Voting concluded Thursday in the student parliament elections at Humboldt University in Berlin. The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), which ran in opposition to militarism, xenophobia, and right-wing historical revisionism, won six percent of the vote and four seats in the student parliament. Below is the group’s official statement in response to the vote.

We wish to express our thanks to all those who voted for the IYSSE at the Humboldt University in this week’s student parliament election and powerfully affirmed the significance of our work. The result represents a clear mandate to continue and intensify our struggle against militarism.

During the past weeks and months the Humboldt University IYSSE has placed the struggle against the revival of German militarism at the centre of its work. At a series of meetings and in numerous articles we have shown that Humboldt University professors, such as Jörg Baberowski and Herfried Münkler, have systematically sought to play down the crimes of German imperialism in preparation for new wars. We have determinedly opposed the transformation of Humboldt into an ideological centre for war and racist agitation against refugees.

This work has become even more important in the last few weeks. With its intervention in Syria the German ruling elite has abandoned any military restraint, and agitates on a daily basis for the massive rearmament of the Bundeswehr and further military interventions. Bundeswehr soldiers are to be dispatched all over the world in order to further Germany’s economic interests. At the same time, racism, chauvinism and hysterical attacks on refugees have become an integral element of bourgeois politics.

It is highly significant that so many students did not allow themselves to be intimidated by the threats against the IYSSE by university officials. The tripling of our vote and the large-scale and lively participation at our meetings shows that broad layers of students and workers are fiercely opposed to the move towards war and growing racism.

The task now is to translate these votes into active support. We appeal to students and young people to help us build the IYSSE at Humboldt University and at other universities in Germany and throughout the world. Stop the universities from becoming ideological think tanks for war and militarism and take part in the building of an international and socialist anti-war movement!