By Alternativa Socialista Peru

On September 20 and 21, thousands of young people throughout the country, mostly called by student, neighborhood and feminist collectives that identify as part of the so-called Generation Z, stormed the streets with renewed strength. These mobilizations, far from being an isolated expression, show that popular discontent has not been defeated despite the repression, and that the new generations are taking the lead in the fight against the corrupt regime heir to the Fujimorista Constitution of 1993.

One of the most peculiar elements of the call was the decisive role of TikTok and other social networks, where young people found a mass dissemination channel outside of traditional media, which usually silence or criminalize protests. With creative messages, viral videos and direct calls, the young people managed to articulate a national call within a few days. In addition, the participation of streamers and content creators — many of whom broadcast live from the marches — made it possible to break the media siege and show the world the magnitude of the mobilization, demonstrating the strength of a youth that no longer depends on the old organizational apparatuses, but builds its own methods of communication and political action.

The regime’s response was the same as always: disproportionate and brutal repression. The National Police of Peru, following the criminal line of the Boluarte government, again deployed an arsenal of tear gas bombs and pellets, shooting directly at the body of the protesters, which left them injured and arbitrarily detained. The message is clear: while the Congress guarantees impunity to the genocidaires of the past and the Executive makes a pact with the mafias of the present, the youth who demand justice and dignity are answered with bullets and gases. This state violence does not seek to deter, but to terrorize, reminding everyone that the regime is sustained only by brute force.

These days mark a generational change in social protest: these are young people who did not directly experience the years of Fujimorista authoritarianism or the recent massacres of the Dina Boluarte government, but who feel firsthand the effects of unemployment, job insecurity, racism, machismo and the lack of future that this system offers them. His irruption confirms that the streets remain the central space of political dispute, in a context in which the Executive and the Congress have lost all legitimacy and in which the 2026 elections do not represent any way out for the majorities.

Generation Z in Peru is showing signs of accelerated politicization, taking references from global struggles — inspired by the so—called Nepal Code and the use of the flag from the series One Piece – but linking them to the concrete conditions of the country: repression, endemic corruption, social exclusion. With this, they introduce a fresh air that shakes up the immobility of the old institutional left, often trapped in electoral calculations or in pacts with sectors of the regime. Their action has a deeply democratic and horizontal character, which allows them to quickly connect with broad layers of working, school and university youth.

The perspective that opens up is strategic. These mobilizations, if they manage to consolidate and link up organically with the workers’, peasants’ and popular struggles, can become a fundamental engine for the construction of a revolutionary alternative in the country. Generation Z brings energy, creativity and boldness, but they need a clear program that goes beyond indignation and rejection of the government: the struggle for a free and sovereign Constituent Assembly, the dissolution of the Congress, the fall of the regime and the construction of a workers’ government. That is the historical task that can give direction to its strength.

It is not about idealizing or hoping that youth, on its own, will transform society. The challenge is greater: to unite this youthful power with the organized power of the working class and the exploited sectors. Only in this way will it be possible to move towards a true socialist alternative that does not repeat the dead ends of reformism. The spark that Generation Z ignited in September must become a revolutionary flame, capable of dragging all the people with it towards the conquest of a new Peru.

May the voice of Generation Z become an organized force!

Down with the corrupt regime of ’93 and its murderous government!

For a workers’ and people’s government that makes way for socialism!