From Gaza to NATO: The Revolutionary Left's Plans for Britain's Students On 20 November, British schoolchildren and university students are being urged to walk out of classrooms and join an international protest in Trafalgar Square. The grievances are familiar: underfunded education, disappearing jobs, military spending and Gaza. But the organisers' wider programme contains a demand extending far beyond student politics. They want NATO dissolved. While Russia wages war against Ukraine and threatens European security, young Britons are being recruited into a movement seeking to dismantle the alliance underpinning Western defence for nearly eighty years. The mobilisation follows unrest in France, where protests over genuine educational grievances escalated into violence, looting and arson. British organisers celebrate the French demonstrations and urge students and workers to join an international campaign against capitalism, authoritarianism and the far Right. Socialist Students, SOAS Liberated Zone and other activists are promoting the November action. Their ambitions extend well beyond improving education. The manifesto demands an end to Western rearmament, NATO's dissolution and fundamental economic and political change. Who benefits if NATO disappears? Russia would gain strategically. Poland and the Baltic states would lose the collective-defence guarantee they sought because they feared Moscow. China would welcome a weakened transatlantic alliance. Iran would face a less cohesive Western security partnership. None needs to direct these campaigners to benefit from their demands. And this is where Gaza becomes important. Palestinian solidarity provides revolutionary organisations with a powerful means of mobilising students. Young people concerned about suffering in Gaza can find themselves drawn into a campaign opposing capitalism, Western defence, military expenditure and liberal democratic institutions. The organisers make these connections openly. Gaza supplies the immediate grievance. Their manifesto supplies the wider ideological destination. The historical pattern is familiar. Since the late 1960s, revolutionary movements have regarded universities, student unions and education as places to shape political attitudes over generations. The long march through the institutions envisaged changing society from within. Today's international student networks demonstrate how campus activism can become part of a coordinated movement crossing national borders. The French experience makes this especially relevant. Investigations have identified communist, socialist, Islamist-associated and pro-Palestinian organisations participating in or supporting demonstrations. Their ultimate objectives differ, sometimes profoundly, but shared opposition to Israel, Western foreign policy and established institutions provides common ground. The British mobilisation now brings elements of that campaign to London. Advocating socialism, opposing NATO or demonstrating for Palestine is lawful. But political freedom also requires scrutiny. Who organises these international campaigns? Who finances them? What relationships exist between participating organisations? These are legitimate questions when political movements are recruiting young people into campaigns with profound implications for European security. The organisers have published their objectives. Britain should examine them equally closely. With Ukraine fighting for survival and European governments strengthening their defences, a movement demanding NATO's dissolution deserves serious scrutiny. Above all, why is a campaign supposedly concerned with Britain's classrooms asking the next generation to dismantle the alliance protecting their country? "Investigations have identified communist, socialist, Islamist-associated and pro-Palestinian organisations participating in or supporting demonstrations."