The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) is standing five candidates in this year’s Student Parliament (StuPa) elections at Berlin’s Humboldt University, which will take place on July 4. The three IYSSE election meetings are open to all those interested and will take place on June 19, 26 and July 3, each at 6:30 p.m. at Dorotheenstrasse 24, 10117 Berlin. Further information can be found here. All information about the university polling stations and how to vote by post can be found on the IYSSE homepage. The following statement is the IYSSE’s election appeal.

No Third World War! Stop the rearmament!

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) are contesting the StuPa elections to build a socialist movement against war, social inequality and the rise of the extreme right. We want to prevent universities from being turned back into hotbeds for the right wing and militarists, as they were prior to the two world wars.

The danger of a nuclear world war has never been greater. The NATO powers provoked Putin’s reactionary intervention in Ukraine and are now escalating the war further and further in order to defeat the nuclear power Russia militarily. Berlin is playing a leading role in this, linking back to and reviving Germany’s war aims in the Second World War, and setting in motion the biggest German rearmament since Hitler.

The same contempt for human life is evident in the “profits before lives” policy in the pandemic that has killed millions. It finds expression every day in growing inequality, brutal inflation and cuts to education and health. There is money only for banks, corporations and rearmament!

Scholarship instead of war propaganda!

We oppose this development! In recent years, we have demonstrated the central role that Humboldt University is playing in the return of German militarism. Professor Münkler demanded here that Germany should once again act as Europe’s “task master.” The right-wing radical Professor Baberowski is known for his trivialisation of Nazi crimes and is still being protected by the university management, despite being ordered by the court to pay €4,000 after assaulting one of our StuPa representatives.

As a former professor at the University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, Humboldt University President Julia von Blumenthal continues to push the militarist agenda. She has thrown her weight behind Baberowski and held an event in support of NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine as one of her first acts in office.

For international socialism

The vast majority of students strongly oppose the actions of the university administration and the government’s war policy. This opposition coincides with an upsurge in the class struggle around the world. In the US, car workers and university workers are on strike, in Britain and France millions are fighting against government war and austerity policies and here too, the strike movement is growing.

The working class is the only social force that can prevent a catastrophe. The crucial task is to unite workers internationally and arm them with a socialist perspective against war and capitalism. This is what we fight for as the youth organisation of the Fourth International.

The first election event of the IYSSE, “No Third World War! Stop the Rearmament!” will take place next Monday, June 19, at 6:30 p.m. at Humboldt University. For more information, visit iysse.de/events.