School students protest in Germany: the young generation returns to the scene
On Wednesday the 12th of November 120.000 school kids took to the streets in Berlin, Cologne, Hannover, Munich, Trier and many other German cities. They protested against increasing examination stress, the shortage of teachers, the resulting cancelling of lessons etc. In other words, they protested against the intolerable conditions in the schools. Their protest threw the light of truth on the grand speeches of politicians about how much they value education; on the different "educational offensives" they announce in response to the miserable "marks" their system has been given in the "Pisa" quality assessments, where they pose unceasingly with the kids in front of the camera. The school school students have brought to the fore the best qualities which characterise this young generation: The radicalism of their criticism, their lack of respect for the hallowed institutions of the ruling class, the audacity of their actions.
You can find enough shortcomings of these protests if you want. The party atmosphere of the demonstrations has been pointed to, or the fact that the sparks of insubordination only rarely spread to the teachers and students. You can complain that this movement did not organise itself, that the protests were called by official and semi official pupil representation structures or private initiatives such as "Break Through the Education Blockage". But all such grumbling misses the essential point of these protests, which are far from being a mere footnote of the class struggle.
These actions are part and parcel of the struggles of the working class as a whole, not least of the international protest movement of contemporary school students and students, which began with the protest movements of these sectors against the "CPE" legislation in France in the spring of 2006. France and Chile 2006, Italy and Spain in the autumn of 2008, and now Germany as well. Everywhere the young generation is returning to the scene of struggle against the worsening of the living, working and learning conditions. It is even placing itself in the forefront of the workers' struggle.
It is striking that, in all of these movements the school students have played a particularly active role. In Germany the school students have even assumed a vanguard role. They were the driving force behind the protests, and not the students, among whom to a great extent passivity had crept in. The latter had worn themselves out in recent years in the aftermath of protests against the introduction of university fees, which, under the direction of leftist groups, dispersed themselves in activism and boycott actions.
What is also striking is the grim determination with which the protesting school students expressed their indignation. Two episodes express this powerfully. In Berlin, thousands of school students briefly occupied the venerable Humboldt University, hanging flags and slogans out the windows such as: "Capitalism is the crisis".
What happened in Hannover was even more spectacular. There, the protests broke through the police ban mile around the provincial parliament of Lower Saxony, besieged the "holy house of democracy" and even tried to storm it. This resulted in scuffles with the uniformed representatives of the state, in the course of which some of the school students made the unpleasant acquaintance of state repression.
It is enough to imagine that the workers of the nearby Volkswagen plants might follow this example in order to begin to sense the explosive potential of such proceedings. As far as we are aware, this is the first time in the post war German Federal Republic that the working class undertook such an action. It was left to the school students of Hannover - as wage labourers of the future, part of the working class - to be the first to directly attack the parliament as the symbol of domination in western capitalism, without bothering in the least about the unspeakable character of this breaking of taboo's in the eyes of the ruling class. Congratulations!
Indeed, the present world wide movements of school students and students distinguish themselves from their predecessors in the 1960's and 1970's through the progressive loss of illusions in relation to bourgeois mystifications, through their soberness regarding the system and its perspectives. What is at issue today is no longer having your own pupil representation, but basics of life, concrete material demands which capitalism is less and less able to fulfil. The advanced stage of the crisis is lending the present pupil and student actions a much more radical character than that of the 1960s and 70s.
The present youth movements also distinguish themselves from the "no future" generation of the 1980s. Already the simple fact that the present generation increasingly defends itself collectively, that it raises concrete demands, is a sign of anything but resignation. Those who struggle have not yet lost hope for the future.
Weltrevolution 26.11.2008
Comments
student movement in Italy
I hope the comrades in Italy could also publish a text about the recent student movement there......
re: student movement in Italy
That would probably be a good idea, yes.
Sorry to be a prick, but I don't get the impression that this is a particularly good translation. What's the link to this article in German?
