Student Protests Sweep Germany More than 250,000 school and university students, young workers and teachers participated in a nationwide ''educational strike'' all over Germany last week. The biggest demonstrations of the “comprehensive action day“ on Wednesday could be seen in Berlin (nearly 30,000 participants), Stuttgart (15,000) and Hamburg (13,000). Smaller manifestations took place in over 100 cities and towns all over the country. But the rallies were not the end of the story.
Germany: "We Won’t Pay For Your Crisis" – 55,000 march in Berlin and Frankfurt Altogether 55,000 people came out onto to the streets on March 28 in Berlin and Frankfurt/Main as part of Saturday's protests across Europe. The speeches and the comments of workers and shop stewards show that major class conflicts are being prepared in Germany in the coming period.
IMT Winter School in Berlin – Forward to the future, don’t forget the past Last weekend the IMT organised the 5th Northern European Winter School in Berlin. 150 comrades and sympathisers from many different countries came to a city with a great revolutionary history and tradition. We set ourselves the target of learning from the ideas and lives of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and to study the successes and the mistakes of the German Revolution. On Sunday we participated with a sizeable block at the traditional Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht commemoration demonstration.
Commemorating Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht This month marks the 90th anniversary of the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two outstanding revolutionary leaders of the German working class. To commemorate that tragic day we are republishing Rosa Luxemburg's last article "Order Prevails in Berlin", Karl Liebknecht's famous speech against voting the war credits in the German parliament in 1914 and his 1915 leaflet "The Main Enemy Is At Home!".
Come to the International Marxist Tendency’s Fifth Winter School in Berlin (10-11 January 2009) The January 2009 commemoration of the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht at the cemetery where they are buried is expected to be very large. The IMT Winter School is combining a large variety of seminars with participation in the commemoration.
Germany: 100,000 on the streets in a massive student strike After Italy, Greece, Spain and other countries in Europe, now Germany is being hit by a wave of student protest. The same policies everywhere, cuts in spending and privatisation of the education system, are provoking the same reaction. The youth is mobilising massively, indicating that an even bigger movement of the working class is being prepared.
“Grand European Anti-Islamic Congress” stopped in its tracks It had been planned as a central meeting of leading proto-fascists, right-wing populists and neo-nazis. A grand "European Anti-Islamic Congress" was scheduled to be held Saturday 20th September in the huge German city of Cologne. The organisers didn’t count on the fact that no one would transport them or go anywhere near them. Instead tens of thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators turned up to protest.
“1968 – We shall win the last battle” conference in Berlin Over the weekend of May 2-4 a conference was held in Berlin on the theme of "1968 - We shall win the last battle", organised by the youth and students of the German Left Party (Die Linke). There were 1600 people taking part in the conference and the Marxists of Der Funke intervened in the debates, organised a stall with literature, provided international speakers from Spain and Pakistan and one of the Der Funke supporters, and member of the national council of the youth wing of the party, made one of the concluding speeches.
Germany: Berlin Transport Workers’ strike – another sign of growing militancy The Berlin Transport Company (BVG) has been paralysed by a long and militant strike of the drivers and the maintenance and administration workers. After years of concessions and backsliding by the unions the workers have said they have had enough.
Political instability, growing trade union militancy and a shift to the left in Germany Recent local elections in Germany have seen the Left Party (Die Linke) emerge as a force to the left of the SPD. At the same time we are seeing a growing level of trade union militancy. This reflects the growing malaise within German society as a layer of workers and youth look for an alternative.
German rail strikes - Activism on the wage front but no united resistance against privatisation Earlier this month the German railways were brought to a halt by a paralysing strike. There is a real mood of militancy among German rail workers, but at the top in the trade unions deals are going ahead that envisage the privatisation of the railway network with a generalised worsening of working conditions, lowering of safety levels and so on.
G8 summit in Germany – Police violence and riots overshadow class struggle The heads of government of the G8 are meeting in Heiligendamm in Germany. But they are being heavily protected from the harsh social realities that have emerged in Germany. Thousands of protestors are also there. Significantly, there are several important strikes that have affected life in Germany. This may also explain “police tactics” that seemed designed to provoke violent conflict, rather than play it down.
Merger of two left parties in Germany In mid-June the WASG and the Linkspartei.PDS will come together and form a new left-wing party, Die Linke. Hans-Gerd-Öfinger looks at the significance of this development and the perspectives for this new political formation.
HOV Germany: Public meetings with Che Guevara's daughter, Aleida Guevara Hands off Venezuela in Germany played a decisively role in some successful public meetings with Che Guevara's daughter, Aleida Guevara, last week. 450 workers, youth and Latin American immigrants attended the Frankfurt meeting on Saturday, 25 March, and 250 were packed into the hall in Wiesbaden two days earlier.
