The significance of the IYSSE’s electoral success at Berlin’s Humboldt University
By
the International Youth and Students for Social Equality
27 January 2017
The political significance of the electoral success of the IYSSE (International Youth and Students for Social Equality) at Humboldt University extends far beyond the walls of the university. The IYSSE obtained 7.05 percent of the vote in the election to the student parliament, its best ever result.
The IYSSE is the youth movement of the International Committee of the Fourth International, whose German section is the Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (PSG).
While the IYSSE was able to increase its vote by a third, all of the other party-aligned student groups lost votes. The IYSSE received more votes than the governing Christian Democratic Union-aligned conservative student group, RCDS (5.61 percent); the student group of the Greens, Grünbolt (4.7); and the Left Party, Linke/SDS (4.5 percent). The Greens and the Left Party are both members of the current Berlin state government. Among the student groups of parties represented in the Bundestag (federal parliament), only the Jusos, aligned with the Social Democrats, obtained somewhat more votes than the IYSSE, with 8.0 percent.
This result is even more significant because the parties represented in parliament have vast financial resources and a considerable public presence at their disposal. At Humboldt University, party-aligned foundations fund hundreds of students and doctoral candidates, drawing them into their political work.
The electoral success thus has objective significance and contains important lessons. It shows that large sections of youth and the working class are turning their backs on the established parties and moving to the left. This not only…