Students, Workers: For a Joint Struggle Against Conscription and Militarization

School Strike: No “Cannon Fodder”
for German Imperialism!

The following article is translated from Permanente Revolution No. 8 (Winter 2025-26), published by the Internationalistische Gruppe, German section of the League for the Fourth International.

On Friday afternoon, December 5 [2025], the area in front of the Hallesches Tor subway station in Berlin was buzzing with activity. Three thousand or more students assembled to express their opposition to the “Military Service Modernization Act,” scheduled to be voted on in the Bundestag (the lower house of Germany’s parliament) that same day. Across Germany, some 55,000 students in 87 cities took to the streets to protest this law, which has been met with widespread opposition from young people and their parents almost everywhere. The message of the demonstrations was clear: “We will not be cannon fodder for your crises.”

Nevertheless, the law was promptly passed by the ruling “black/red” (Christian Democrat/Social Democrat) coalition: nearly all CDU and SPD members of parliament voted in favor of it. It is the centerpiece of the militarization of society, which aims to make Germany “war-ready” by 2030. The imperialist bourgeoisie wants to increase the number of soldiers in the Bundeswehr from 180,000 to 260,000, an increase of nearly 50%. Including the reserves, the total number of Bundeswehr (Germany’s armed forces) soldiers is to be increased to 460,000 by 2030. This is initially supposed to be voluntary, but will become compulsory conscription (a draft) if the Bundeswehr, predictably, fails to meet its quota of volunteer recruits.

In the bourgeois media, the issue is portrayed as a personal choice: anyone who doesn’t want to go to the barracks is free to refuse. But this compulsory military service is about preparing for war in the East: once again, they are gearing up to send German soldiers to Ukraine, where the Wehrmacht committed genocide during World War II. For three years, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) members have been arming the fascist-infested army of the puppet government in Kiev to the teeth. Since they are losing the imperialist proxy war against Russia over Ukraine, they are now pushing for a “ceasefire” in order to escalate domestic militarization and send European Union (EU) “peacekeeping forces” to the front.

To effectively oppose a draft, you have to fight against the war it is intended to supply with disposable troops (Einwegsoldaten). It is the spearhead of a program to prepare the entire society for war – from “patriotic” education to converting auto factories into tank production to slashing social programs. It goes hand in hand with the offensive against immigrants and the brutal repression of protests against the imperialist/Zionist genocide in Gaza. And make no mistake: a direct war with Russia would be the beginning of World War III, with the medium-range missiles stationed in Germany starting in 2027 serving as a trigger for nuclear war.

Conscription is not just a problem for youth, but affects all working people. Refusing to become “cannon fodder” requires silencing the cannons. Yet most leftists and protests call only for individual refusal, because they want to avoid the issue of the war. So should preparations for war proceed “without us”? Absolutely not.  Precisely because of the courageous willingness of young people to fight against this, we Trotskyists call to expand school strikes against military service into workers strikes and a general class struggle against militarization and imperialist war.

Young People, and Older People, Are Not Willing to Die for Germany

In his first policy address, German chancellor Friedrich Merz called for Germany to maintain “the strongest conventional army in Europe.” To do so, it not only needs more tanks, but must also repair the dilapidated infrastructure (rail lines, highway bridges) for their transport, train military doctors to treat the wounded, and above all recruit more soldiers whom they can send into the clutches of the imperialist war machine. After the Bundestag approved the Military Service Law on December 5, the Bundesrat (the upper house of parliament, equivalent to the U.S. Senate) followed suit on December 18.

Starting on 1 January 2026, all men aged 18 (for women, it’s optional for now) must fill out a questionnaire to assess their suitability and recruitability for the Bundeswehr and report for a physical examination starting in July 2027. Again, recruitment will initially be voluntary. The Bundeswehr is to be made more attractive with monthly pay of €2,600 (currently about US$3,000, or roughly the gross salary of a nursing assistant) and a bonus for having a driver’s license. Attacks on the social safety net and job cuts will lead to increased “poverty recruitment.” If too few volunteers sign up by 2027, the Bundestag will implement conscription as needed.

Although it describes itself as the only peace party, in 2020 (that is, before the start of the proxy war in Ukraine), Alternative for Germany (AfD) submitted a bill in the Bundestag to reintroduce compulsory military service, justifying it with the need to expand the Bundeswehr by 30,000 soldiers. This was rejected by the other federal parties. Five years later, the SPD and CDU agreed in their coalition agreement that an increase in the number of soldiers is necessary, but on a much larger scale. Although the AfD voted against the conscription law on December 5, it is now facing internal disputes over the issue.

Despite its dovish stance on the war in Ukraine – where it was disinclined to toe the anti-Russian line set by Washington under Cold War hawk Joe Biden – the AfD is always in favor of strengthening German imperialism. And just as with its anti-Muslim campaign, the ruling parties draw inspiration from the fascisic AfD to push through their racist, militarist agenda. The reason that the SPD cited in 2020 for rejecting the AfD’s motion was the lack of infrastructure and trainers. Even now, “voluntary” conscription is a stopgap measure until everything is ready, but the bourgeoisie’s decision to mobilize for war has been made.

