Re: The strike at German Universities goes on

[Dennis R Redmond <dredmond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 9 Dec 1997, Sid Shniad posted:

> > 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
(text cut)
> > 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.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Central Europe is going to be
a central vortex of the class struggles of the 21st century. All this is
going down in a country which probably has the most generous social
subsidies and welfare payments in the world; universities are still free,
health insurance is subsidized and available for all; social benefits and
housing subsidies still exist; and 30% of the workforce is unionized.
Yeah, the Kohl Government has snipped and cut at the welfare state,
but the thing still exists and has even regrown, like any good radical
hydra, the shorn-off tentacles of long-term unemployment compensation in
things like hospice and elder care, as well as disability benefits. It's
all just several hundred thousand light-years away from the kind of
brutal, degenerate, neoliberal savagery unleashed by the Clinton thugs on
AFDC recipients and welfare kids.

Actually, the German students are about two years behind the French,
who've been raising an inordinate amount of hell over in the Hexagon for
awhile now. Look for similar outbursts in Spain, Italy and the richer
parts of Eastern Europe in the near future, as the popular rejection of
Maastricht monetarism builds, and the dismal hegemony of the Eurorentiers
is suddenly confronted with the one power on earth capable of kicking its
ass: Eurosocialism, a.k.a. the dragon of Red-Green mobilization, is taking
wing, and its trajectory is going to change the course of the planet.

-- Dennis