International Student Movement

May 26th, Germany:
Struggle against Tuition Fees Continues

In 2006 various federal states began to introduce general tuition fees in Germany. Those were confronted with massive protests. City centers and highways were blocked, railway stations and spaces at universities squatted. As a result they were abolished again (or will soon be) in 5 states in the past few months and years (see: North Rhine-Westphalia: Tuition Fees abolished again!).

Consequently there are only two federal states left, Bavaria and Lower-Saxony, where general tuitions still exist and are not to be abolished in the foreseeable future. Therefore various groups called for rallies and demonstrations in cities across both states on May 26th.

Here is a report on the day of action, which - at least in some cities - was also linked to the Spring of Resistance:

More than 6,000 people protest tuition fees together

On May 26th students across Bavaria and Lower-Saxony gathered for a day of action to protest tuition fees. The many different actions in various cities showed that students are far from accepting tuition fees as the norm and are willing to keep fighting for free education. Most recently tuition fees were abolished in Nordrhein-Westfalen as well as Hamburg and are soon to be history in Baden-Wuerttemberg too. Motivated by these successes the activists keep resisting fees in their state.

Among others more than 3,500 people joined the demonstration in Munich, 500 in Goettingen and 400 in Wuerzburg, Erlangen and Nuernberg each. Various speeches were used to emphasize the selective side effects of tuition fees, which were proven.

"Education is a human right, not a commodity!"

Sources (all in German):

~ sueddeutsche.de ~ on3.de (radio report) ~ monsters.blogsport.de ~ mainfranken24.de ~
~ br-online.de ~ nordbayern.de ~ merkur-online.de ~ mainpost.de ~ merkur-online.de ~

By the way, only one day earlier students took to the streets in 17 cities across the Ukraine for similar reasons.