MOBILIZING AGAINST EDUCATION- AND SOCIAL CUTS

By Klemens Himpele

[This article published May 1, 2005 in the ABS-newspaper is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.linksnet.de/artikel.php?id=1686.]




All the parties reduce social problems to individual failure. The question about material inequality is not raised any more. The 21-year old thumb-and-taxi heir did not enter the Forbes list of the richest men of the world through their own achievements.

In a government declaration, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder proclaimed in the middle of March 2005: Corporation taxes must be lowered to 19 percent. These taxes have already been cut in half within a few years. The revenue shortfalls of the 2000 corporation tax reform amounted to more than ten billion marks. These lower revenues are one reason for the misery of the public treasury with which every cut in the social system is justified. Thus the propaganda for a sleek state over years bears fruit in the concrete political Red-Green-Black-Yellow unity party in the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

The four parties seem agreed on one thing: individualization of social risks is the command of the hour. The old proverb of creating one’s own happiness becomes modern again. The party of organized asociality, the FDP, forces this policy. The conservatives also make no secret about the beneficiaries of their program. The new idea of justice of social democracy that equal starting chances are enough to organize a just society seems interesting. The way may be equally long for everyone whether one is a well-trained athlete or an old woman. In this way social problems (unemployment, sickness, old age) are reduced to individual failure and the afflicted are increasingly isolated.

Neither social democrats nor Greens can change anything in this basic orientation. At best the reforms must somehow be made more just. The question about material inequality is not raised any more although the 21-year old thumb-and-taxi heir did not enter the Forbes list of the richest men of the world through his own achievement. This orientation is clear with the large parties.

Many stubbornly hold to the notion that their own achievement is all that matters for their personal careers. Students mainly live in a beautiful intact world. The wind at universities also becomes raw; an incredible climate of agitated existence prevails. Students dream of a better academic future. They only know problems like unemployment and Hartz IV from the newspaper; lower taxes are made a reason for rejoicing. Misunderstandings are in no way confined to students. The working population says nasty things about the so-called interminable students, imagines students lying in the sun from dawn to dusk and at best accepts them as drinking buddies. For these persons, student fees or examination pressures are worries they would like to have. Enlightened students and enlightened workers must struggle and mobilize for a solidarian struggle against education- and social cuts.

On one hand, this struggle is imperative from the knowledge that the political measures of the neoliberal project are morally and economically misguided. On the other hand, the afflicted may not be played off against one another since they are victims of the same ideological policy. Agenda 2010 and introduction of student fees are both justified by arguing that the social state is unaffordable. Since Germany as a national economy is richer than ever and is one of the most competitive national economies, threats from the economy may be safely assigned to the kingdom of fables. Threats are made to create better profit conditions for capital. This means financing the lowest possible social benefits. Social benefits are financed through profit-reducing taxes and fees. Wage pressure on employees is forced by the reserve army of the unemployed and 1-Euro jobs.

This ideology is strengthened by the production of well-educated human capital that is equal to the more complex production processes without becoming critical. These goals are pursued through the lever of empty treasuries. At the same time an intensified competition for the remaining funds is drummed into our heads: kindergarten children against students, workers against the unemployed, Germans against foreigners and so on. We can only resist the misguided policy together. Students should convince fellow-students that the interests of workers are also their interests. Hartz IV also strikes back on students. Conversely, workers should mobilize their co-workers with arguments against tuition fees.