The strike at German Universities goes on (fwd)

[Sid Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>]

> Date: Sat, 06 Dec 1997 09:48:57 -0800
> From: Andreas Hippin <sg885hi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: The strike at German Universities goes on
>
> 100.000 FIGHT BACK THE NEOLIBERAL ATTACK ON EDUCATION IN GERMANY
>
> More than 40.000 students and pupils took part in a manifestation on
> Thursday in Duesseldorf, the capital of the federal state of
> Northrhine-Westphalia. Traffic came to a standstill while student
> protestors were marching through the central business district to the
> state assembly. More than 100.000 took to the streets in Germany as a
> whole to fight back the fiscal attack on education.
>
> Although Anke Brunn, the social democrat secretary for education had
> left the social democrats annual convention in Hannover to discuss with
> the students the protestors made it very clear that they would not talk
> to her. Anke Brunn is responsible for all the cutbacks in education in
> the state of Northrhine-Westphalia. Her party is as eager to streamline
> higher education according to the interests of the industry as the
> conservatives are.
>
> The introduction of tuition fees would make it impossible for children
> from poorer families to get a university education. University education
> in Germany is still free of charge at the moment, but the conditions
> students have to study under are miserable. Apart from overcrowded
> seminars and lectures many professors are neither willing nor able to
> fulfill their obligations in teaching.
>
> The contents of education is trimmed according to the demands of mighty
> sponsors, e.g. the WestLB, a major bank, pays for an academic chair
> dealing with "Modern China" at the University of Duesseldorf. Kloeckner
> and Haniel are paying for East Asian area studies at Duisburg
> University. It's getting more and more difficult to study the topics you
> are really interested in. There are more and more obligatory classes,
> etc.
>
> So one of the questions raised during the protests was why students
> should pay tuition fees for this kind of job-qualification measures
> adjusted to the needs of the industry while, their colleagues who are
> receiving an education within the industry are getting paid for it. Who
> wants to pay for job-training schemes?
>
> In contrary to 1968 today's generation of student protestors isn't
> decided yet whether to try to negotiate all the way through the
> institutions like their predecessors did. Confronted with the arrogance
> of the former rebels who denounce their protests as "apolitical" or
> "economic demands" there is a sense of confrontation growing stronger
> amongst today's protestors. More and more students consider themselves
> part of job-qualifying schemes which makes it simpler to connect their
> actions with other people's struggles against social cutbacks.
>
> Duisburg's students decided to continue their strike until next Tuesday
> on a mass meeting attended by 2.000 students on Wednesday. Their demands
> are still the same: the prohibition of tuition fees, social welfare
> benefits for everyone, an end to discriminating laws against foreigners
> living here and more democracy within the university's institutional
> framework.
>
> After all still more than 70 institutions of higher education are on
> strike in Germany.
>
> Andreas
>
> More information at the following URLs:
> http://fsrinfo.uni-duisburg.de/streik/
> http://www.lahn.net/streik/
>
>
>
>