In France, protests against Macron’s pensions reforms have grown in size and intensity and have now developed into a sweeping social movement.“The youth have begun to take to the streets. Truthfully, I think the movement is becoming more radical” says Clément Allochon, rail worker and union leader. But police violence against protesters is getting worse, and the brutalisation of protesters by French police has drawn the alarm of the Council of Europe. Protesters have been rounded up by police and detained in cells with the rest of the prison population, sometimes multiple times in a night. Emeline Le Flem, whose boyfriend was one of those detained, says “it motivated us to see how violent the repression could be.” While the action on the streets is now slowly winding down, hope remains for the collective bonds that have formed across workers, students and beyond. Is their vision for a more just society utopian? Lorélia Frejo, a student, doesn’t think so: “What is utopian is to think that this system, that destroys the planet and the world, is sustainable.”