https://iclfi.org/pubs/wr/47/conscription
Around 50,000 students went on strike for one day each in December 2025 and March 2026 in over 100 German cities to protest plans to reintroduce conscription. Another school strike has been announced for May 8. Under pressure from U.S. imperialism, the Bundeswehr is being significantly rearmed with the aim of making it the strongest conventional army in Europe. The majority of young people oppose conscription. At the March 5 demonstration in Berlin, 6,000 participants chanted slogans including “Friedrich Merz to the front” and shouted: “Never again conscription” and “The rich want war, the youth want a future.” The federal government decided in December to take the first steps toward reintroducing military service: questionnaires for all youth about their health and interest in serving in the army (mandatory for men) followed by compulsory physical examinations for men. If not enough volunteers sign up for the army as a result, compulsory service will be implemented.
Seeking to maintain its dwindling global dominance through military force, the U.S. is forcing its allies within the NATO alliance to spend more on their own militaries. As a junior partner, Germany more or less grudgingly capitulates to every demand from Trump. This is because German capitalists profit enormously from the partnership with the U.S. and are dependent on it. To make progress in the fight against the reintroduction of conscription, the student movement must tackle the root of the problem, oppose Germany’s alliance with the U.S. and reject NATO.
Many students look to the Left Party, as it is the only force in parliament that fundamentally opposes conscription and welcomed the student strikes. Left Party leader Jan Van Aken solidarized with the protests in December, asking: “Why should I defend a country that doesn’t give a damn about my future? Why is there suddenly money for tanks, but never for good education?” (Frankfurter Rundschau, 4 December 2025). A completely legitimate question. Yet the Left Party leadership does not act on it. Contrary to formal party resolutions opposing NATO, the Bremen Left Party voted in the Bundesrat (Federal Council) to abolish the Schuldenbremse (fiscal rule limiting the amount of debt the governments can take on), thus allowing the Merz government to arm itself without limit. The party leadership then defended them. Despite occasional anti-NATO rhetoric, the Left Party leadership always sides with NATO and supports the sanctions against Russia and Iran. In so doing, it contributes in practice to military buildup and the destruction of the future.
Socialist youth groups represented in the organization of the student strikes must now fight to orient the student movement against NATO in order to stop conscription. This struggle is linked to the fight for an anti-imperialist, revolutionary leadership of the Left Party that clearly opposes NATO, arms to Ukraine and Israel and the sanctions.