Bundeswehr properties that were previously converted for civilian use must now be converted back into military facilities. Real estate companies are competing to restore closed barracks to operational status and to build new ones.  Recruitment capacities must be built up and personnel trained to screen more than 300,000 young men (and a few thousand women) per year. And perhaps most importantly, the population must be prepared for the intended war so that they accept cuts to their living conditions and livelihoods, and that they or their children will be sent to the front.

The next war will look very different from the 20-year deployment of some 90,000 Bundeswehr soldiers in Afghanistan, of whom about 60 died (while they killed at least several hundred Afghans). In the event of a direct war with Russia, Colonel General Ralf Hoffmann estimates around 1,000 wounded soldiers per day (Die Zeit, 22 September 2025). A thousand seriously wounded every day? As one attentive reader noted, with casualty figures like that, “that’s what I call preparation for a Bundeswehr deployment in Ukraine.” And the dead? Given the usual 4:1 ratio of wounded to killed in war, this would correspond to 250 dead German soldiers every day. Cannon fodder, anyone?

But this will become even less popular than it already is. In an MDR opinion poll (December 17), 82% of 15- to 29-year-olds considered opposition to compulsory military service to be “justified.” This is likely to be even more true for the one-third of young people in Germany with an immigrant background who face racial discrimination.

Meanwhile, according to an RND survey (August 3), 59% of people across all age groups would “probably not” or “definitely not” take up arms in the event of an attack on Germany. Only 16% would be willing to defend the Federal Republic of Germany. By comparison, according to an international Gallup poll from 2024, 41% of Americans claim they would be personally ready to fight.

Bundeswehr Out of the Schools!

With such widespread opposition, those in power are going to have difficulty regimenting the population for war. According to the law, “the new military service is intended to permanently and significantly increase willingness to serve through greatly increased attractiveness, recognition, and a meaningful, challenging period of service.” That will take a lot of propaganda, starting at a very young age.

And that’s exactly what they’re doing. The ZDF television channel children’s program “logo,” for example, has a segment on compulsory military service that is shown to children as part of their civics classes. The scenario assumes that Germany is going to war, and young people are asked how everyone can contribute. In this grotesque video, teenagers take a stand for or against compulsory military service. When asked if they could imagine defending their country, picking up a weapon and killing someone, a 14-year-old replied: “Personally, I couldn’t bring myself to kill innocent people just because politicians say, ‘Yes, these are our enemies; you have to kill these people now.’”

At the end of the video, the teenagers are pressured into a “compromise”: there should be mandatory military service, but those who do not want to kill or die for Germany can take on other roles in the military.

In addition, youth officers and army recruiters regularly visit schools to give presentations that are, in reality, war propaganda. The Bundeswehr has recruitment booths in schools and at career fairs. The Education and Science Union (GEW) emphasizes that education is the responsibility of teachers with pedagogical training, not Bundeswehr recruiters. And according to the GEW, no teacher or student can be compelled to participate in an event with the army. The reality is quite different. In Bavaria, schools and universities have been obliged to cooperate with the Bundeswehr since 2024.

The GEW advocates “curbing the Bundeswehr’s influence in schools.” It “rejects and condemns the Bundeswehr’s attempts to recruit in schools and other educational institutions.” It “calls for action against Bundeswehr recruitment efforts.” Now it can and must do much more to counter the growing militarization of the school system. Because visits by the Bundeswehr to schools are legally permitted only by invitation, the GEW (in collaboration with students) should firmly reject such military interference, including organizing demonstrations and school strikes. If the school administration invites them anyway, then opponents of military service should be invited to counter them.

The teachers union must also defend students punished for their opposition to the draft, which could result in life-altering repression.

• In Leipzig, students at Humboldt High School organized a “die-in” protest last year as part of the “No Advertising for Death” campaign against a Bundeswehr event at their school, after which two students were threatened with expulsion (which was later withdrawn following a protest petition).

• In Gotha, two students at the State Technical School for Construction, Economics, and Transportation received six-day suspensions as punishment for a protest against a Bundeswehr recruitment booth, during which they surrounded the booth with pink balloons and held up a banner reading “Education Instead of Bombs.”

• In Freiburg, a 19-year-old was sentenced in December to 15 hours of community service for “insulting” a youth officer with two Instagram memes following a Bundeswehr event at his school.

These are just a few examples of repression against anti-war activists in schools by the German state and school administrations that defend the interests of that state.

In addition, the education union should actively support the next school strike, scheduled for March 5. On December 5, GEW members in various locations (e.g., Hesse) called for solidarity with the student strike. This time, teachers throughout Germany should declare their support. Efforts should also be made to expand the strike, especially since the youth wings of ver.di (service workers union) and IG Metall (metal workers union) have spoken out against conscription. And the struggle against militarization should be waged together with contract struggles in the public sector and protests against the erosion of social programs resulting from rearmament.

