THREAD: Across Europe and beyond, a fresh wave of street...

THREAD:

Across Europe and beyond, a fresh wave of street mobilizations is being read by some observers as the latest chapter in a resurgent global contest between left and right.

- In France, high-school blockades over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and crumbling buildings have drawn in major unions and the far-left La France Insoumise, with marches swelling into broader cost-of-living actions.

- In Spain, tenants’ unions and labor federations (CCOO and UGT) have driven nationwide protests against soaring rents and evictions, culminating in a snap election.

- In Belgium, the socialist and Christian unions have led anti-austerity marches, joined by students protesting education costs in a movement explicitly influenced by events across the border.

- In India, the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party has partnered with left student organizations such as AISA and SFI have found street mobilisation opportunities manufacturing public concerns over electoral rolls and earlier exam irregularities.

What unites these episodes is the organizational weight of left-leaning unions, student federations and parties that have supplied structure, framing and political grammar to ever present general grievances rooted in education quality, public-service strains and youth economic insecurity.

Interestingly, a Fox News investigation has observed that a transnational network of communist and socialist groups, amplified by media outlets linked to Shanghai-based financier Neville Roy Singham, has helped project the French protests internationally.

We investigated and discovered the same pattern in India.

The French protests began in late September over overcrowded classrooms and spread nationwide within days. Of the 50 or so organisations in and around the movement, only 15 were student or youth groups. The rest were unions led by the CGT, communist outfits, LFI and the PCF.

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Portals funded by Shanghai-based tycoon Neville Roy Singham's network took the French protests global, pushing the communist and anti-government agenda and casting France as part of a worldwide youth uprising, India included.

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The Indian version:
On 28 June, three AISA activists, among them president Neha Bora, began a 23-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar. AISA is CPI(ML) Liberation's student wing. SFI and AISF joined in July, with clashes in Kerala, until the education minister quit.

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In September 2026, the same orgs turned on CEC Gyanesh Kumar. On 6 October, left & communist student fronts SFI, AISF, AISA, PSU & AISB announced joining CJP's Oct 10 protest, demanding the CEC's resignation & prosecution, & mobilising street protests.

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While these groups stage on ground protests in India, they got support from abroad by groups who have long worked against India's interests. One such group is Indian Alliance Paris (IAP), which drew parallels between the France & India protests.

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IAP has been running anti-India campaigns for years. In 2021, IAP endorsed the EU-India People's Roadmap, an agenda to guide European political action on India. Also promoted the Dismantling Global Hindutva conference. In 2023, it staged protests in Paris against India’s PM’s visit as Bastille Day guest of honour.

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IAP’s secretary Joy Banerjee, is a former CGT union (French Trade Union) delegate, & has associations with French Communist Party and La France Insoumise (LFI). Also screened his film with the French Communist Party and signed a 2026 appeal published by LFI.

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From Oct 2024-Jan 2026, IAP was a named partner in 10 submissions to UN HR bodies, 9 on Bastar. And on May 6, 2026, IAP, along with other anti-India groups, co-organised a briefing demanding demilitarisation of a region where India has been fighting Maoist insurgents.

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The event was attended by several activists, including Bela Bhatia, a Maoist sympathiser and wife of Jean Drèze, who recently attended the October 10 protests organised by the left & communist student groups in Delhi.

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In June 2026, IAP signed the FIDH call to free Khurram Parvez. In Sept 2026, IAP ran a falsified smear campaign against the BAPS Eiffel Tower row. In Aug 2026, IAP, along with DHRDNet, InSAF India, NCWL, FIDH, and SAJC, co-authored the shadow NGO report behind the UN CERD's critical 2026 review of India.

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In the UK, the SFI (UK), the overseas chapter of CPI(M)'s student wing protested in eight cities in July in support of communist fronts in India. SASG, the Indian Workers' Association, HfHR UK, and the UK Indian Muslim Council protested outside the Indian High Commission.

