Student strike in Germany is spreading fast

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday June 05, 2002 01:24 by Rene - EU Students info at education-is-not-for-sale dot org

Since May 22 every day demonstrations

At the moment the strike is spreading fast. At the end of May the university of Essen joined the strike and early this week the universities of Cologne, Siegen and Trier also voted for a strike. At June 4 the university of Düsseldorf, Bochum and Aachen joined the strike.

At May 22 students of the university of Bielefeld started a warning strike for one week. The strike was followed the next day by student strikes at the universities of Wuppertal and Duisburg. The warning strike in Bielefeld stopped after a week but next week they have a general assemblee again to discuss a second strike. The strikes in Duisburg and Wuppertal continued. At the moment the strike is spreading fast. At the end of May the university of Essen joined the strike and early this week the universities of Cologne, Siegen and Trier also voted for a strike. At June 4 the university of Düsseldorf, Bochum and Aachen joined the strike. At June 5 and 6 there will be more general assemblees where it is expected that more universities will join the strike. Some schools made solidarity strikes and joined student demonstrations.

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

[email protected] (Striking students in Bochum)
[email protected] (Striking students in Duisburg)
[email protected] (Striking students in Cologne)
[email protected] (striking students in Wuppertal)

There where demonstrations in Bielefeld, Dortmund, Aachen, Duisburg, Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, Essen, Cologne, Krefeld and many more cities. There where also a lot of roadblocks which caused major trafficjams and buildings of the SPD, which is the social-democratic party) where occupied. The SPD is in the government of Nordrhein Westfalen and want to introduce studyfees in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. At June 3 the first university (university of Trier) outside the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen joined the strike. In Hamburg there will be a week of protests next week with a demo at June 10.

Every day there are demonstrations and several other kinds of protests in many cities.
June 4:
There was a spontanious demonstration in Aachen after the general assemblee of 6500 students who blocked the traffic. In Cologne students occupied a building of the German TV station WDR for a few hours. In Bochum more than 1500 students joined a spontanious demonstration to the inner city. In Siegen there where protests during a visit of the prime-minister of the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen.

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 Germany, mail to:

[email protected] (Striking students in Bochum)
[email protected] (Striking students in Duisburg)
[email protected] (Striking students in Cologne)
[email protected] (striking students in Wuppertal)

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

Local websites of striking students:

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

Essen:
http://www.asta.uni-essen.de/

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

Bochum
http://www.asta-bochum.de

Cologne
http://www.asta.uni-koeln.de