We translated an interview with school students in Leipzig who organised an anti-militaristic action. Warmest congratulations to these comrades! They are sticking out their neck in a social atmosphere where the mainstream – and not so mainstream – political left has become part of the militaristic discourse.
(translated from: Junge Welt, 10th of December 2024)
‘Our protest shows that we can change something’
An interview with Iven K., a student at the Humboldt School in Leipzig, by Yaro Allisat
You have been reprimanded by your school for an anti-militarist protest at your school, the Humboldt School in Leipzig. What exactly happened?
On the 28th of October, we had a ‘die-in’ in our schoolyard against a visit by the Bundeswehr to our school. While students played dead, I gave a speech in which I calculated that if the Bundeswehr figures of casualties were applied to our school, four students would have died in action and one would have committed suicide. I also spoke out against the Bundeswehr coming to schools.
In a video that the students shared on Instagram, you can see the headmistress taking the megaphone away from you.
She said something like that a political demonstration at the school is not okay. We hadn’t registered the protest.
Why did you do the action?
With our campaign ‘No advertising for dying’ we wanted to oppose the Bundeswehr speaking at our school. It was said that they were coming to inform us about foreign missions. At the lecture, which took place two days after our action, they mainly talked about how great a career in the Bundeswehr was, that you can sit around a campfire with your colleagues and stuff like that. They couldn’t really answer questions about the imperialist foreign missions of the Bundeswehr.
What happened after the schoolyard action?
Right after the action, a comrade and I had a one-on-one conversation with the headmistress, who told us that what we were doing was pointless and that ‘disciplinary measures’ would be taken if something like that happened again. After that, I had a ‘hearing on the threat of expulsion’ with the school management. They accused me of all sorts of things. The headmistress didn’t even listen to me. There was also a hearing with my parents and a conference with the school management and teachers. It was said that it was an externally organised protest and that I had ‘disturbed the school peace’. We made the whole thing public. There were then one-on-one meetings with two of my classmates. One of them was also threatened with disciplinary action, and the other person had a parent-teacher conference at which the school administration presented the accusations very aggressively. The school administration’s core statement is that left-wing ideas are spread by us at the school. Yet we have open neo-Nazis at the school.
And the school administration is not doing anything about these neo-Nazis?
There was a one-on-one conversation, but I don’t know of any other measures. And that’s despite the fact that the lockers of left-wing students were stuck with Nazi stickers. Slogans like ‘anti-fascism is not an opinion, but a crime’ and the like. Teachers have seen students with these stickers in their hands. Nevertheless, the school management said that unfortunately nothing could be done.
What made the school management withdraw the threatened expulsion?
I think that the media pressure, for example the petition against the expulsion, was important. The school management did note that they would have liked to have imposed even harsher disciplinary measures than the written reprimand, which only I received. But they simply had no legal basis for doing so.
What do your fellow students think about the action and the repression?
Most of them were against the Bundeswehr coming to the school and thought the action was justified. They think the school management’s reaction was excessive. Many of them can see the problems at the moment, but they think they can’t do anything about them. I think our protest has shown that we can change something. You have to bring the students together and take action with them.
