“The rich want war – young people want a future!” was the central slogan of over 50,000 school students, who went on strike during school hours in over 140 German cities on 5 March against the German government’s reintroduction of compulsory military service. In Berlin, there were just under 10,000, in Hamburg 5,000, and in Munich over 800. This follows a similar movement on 5 December last year, in which over 55,000 took to the streets.
The anger was palpable! It was directed at Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and his government, among others. The Berlin police considered it wise and necessary to ban an obscene placard referring to Merz and to file a complaint.
But most of the slogans were directed against the capitalist class. One student told the Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung: “We sit in broken schools with too few teachers, while billions flow to Rheinmetall and Co.” Another student explained: “For the price of one tank, you could pay over 100 teachers for a year.”
The message is clear: rearmament and the threat of imperialist wars are solely in the rich’s interests and not in ours. Quite a few students came with red flags, red stars, or hammers and sickles on their placards.
Many also took to the streets for their younger siblings. A 19-year-old student explained: “I’m here because I don’t want my little brother to have anything to do with this. He’s conflict-averse and not cut out for it. I don’t want that.” A 20-year-old student said that young people should not support wars “by a country that wants to use us as cannon fodder. In my circle of friends, our brothers are getting their draft letters this year. It’s important to send a message now.”
Most of the students were between 14 and 18 years old, although there was also a noticeable number of very young students around 12 or even 10 years old, who made their protest against war clear to the television cameras.
Some parents and teachers were also present. Other sympathetic teachers had deliberately not scheduled exams on the day of the strike, to make it easier for their students to participate in the protest. The Education and Science Workers’ Union (GEW), which represents most teachers, expressed its support for the school strike, at least in words. It gave its members advice on how they could use legal tricks (‘school trips’) to join the strike with their classes.
Attempts at intimidation
About two thirds of young people reject compulsory military service. In order to push through rearmament and conscription nonetheless, the ruling class has launched a vicious campaign against anyone who stands in its way.
On Deutschlandfunk, Germany’s largest radio station and a staunch advocate of ‘liberal democracy’, the press spokesman for the student strike movement was asked questions worthy of a test for conscientious objectors at the height of the Cold War:
“Would Ukraine or the State of Israel still exist today if the young people there behaved as you do?”, “What would Europe look like today if 80 years ago British people, Americans, and Russians had said ‘No to conscription’?” “Defence policymakers from the centrist parties say that Russia threatens the EU and also Germany; AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla has said that Russia does not threaten Germany – who do you believe?”
The subtext is clear: anyone who is against conscription is accepting the victory of fascism or foreign invasion.
Some school administrators also did their utmost to prevent student protests, in the interests of those in power. One school in Kassel introduced a requirement for doctors’ notes for those not present on that day. Schools in Frankfurt am Main and Halberstadt apparently locked the school from the inside. At a school in Cottbus, bag checks were introduced to search for flyers and posters for the student strike. And the authorities in Stralsund refused to give permission for any gatherings during school hours. In Munich, the police picked up students from the street and brought them back to school.
Despite all these attempts at intimidation, tens of thousands of young people took to the streets across the country. The school strike movement against compulsory military service brings back memories of the Fridays for Future climate strikes in 2019 and 2020, which at their peak saw 1.4 million people take to the streets. It remains to be seen whether and how quickly the protests will grow. The next school strike is planned for 8 May.
The federal government is talking about possibly introducing conscription as early as 2027, because there are not enough volunteers to meet the manpower target and 20 percent of them drop out of military service after a short time. If conscription does indeed come into force, this will most likely give the movement a boost.
Conscription for the rich
The federal government wants to reintroduce compulsory military service as part of its general programme of rearmament and militarism. In reality, this is not about national defence. Even if Russia emerges strengthened from the war in Ukraine, it has neither the military strength nor the interest in conquering Europe. However, those in power are stirring up this unrealistic fear in order to force rearmament and compulsory military service on the population.
In reality, it is not German territory and German citizens that the rich want to defend, but Germany’s imperialist interests abroad!
During the Cold War, the US provided security guarantees for Germany and other European countries. With US backing, for decades German imperialism was able to exert greater influence in the world than it could have on its own.
Still today, Eastern Europe in particular is being exploited economically by German imperialism: German companies are building factories in Poland, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia, among other places, to manufacture parts for the German car industry. In doing so, they benefit from lower wages. Germany also wants to exploit raw material deposits, such as lithium, in Serbia. This imperialist relationship is crucial for the competitiveness of German industry and enormously profitable for German capitalists.
