Students are returning to universities this October under extraordinary conditions. In the United States, Donald Trump is establishing a fascist regime. He has ordered the military occupation of numerous opposition-run cities and is using the murder of fascist figure Charlie Kirk to bring the press and public life into line. Even a ban on the Democratic Party is already being discussed. Abroad, the Trump administration supports the genocide against the Palestinians and is rearming for a world war.

But the same developments are taking place in Germany and worldwide. Despite the horrific crimes against the Palestinian population, the German government maintains unconditional support for Israel. At the same time, it is driving forward the largest rearmament programme since Hitler: 1 trillion euros are being poured into military projects, and every sphere of society is being reorganised for war production.

Repression of pro-Palestinian protests, along with the censorship and slander of opponents of genocide and war, shows that the same dictatorial tendencies visible in the United States are also evident in Germany. In some polls, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is already the strongest party. This is possible only because all the others have integrated it into political life and adopted its policies: militarism, stepping up the repressive powers of the state and mass deportations.

Young people are especially affected: The rearmament of the Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) is being financed through massive cuts to universities and to education, culture and social services.

In Berlin, universities are to lose about €145 million this year alone; by 2027 as many as 25,000 study places could disappear. In Baden-Württemberg, a planned €91 million cut was averted, but a funding freeze remains for 2026. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the state government plans annual reductions of €150 million in higher education spending from 2026. In Hesse, the new higher education pact foresees cuts of €30 million in 2026, with universities expecting a deficit of roughly €1 billion compared with earlier funding commitments.

These cuts are also being used as a lever to silence opposition, bring universities into line and turn them into military training grounds. Over the past two years, anti-war voices on campuses have been heavily censored, meetings banned and anti-genocide protests suppressed with police violence.

Now, young people are also to be used as cannon fodder. The planned reintroduction of conscription is intended to make Germany fit for world war once again. The government wants to place our generation under military discipline and force it into line in order to break anti-war opposition.

The ruling class knows very well how deep opposition runs among young people.

Students beginning university this autumn belong to a generation that has never known prosperity under capitalism. Their youth was marked by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which killed millions and left many suffering long-term effects. They witnessed Trump’s coup attempt on January 6, 2021 and are watching the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza in real time. In Europe, they see borders going back up, hundreds of thousands drowning in the Mediterranean, and all the establishment parties fueling nationalism and hostility toward refugees.

The mass protests against the genocide in Gaza over the past two years have clearly shown the widespread rejection of the government’s war policy. Yet this opposition raises a decisive question: the question of political perspective.

How can genocide, militarisation and the drive toward dictatorship be stopped?

If the protests of recent years have shown anything, it is that the government cannot be swayed by “pressure from the streets.” Its right-wing course is not the result of individual “misjudgements” but of the deep crisis of capitalism itself—And the capitalists have only one answer to that: war abroad and repression at home.

Particularly dangerous is the role of the Left Party, which fosters illusions in a “peaceful capitalism.” After being swept back into parliament on the wave of anti-AfD protests, it immediately demobilised the movement and formed an alliance with Chancellor Friedrich Merz—the very man who provoked the protests by collaborating with the AfD. The Left Party enabled the swift election of the chancellor and even voted for the trillion-euro war credits. It now openly backs rearmament, mouthing a few social phrases to sugarcoat it.

What is needed are not reforms—which no longer exist—but a revolution. Yet students cannot win this struggle alone. They must turn to the social force that bears the full burden of war and crisis and creates all wealth: the working class. It is the decisive revolutionary force in society. Students must link their struggles with those of the working class and recognise that their own future depends entirely on the success of the socialist revolution.

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) fights to build a mass movement against war and capitalism among workers and youth, orienting students to the working class. It is the youth movement of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) and of the Fourth International founded by Leon Trotsky, defending Marxism and socialist internationalism against Stalinism, social democracy and every form of petty-bourgeois nationalism.

The death agony of capitalism creates both revolutionary possibilities and the danger of world war and fascism. The future will be determined by whether we build a socialist movement in the working class—in Germany and internationally.

Such a movement must be based on the political principles set out by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) in its 2016 statement “Socialism and the Fight Against War”:

• The struggle against war must be based on the working class, the great revolutionary force in society, uniting behind it all progressive elements in the population.
• The new anti-war movement must be anti-capitalist and socialist, since there can be no serious struggle against war except in the fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and put an end to the economic system that is the fundamental cause of militarism and war.
• The new anti-war movement must therefore, of necessity, be completely and unequivocally independent of, and hostile to, all political parties and organizations of the capitalist class.
• The new anti-war movement must, above all, be international, mobilizing the vast power of the working class in a unified global struggle against imperialism.

We call on all students to join this struggle.

Turn to the working class, fight for a revolutionary perspective—the only one that can secure the future of humanity.

Join the IYSSE!