Highschool students fight
US anti-war
actions
IN THE CONTEXT of the foundering of the Reagan administration and its policies, the April 25 demonstrations in Washington DC and San Francisco against US intervention in Central America and apartheid will be a key test of the potential of the mass movement to take advantage of the decline of Reaganism.
The call for the Washington demonstration was issued by 24 international union presidents and 50 religious leaders. That is reportedly the largest number of labor officials yet to come out against the interventionist policies of the Reagan administration.
In New York, the decisive area for the Washington DC demonstration, one of the city's largest unions, District Council 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has endorsed the action and is reportedly actively building it.
District Council 37 has over 12,500 members and over 50 branches, including hospital, school aid, park, library, clerical, court, construction, custodial and technical workers. Some 55 per cent of its membership is Black, and it includes many women activists.
In San Francisco, the demonstration is being backed by the city's Labour Council. By the end of March, six AFL-CIO central labor councils in Northern California had endorsed the action. At the same time, in southern California, more than 100 organizations, religious groups and unions had endorsed it.
In the most recent period, the US has also seen a strong revival of protest activity on the campus, mainly around the issue of apartheid. Students are reportedly playing a decisive role in the building of the April 25 actions.
It is important for the international workers' and revolutionary movement to take a close look at these demonstrations and not to be misled by the accounts that come directly or indirectly from the US capitalist press. Working people struggling against oppression and exploitation everywhere have a big stake in them.
International Viewpoint 20 April 1987 education cuts describes it. BJORN MERTENS victory in the national parliamentary elections in January and in the state the Christian Democratic minister of education in Lower Saxony, Georg-Berndt Oschatz, felt strong enough to start swinging the axe.
[an initial education for all students, after which they can make choices about specialization] and the reformed upper level [the last three years in a 1s year system] Democrats, were to be essentially
On March 6, the education committee was informed of plans to break up the orientation level into courses, to limit the choice of subjects for the introduce a third elective [thereby increasing the students' study load] and even a central academic schoolleaving examination. And all of this was to be introduced in the next school year.
The state highschool council was to offer "constructive proposals." It decided to call a day of action and a wind-up demonstration. But no one expected what happened. In Hannover alone, there were strikes in at least twelve highschools and, in spontaneous action, a thousand highschool students stormed the barriers to demonstrate in front of the state parliament building.
After these preparations, the statewide demonstration on March 12 went far beyond all expectations. Instead of the 5,000 that had been counted on, 15,000 students came in feeder marches from the schools to the rally in the city, where a Green deputy and the SPD opposition leader, Ger hard Schroder, spoke alongside a
EDITORIAL/WEST GERMANY representative of the State Student Council.
To constantly recurring chants of "Paris Madrid-Hannover " which showed clearly how much the highschool student movement had been influenced by the struggles in France and Spain, Hannover's biggest highschool student demonstration in a decade then marched to the Ministry of Education, where a ministry official put off a delegation with empty phrases.
On the following day, there were general assemblies in all the schools, stretching out over the entire day. The readiness to fight was still intact, but for the moment there were no proposals for action, and the spontaneous movement had come up against its limits. Part of plan withdrawn
Education Minister Oschatz, therefore, opened up an outrageous campaign in the papers against the students. They were supposed to have been "misled by false information spread by ringleaders," and besides "ASTA [the university student associations, in which the left remains generally predominant] played a decisive role in organizing the whole thing."
He withdrew part of his plans, including the third elective, which shortly before had been defended at great length by Christian Demo. cratic politicians in discussions in the highschools, as well as the central academic school-leaving examination ("all of this was invented") and put forward the pretext that he had been
3
April 1987 high-tech factories, then the bosses their parties want it to be and as cheap as possible (12 grades) and to
"the keep it limited to drumming in basics." The right to a comprehen-
PARISMADND sive education is to be limited to the future "leadership forces" in the DTrack classes, since the originally planned elite schools could not be imposed.
From the SPD, nothing could be expected other than the sort high-flown words Schroder offered. In fact, in the last Conference of Ministers of Education, it gave the signal for a deal 'in the interests of quality and comparability, an advance is now desirable and possible • a strengthening in particular of the subject group including German, foreign languages, and mathematics...
However, the highschool students are not going to let themselves be kicked around any more. In the
On
March
12, 15,000 students demonstrated, chanting "Paris, Madrid,
Hannover!" (DR)
forced to proceed as he did by the decisions of the Conference of Miniwhich had been of Education, put into practice a long time ago in the on February 2 was blown up no question of his being obliged to would be taught by [academic), [technical], hauptschule access to further educa-
If there is still no way of avoiding the need to give working-class children a good highschool education, in order to provide new workers for the meantime, a city-wide coordinating committee has been built with delegates from 15 schools. An "Education Around the Clock" action has begun at the Tellkampf school to sign up volunteers for an occupation. On Friday, March 27, a demonstration was held to send off a delegation to make contact with the highschool movement in Paris. The struggle continues.
"decisions."
INPREKORR compromised way, for a time there was open specuthat he would resign.
Oldenburg CDU already proposed a substitute. SPD leader Schroder ad-
GERMAN
INPREKORR is available from
Zulpicher Str.
39, 5000
Cologne 1
Individual vised him to resign.
INTERNATIONALE PRESSEKORRESPONDENZ
However, with the ebb of the highschool movement, the CDU [Christian
Union] and copies
4.50 DM;
Subscription (12
[Free Democrats, tion partner] fell in behind him again. And, referring to "a document in the CDU ranks," the ПРАВДА press reminded him that he had only gotten his post because his predecesissues)
Пролетарии всех стран соединейтесь
45 DM
Советского
Орган Центрального Комитета КПСС government," had "failed to turn the wheel around."
now the additional tion requirement was maintained for German and a foreign language, for mathematics and a natural science (instead of "or," as was the case before, and history in addition. At least eight schools were to have "D Track Classes" in which gifted students were to prepare for the leaving examination from Grade 5 to 12, which suited the CDU's dreams of eliminating Grade 13 altogether.
The orientation level was undermined by being divided in A, B, C and D tracks from the start, which
• НИНЫ М Nº 80 1250671 Sowjetunion: Ernest Mandelüber den neuen Reformkurs Gorbatschows: ein Interview über die Auswirkungen der Reformen auf den sowjetischen Alltag: Die Internationale: eine Reportage über die Tage von Tschernobyl.
Nr. 192
Frankreich: Das Manifest der KP-
Opposition: ein Interview über die Krise
Chancen für den Aufbau einer der KPF.
breiten revolutionären Partei.
Parlamentswahlen in auBerdem:
Euskadi: Gewerkschaften in Guatemala.
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International Viewpoint 20 April 1987
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