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Greta Thunberg joined the SFI UK gathering at Trafalgar Square on 26 July and called the Indian student struggle 'our struggle', lending the Indian campaign an international face and a far larger audience.

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In the US, HfHR, which has attacked India’s imaged for since its inception in 2019 held 'Stand with India's Students' gatherings outside Indian missions in Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Fremont, using the same 'Main Bhi Cockroach' slogan in every city.

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HfHR, along with various organisations including The Azadi Project, Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), also organised protests against the Indian government across multiple cities in the US including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco

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The faces of the protests were then given platforms abroad. On Aug 5, 2026 IAMC held a congressional briefing on 'India's Crackdown on the Student Movement' with AISA's N. Sai Balaji, and on Aug 9, 2026, HfHR hosted AISA president Neha Bora alongside Arundhati Roy.

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All these left groups are legitimising the on-ground left & communist protests do not work in isolation. IAP, HfHR, IAMC and SASG all endorsed Dismantling Global Hindutva in 2021. IAP, IAMC and HfHR endorsed the EU-India People's Roadmap among other anti-India campaigns.

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The student groups on India's streets belong to these parties: SFI to the CPI(M), AISA to CPI(ML) Liberation and AISF to the CPI. When the CPI(M) Polit Bureau called for countrywide protests on 10 October, the Marxist-Leninist blog In Defense of Communism carried it.

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To reach a global audience these groups have relied on BreakThrough News, a New York outlet whose parent company, BT Media. Since July 2026, it has covered India's left protests repeatedly, often quoting & promoting the CPI(M), AISA and SFI while targeting the Indian government.

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BreakThrough News received over $1.1M between 2021-2023. Funded via Neville Roy Singham-linked donor funds, the 501(c)(3) outlet faces ongoing congressional scrutiny over its financial network and pro-China coverage.

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Its BT Live of 23 July hosted CPI(M) MP John Brittas on the CJP sit-in. On 30 July it ran 'India's Cockroach Rebellion' by Tricontinental's Atul Chandra, and on 29 August it covered SFI, AISF and AISA protests, quoting the CPI(M) and Vijay Prashad.

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On 7 October, BT News quoted Brittas calling the CEC protests a 'historical movement to save democracy' and Neha Bora vowing to continue until the CEC was removed. On September 1, it carried the UN CERD findings against India that the MEA had rejected.

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This is neither the first nor the last time Singham's money has reached media covering India. The the ED traced Rs 76.84 crore to NewsClick from the Justice and Education Fund and Rs 1.61 crore from The Tricontinental Ltd, entities it linked to Singham.

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When NewsClick was raided in 2023, the statement backing it was signed by people from the People's Forum, CodePink, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Tricontinental and eight from BreakThrough News, the same Singham-funded network now covering India's protests.

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In July 2026 the US House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed BreakThrough News and two other Singham-funded fronts, the People's Forum and Tricontinental, in a probe of more than $39M that it advances Chinese Communist Party-aligned interests.

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Singham launched the People's Forum in 2017 with $22.44M as a Manhattan hub for communist organising; IAP co-sponsored a teach-in there in 2023. Tricontinental, which received $16.76M, is run by Vijay Prashad, and Singham chairs its international advisory board.

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The People's Forum and CodePink, whose co-founder Jodie Evans is Singham's wife, also signed the 2024 Savera declaration on 'Hindu supremacy', which took the 'Hindu supremacy' framing used against India into American civil rights circles.

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Tricontinental's India staff come from the same organisations: Subin Dennis, former Delhi SFI vice-president who wrote for NewsClick; Nitheesh Narayanan, SFI activist since 2003; P. Ambedkar, SFI and ex-NewsClick; and Abhinav VK, SFI until 2020 and DYFI since 2016.

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France and India show the same sequence. Left and communist fronts stage the protests, IAP, SFI UK, HfHR and their partners carry them abroad, communist parties offer solidarity, and Singham-funded outlets present it all to the world as one global uprising.

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