths and the common man of Trinidad and Tobago deserve better — not just those who sit at the top.” That is cockroach talk. And you see one, you know it have more. Do I digress?

Meantime, in South America there is the seesaw struggle for the soul of South American governance between the adherents of institutional democracy and the forces of populist authoritarianism. The former respect the separation of state powers, electoral integrity and human rights while the latter seek to dismantle democratic checks and balances and eliminate hard-won human rights. These two have alternated in government since the 1990s but, driven by public frustration over economic stagnation, inflation, and endemic crime, voters have punished leftist incumbents in recent elections. Since 2024 a wave of right-wing populist leaders has taken power. With the authoritarians ascendant, people across the continent are fighting back.

Chile has seen massive student-led demonstrations against President José Antonio Kast’s proposed 2027 austerity budget that promises multi-billion dollar reductions in public education and healthcare, resulting in intense clashes with riot police. Austerity measures, subsidy cuts, and deregulations have triggered demonstrations and general strikes by students and labour unions, social movements, and left-wing parties in Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador – and police violence. Brazil is the most important leftist domino still standing, with President Lula’s tenuous hold on power threatened by right-winger Flávio Bolsonaro. Ahead of the election scheduled for 25 October a coalition of students, political activists, union workers, teachers, and civic groups is staging massive demonstrations throughout the country to defend democracy and support Lula. South Americans will not relinquish their right to a humane life and go quietly into the dark.

BUT BUSINESS AS USUAL IN FIFA…

Across the globe people are fighting for democracy and a fair distribution of society’s opportunities and resources, usually confronted by brutal police. But in FIFA the overlords are fighting for power and control of the resources of patronage. The latest development in the push to remove Greedy Gianni Infantino is a UEFA reform proposal for consideration by the FIFA Council (the FIFA President, FIFA’s six confederation Presidents and 30 elected confederation representatives). It calls for: 1) a separation of powers between FIFA’s Congress, the Council and the FIFA Bureau (the heads of the six confederations and the FIFA president – the real power in FIFA); 2) the removal of the FIFA President from all management duties; and 3) FIFA’s General Secretary to be appointed by and report to the Bureau rather than solely to the President. This is a transparent manoeuvre by the anti-Infantino faction to effectively neuter the Presidency and, Napoleon-style, coronate themselves. It is an attempted coup d’état dressed up as democratic reform.

UEFA’s 2024 Congress amended the organisation’s statutes on presidential term limits to allow President Aleksander Čeferin to run for an unprecedented fourth term in April 2027. Both Čeferin and Greedy Gianni are using the “partial term” exception to bypass the standard three-term (12-year) constitutional limit — the former finished Michel Platini’s only term while the latter served part of Sepp Blatter’s last term. I hold to my view that the majority of world football will cling to Infantino despite UEFA’s threat to secede from FIFA if he stays. TTFA has already declared its loyalty to him. RebootFIFA, the international campaign of which I am a Board member, recently stated: “The circumvention of presidential term limits is a common characteristic of authoritarian regimes. Čeferin can’t claim the mantle of reform while he is behaving like Infantino and while UEFA’s structural flaws are identical to FIFA’s. This speaks again to the urgency of football governance reform, to the inability of football’s governing bodies to effectively regulate themselves.” The hypocrisy stinks to the heavens but FIFA politics is no place for the faint-hearted.

Montesquieu, the French philosopher, wrote: “The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” Indeed. While the FIFA powerbrokers fight for power over patronage, people across the world are fighting for democracy and a viable future. Who knows where the batimamzelle or cockroaches will turn up next.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in the preceding article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organisation in which he is a stakeholder.