You can also complete a full School education or a degree,
for which you will ultimately have to pay extra.
Or you might join the armed forces after all.
There will certainly be more alternatives, there's no question about that.
Either way, however, it is clear
that volunteering is not voluntary at all, but depends
on the economic conditions in which we live.
The neoliberal trend is clearly visible and noticeable
for you and for me.
Competition, exploitation logic and profit.
And for that we are to be sent into the trenches.
For the profits of Rheinmetall, Siemens and Deutsche Bank.
And it won't be the children of the CEOs
of these corporations who will be sent into the trenches
to have bullets fired into their heads.
That's supposed to be us!
We're supposed to be cannon fodder.
And we're supposed to shoot at young People from other countries,
who, just like us, have hopes and dreams,
who, just like us, have their whole lives ahead of them, 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:22.560 and with whom we have so much more in common
than with Merz, with Pistorius,
or with the children of some
super-rich corporate executives.
Make peace without weapons!
I'm Shmuel, I'm 17 and I'm here today
to demonstrate against conscription and to strike.
The strike is not just for school pupils to attend.
Of course, everyone else can also come to the strike,
but also, for example, if you are a teacher,
as a teacher, try
strike committees, for example
or structures where students can organise
for the strike and mobilise against conscription
and against the rearmament of Germany - to provide such spaces
and to show solidarity with the students in this sense.
And when I see how many people are gathering here today
and then I have to say I am really proud
and I am also totally excited and just happy
that you have the courage
to stand up for all your needs and clearly define your boundaries.
And I would just like to say give yourselves a round of applause.
...but two years later, it succeeded in ending the First World War.
It succeeded because workers all over Germany went on strike,
because sailors mutinied and soldiers turned their guns around.
They were able to end the war because they recognised the power we have
when we join forces.
Just as the dockworkers in Marseille, Piraeus and Genoa are showing.
who are preventing arms deliveries to Israel with strikes
and thus practising very practical solidarity
with the Palestinian people.
I'm Paul, I'm 17.
I'm Karl, I'm 16.
It's not our job to defend the wars, to take part in them,
that the old farts have caused.
That's not our problem.
Our teachers fully support us coming here today,
because it's also our right to be here
and to protest against it.
I can only agree.
The rich want war, the young want a future.
The young people in Braunschweig understood this 110 years ago.
We say the same Thing today.
We want a future without war and without conscription.
And who should fight for it, if not us?