Student strikes in Germany

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday May 23, 2002 22:54 by Rene Schuijlenburg - Education is nor for sale! info at education-is-not-for-sale dot org

No to the neo liberal education reforms!

In Germany student protests started this week with a strike in Bielefeld and several actions across the German state of Nordrhein Westfalen.

In Germany student protests started this week with a strike in Bielefeld and several actions across the German state of Nordrhein Westfalen. At May 23 the students of the universities of Duisburg and Wuppertal joined the strike.
In several other universities there will be general assamblees as well in the coming 2 weeks and there will be a statewide demonstration in the city of Düsseldorf on June 8 (meeting point 13.30 at the Central trainstation). It`s expected that more strikes will follow.

At May 22 there was a demonstration of more than 3000 students in Bielefeld, their number was even growing after workers of a shopping centre who are on strike as well joined them. The mobilization for the demo was locally organized. At the same day students of the Highschool of Mönchengladbach occupied a building of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is the biggest party in the coalition government in Nordrhein-Westfalen. The students where of a highschoolgroup of the party and called on all student members of the youth-section of the SPD not to pay their member fee for the party.

At May 23 there was a manifestation at the university of Dortmund with more than 800 students. The students decide to organize a demonstration in the city of Dortmund at Wednesday May 29.

At May 24 there will be a solidarity strike of school students in Willich with a demonstration as well.

In several cities a lot of other protests will follow in the coming days and weeks.... There is also a mobilization for the European wide Student demonstration and the social forum about education in Seville, Spain from june 20-22.

Neo liberal reforms in the German education system

On May 16 the minister of education of the state Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany informed the directors of the universities in Nordrhein Westfalen about the plans to introduce a new tax for students and the introduction of studyfees for people who are studying to long and for students who are doing their second study. The tax will be 50 Euro and is needed to fill a budget gap in the general state budget. The fees will be Euro 500 and Euro 650.

The directors of the universities are furious about the taxes since they will not be used to make improvements at the universities, the money will be swallowed by the gap in the state general budget. At the same time there where tax cuts for the big corporations which caused the big gap in the state budget.

In Germany the government (Greens and social Democrats) promised not to introduce studyfees , study-ing would be a free service by the state and everyone could study what they want to. But in the German education sector the neo-liberal agenda is developing rapid changes as well. In Berlin there is already a tax for students (called "Verwaltungsgebühr") and there are already studentfees in some German states like for instance Badem- Würtemberg. A leaked document showed that there are also plans for a pilot project with general studyfees of 1000 Euro at the university of Münich and in Nordrhein Westfalen there is a project called "The independent school" where schools are working together with the "Bertellsmann Stiftung" (Part of the Bertellsmann Group) in order to get corporate financing. The corporations that invest in this program also get more influence on the material that the pupils and school students of these schools have to learn.

A document of the German trade ministers also shows that they are working hard on neo-liberal reforms in the education sector. In this document they write about teachers getting paid by "achievments" and the introduction of general studyfees. The trade ministers also want universities to decide which students they want and which students they don`t want, the prinicipal that everybody who has the right degrees can study will no longer exist if they get what they want.

We will not accept their neo-liberal agenda and are calling students and school students to ressist!

Demonstration in Düsseldorf
Date: June 8
Time 13.30
Meetingpoint Central Trainstation Düsseldorf

June 20-22
Forum about education and European-wide student demonstration during the EU summit in Sevilla

Solidarity statements to the striking students in Bielefeld, mail to:

[email protected] (striking students in Bielefeld)

and

[email protected] (striking students in Wuppertal)

More information about the campaign education is not for sale:
www.education-is-not-for-sale.org

Local websites of striking students:

Bielefeld
http://www.asta-bielefeld.de

Wuppertal
http://www.asta.uni-wuppertal.de/

Duisburg
http://www.uni-duisburg-essen.de