However, US imperialism is now attempting to withdraw militarily from Europe, in order to concentrate all its energy on the struggle against Chinese imperialism. This would cause Germany to lose military and political weight. At the same time, other imperialist powers are competing with Germany for its spoils in Eastern Europe: Russia is emerging stronger from the war in Ukraine and increasing its influence in the region. China is also gaining in importance: Chinese investment and exports of goods to Eastern Europe have risen rapidly over the past 15 years.
In order not to lose its influence over Eastern Europe and other regions, Germany is now massively rearming. The rearmament is intended to prevent the US from withdrawing completely from Europe. In addition, Germany wants to be able to assert its supremacy in Europe with, in Merz’ words, “Europe’s strongest conventional army”.
Examples include the deployment of a 5,000-strong German tank brigade in Lithuania and the ongoing Bundeswehr mission in Kosovo. The two-day Greenland expedition by 13 Bundeswehr soldiers was also an attempt to assert the position of German and European imperialism in the world.
But this attempt is ultimately doomed to failure: the German economy can no longer keep up with the major powers. The EU is fragmented into 27 states. And the German arms industry is functionally dependent on the US.
German capital is attempting to expand its influence nonetheless, and the working class is expected to pay for it. Huge sums of money are being cut from education, healthcare, and pensions, to be poured into useless weapons. Young people are expected to put their lives on the line with compulsory military service – whether they want to or not.
Mobilising the working class
Young people do not want to accept this. Two thirds reject conscription, but the movement can only be successful if the working class joins the struggle. Only the working class has the necessary social power because of its position in the production process.
The biggest obstacle on this path are the reformist leaders of the Trade Union Confederation (DGB) and Die Linke. They should be the ones to mobilise the working class for the fight against militarism and cuts. But they have long since renounced class struggle and instead seek compromises with the ruling class and to prevent serious resistance from arising among the working class.
They also adopt the same position as German capital on foreign policy issues. They supported the war in Ukraine, as well as Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’. IG Metall, Germany’s largest metalworkers’ union, consults with the arms industry on how Germany can best rearm itself.
GEW and Ver.di – the second largest trade union in Germany – oppose conscription in words. That is good. But they are not taking any steps to wage a serious struggle against it that goes beyond symbolic gestures. Instead of organising militant strikes in the social sector to prevent cuts and thus paralyse rearmament, the union bureaucrats are leading these labour struggles to premature defeat with poor collective bargaining agreements.
At its conference in Göttingen, the school strike movement decided to ‘network’ with the unions. The idea behind this is correct! But formulated in this way, it doesn’t mean much in itself. Joint press releases or demonstrations are not enough.
The student movement must put forward demands that can draw the working class into the struggle – starting with: “Books not bombs, pensions not missiles, healthcare not tanks!” It must appeal to all workers – including teachers and parents – to go on strike against rearmament, war, and conscription. It must publicly demand that the union leaders finally fulfill their duty and take up the class struggle against the rich. Unions must not cooperate with the ruling class on militarism, but must fight them with strikes that can hit them where it hurts.
Overthrow the rich!
We are fighting against conscription, but the end of conscription will not prevent imperialist wars. When it comes down to it, the ‘right to conscientious objection’ is worthless. We see this in Ukraine, where this supposed fundamental right was abolished at the start of the war.
As long as the rich exist, they will wage wars for their capitalist interests. They are willing to sacrifice us for this. That is why we, as the Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) in Germany, say: the rich want war? Then let’s overthrow them!
As the RKP, we fight for the expropriation of the big corporations and banks that profit from the exploitation of the working class in other countries and at home! We fight for the expropriation of the arms industry and other war profiteers! Instead, we want a planned economy under workers’ control that makes life better for everyone and treats other peoples with peace and friendship.
Class struggle against conscription and rearmament!
Books not bombs, pensions not missiles, healthcare not tanks!
Democratic and trade union rights for all soldiers, election of officers, an end to all harassment of recruits, abolition of the military justice system, organisation of ordinary soldiers as part of the workers’ movement!
Immediate withdrawal of all German troops from abroad!
Smash NATO!
Expropriate the arms industry and big capital!
Overthrow the rich! Fight for socialism!