The IBRP have some stuff
The IBRP have some stuff about the student movement in Italian, first two articles on this page:
http://www.ibrp.org/
Devrim
Here is the German version
You're right, the translator is not a native English speaker! Here is the link: http://de.internationalism.org/welt151_schuelerproteste
Thanks, Lonelondoner
Thanks, Lonelondoner
Occupation of parliament?
It is indeed striking to read that "kids" not older than 18 form the vanguard of such a movement, supported by their parents, teachers... It gives me hope.
However, I do not agree with the article in extolling the storming of the parliament, the symbol of "democracy", and I do certainly not agree in promoting this kind of actions towards the working class.
Is this really a sign of an uprising class consciousness? Does it open up any perspectives? Does it drives the movement towards an enlargement? This is not clear. Did the scholars transform the parliament in a place for debate or did they just want to block the thing?
When the students blocked university buildings during the CPE movement, it was to discuss the governmental measures and encourage students and workers to react against it. The content of the movement was the driving force. When the movement was becoming weak, the blockages became the purpose itself. Blockages in itself do not open any perspectives at all.
Does the working class really need "symbols"? Again, during the CPE movement the bourgeoisie tried to use a symbol of the may '68 movement, the Sorbonne university, against the students. The students wanted to transform the building in a place to debate, like in many other faculties was done. The riot squads surrounded the building, but luckily, the students were mature enough to avoid a fight. They didn't fall into the trap. A fixation on this symbol could have been dramatic. I presume that at this very moment, the same provocative tricks are used by the Greek bourgeoisie.
Yesterday I read a Tortskyist article defending the blockage of a factory in Chicago. "Occupations of factories are an important strategy for workers. This occupation will inspire other workers to defend against savings and resignations. Besides, they make it clear that workers are capable of controlling and organising their own workshop." According to them, and according to this article, an occupation could develop class consciousness, or at least be the spark of a workers movement. Wouldn't we all imprison ourselves if we would all occupate our own work shop?
I apologize for my faulty English.
Friendly greetings,
Y. (a sympathizer from Belgium)
In agreement with Y on German school students
Actually, comrade Y makes some very valid points - and indeed the article on the German school students movement sparked off a degree of discussion and criticism along the same lines within the ICC. The main point of disagreement was how to judge the political importance of attacking "symbols of democracy" and whether this was an "example" for the Volkswagen workers to follow.
First of all - and I think I am in agreement with Y here - the very fact that the students attacked the parliament is an indication that they believe that the parliament still has some important powers, which fundamentally is no longer the case in decadent capitalism. So yes, it is quite true that attacking a "symbol" is not really the point, especially if that then becomes a distraction from the one thing that can reinforce workers' struggles which is spreading unity. It's a striking difference with the actions of some students during the recent rail strike in France where there was a real effort on the part of a minority to go along and support the rail workers and try to create some kind of unity.
Moreover, this is not in fact an example that the we would urge the Volkswagen workers to follow. While it is certainly true that the workers will have to "storm the parliament" one day or another, this will only be possible or meaningful when a large degree of workers' unity has already been achieved - and this will not be done by attacking "symbolic" buildings but through the active development of workers' organisation in and around the workplace. So I think that the idea that this was an example for the Volkswagen workers to follow is a mistaken one. The first task for any struggle is - as Y says - to "drive towards enlargement"
That said, there is perhaps a degree of "German specificity" here: given Germany's history (the Nazi regime and the democratisation that followed through Germany's integration into the US bloc), the democratic mystification is more "sacro-sanct" than in other Western countries, and attacking it is therefore all the more remarkable in itself (the same is true of anti-fascism by the way - Germany is the only country where anti-fascism is actually part of state ideology, as we could see very clearly in the recent demonstrations following the stabbing of the police chief in Passau by neo-nazis). There is probably more thought to be given to this point. However such considerations do not in any way detract from my essential agreement with Y.