For Workers Mobilization Against the Imperialist War Drive

As courageous and refreshing as the protests against conscription may be, instead of mounting collective resistance against the imperialist drive for war – the reason for the reintroduction of conscription – they are almost all characterized by democratic illusions (“Conscription? No, thanks!”) and appeals to individual freedom (“Conscription: not with us!” “Not my duty,” etc.). But the fact that the overwhelming majority of young people oppose it and many refuse to perform military service will not stop forced conscription. Even Wilhelm Liebknecht’s 1887 call, “Not one man, not one penny for militarism,” amounts to just saying “No” without a program for the revolutionary struggle against the imperialists’ war aims.

Much of the left is pinning its hopes on the Left Party (Die Linke) as a supposed opponent of war. The Left Party did vote against conscription in the Bundestag, and some of the party’s local chapters supported the school strike on December 5. Its youth groups – Die Linke.SDS and Links­jugend solid – played a major role in organizing student protests against conscription. But the Left Party does not represent an opposition to militarization. In a debate on the ARD TV channel between Heidi Reichinnek (Left Party) and Tim Klüssendorf (SPD), the Left Party spokesperson said, “no one can be forced to serve in the military. Period.” Does she really believe that?! Reichinnek continues: “We need to talk about how the Bundeswehr can become an attractive employer.”

The Left Party social democrats of the second mobilization are mainly concerned with proving that they are “fit to govern.” In May 2025, for instance, their parliamentary group in the Bundestag helped pave the way for Friedrich Merz to become chancellor with their votes. Just last December, they enabled the ruling coalition’s “pension reform” by abstaining from the vote. And at the beginning of 2025, the Left Party in Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania voted in favor of the debt package, which provides for further investments in the military and infrastructure. Despite some verbal evasions, the Left Party is fully in line with the war campaign of NATO imperialism, particularly in blaming Russia for the war in Ukraine.

The Socialist German Workers Youth (SDAJ), the youth organization of the German Communist Party (DKP), claims to follow a Marxist line. It writes: “Militarism and war are inextricably linked to capitalism – and thus a consistent struggle against militarism and war is also a directly revolutionary and anti-capitalist struggle.”  By this, however, they do not mean that a class-struggle-based opposition to military service should be organized; on the contrary, they are saying that the struggle against conscription is in itself anti-capitalist, even if it is waged on the basis of a liberal program (“without us”) and through popular-front-style alliances – e.g., with bourgeois groups such as the Young Liberals.

While paying lip service to the revolution, the SDAJ aligns itself with the pacifist antiwar movement and calls for “peace treaties and disarmament instead of further preparations for war, including conscription.” It demands: “Germany out of NATO and the EU! NATO out of Germany! No to an EU army!” As if an independent German Bundeswehr would somehow serve the interests of working people! Their program boils down to pushing for a different policy of the German imperialist state and promoting pacifist illusions. Thus, the SDAJ explains that it opposed the suspension of conscription in 2011 and now opposes its reintroduction. Go figure.

In contrast, at the height of the Iraq War, we wrote: “Proletarian revolutionaries reject all means by which the imperialists recruit labor for their war machine, whether through conscription or ‘volunteers,’ and fight against them.” Conscientious objection, as advocated by the SDAJ, accepts conscription and merely seeks an individual way out. As the U.S. section of the League for the Fourth International wrote in 2005: “Pacifists may push the illusion of ‘disarming’ the bourgeoisie, but revolutionaries seek through mass protest and working-class action to hinder the bourgeoisie’s ability to raise an army for imperialist invasion and colonial occupation.”¹

At the forefront of efforts to encourage young people to refuse military service is the German Peace Society – United Conscientious Objectors (DFG-VK), which offers advice on how to file an application for conscientious objector status. But conscription cannot be circumvented: even after a successful application, a conscientious objector must perform alternative service in the Bundeswehr and thus continue to contribute to the war machine. Young people who choose to refuse military service certainly want to reject militarization. But organizing a movement against conscription on this basis helps the war machine make forced recruitment more palatable.

We Trotskyists, of course, support the right to conscientious objection. But conscientious objection is a petty-bourgeois strategy for individually evading the horrors of war. Many working-class youth will not be able to take advantage of this option. In any case, class-conscious young people should do military service, among other things to learn how to handle weapons and to carry out political education work among the young “workers in uniform” regarding their class interests and democratic rights. Otherwise, the expanded Bundeswehr will become an even greater recruiting ground for fascist forces than it already is.

Some may harbor the illusion that conscription has not yet gone into effect, since military service is initially supposed to be “voluntary.” That is false; the decision has been made. But the fact that the Bundestag must convene an additional session to make it compulsory provides time to organize opposition. In any case, revolutionary Marxists will continue to fight against imperialist militarism, which is heading toward a thermonuclear Third World War in which everyone will become “cannon fodder.” The key lies in forging a revolutionary leadership based on a program of internationalist class struggle.

So, once again: to effectively oppose conscription, one must fight against the war it is intended to supply with “cannon fodder.” The Internationalist Group emphasizes the need to mobilize the power of the working class to defeat NATO’s imperialist proxy war against Russia. For workers actions to stop arms deliveries to Ukraine and Israel! For political strikes against the war! The only way to end conscription is to smash imperialist war mania once and for all through workers revolution. For the United Socialist States of Europe! ■