Germany’s Left Party holds student congress to promote reformist politics

Following extensive preparations over many weeks and considerable financial expenditure, the organisers expressed their disappointment over the relatively small turnout. Around 400 attended the congress, and those participating came almost exclusively from the close periphery of the Left Party-PDS and the Election Alternative. The congress took the form of several plenary meetings and two dozen workshops and forums.

Despite the modest size of the meeting, it is necessary to take a closer look at this attempt to establish a “left university federation.” The last few years have witnessed a steady decline in political activity in German universities. One of the last groupings to attract some interest was the anti-globalisation movement Attac. However, this group’s close organizational and political links to Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens led to rapid disillusionment during the period of the SPD-Green coalition government (1998-2005), which carried out a series of right-wing anti-social policies.

The declining influence of the established parties at the universities stands in reverse relation to the growth of social problems, which are ever more directly and concretely impacting on the lives of students. Students confront manifold problems, such as the decline of facilities at universities, the introduction of study fees, the subordination of university courses to the immediate interests of big business, and, more generally, declining working class living standards, as a result of which many students are forced to take low-wage jobs to finance their studies.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/left-f09.shtml