Overthrow

(Translated from MSZ 6-1988) The rebels of the sixties have given up without having achieved anything. They didn’t reach their small or big goals. Everything against which they directed their oppositional efforts continues briskly. Occasions for being “radicalized” and for attacking the “system” are demonstrated on a daily basis by those in charge. In 1988, the Federal Republic of Germany brazenly presents itself as an assortment of material for criticizing capitalism the way Karl Marx once advocated. And what are the veterans of the protest movement doing, especially those who snagged a bit of celebrity? With untroubled vanity, they are making themselves available to the media and spinning their anniversary lies; following the disgusting model of “celebrating the commendable consequences and lasting achievements” of the movement, they collaborate with their former enemies in eliciting always the same message from their rear view mirror.

“If we were to make a caricature of the activities that characterize this group’s lifestyle, the following details would have to be included: organic gardening, recycling, natural food, simple clothing, bicycling to work, family values, meditation or other inner processes.” (I, 22) “For an organic apple und a free-range egg or DM 1,00” an “Alternatives” booklet is available, a “journal for alternative technology, decentralization, and ecology.”  And this isn’t the only booklet offering alternative payment methods that is currently booming (a small selection of other titles: “Grassroots Revolution”, “Here and Now”, “Something Happening”). An entire series of paperbacks that calculate solely with hard currency are devoted to “alternatives,” magazines (not just leftist ones) and even television are often suspiciously concerned with “alternative living.” Someone who adds the title “alternative living” to what they do announces with this name a program which can be defined by...

by Arian Schiffer-Nasserie Immigrants, foreigners, people with immigrant backgrounds – they have arrived. At least in the bottom layers of the German social hierarchy, where they are disproportionately represented. They have also become the addressees of social services and pedagogical professionals. On the one hand, the latter have always demanded that their clients cope with dignity and decency in “precarious living conditions,” which is desired; on the other hand, they demand more efforts in view of the undesireable aspects of their poor life management skills. From early childhod help programs to job interview training, debt counselling to probation assistance and programs for the elderly, the addressees of the social and pedagogical professions have become – euphemistically termed – “more diverse and colorful.”  At the same time, racist attitudes towards “foreigners” in Germany, as reported in surveys, are  remarkable. Thus more than 37% of all respondents in Ge...