BY MARKIE WILSON

BERLIN, Germany - Local trade union mobilizations have spread across Germany in preparation for a national demonstration in Bonn June 15 against the federal government's "savings plan," which will gut social benefits.

On Monday, June 10, the engineers union IG Metall called actions in Hamburg, Bremen, and the Rhineland in the western part of the country. In Salzgitter 14,000 protesters marched, blocking traffic, including workers from Volkswagen and Bosch. Traffic in Hamburg was blocked for 20-30 minutes. In Rostock, in East Germany, 100 people demonstrated.

Five hundred students from three universities in Berlin attended a meeting here June 12 against raising university fees from DM40 to DM100 ($26 to $65) per semester. Oltan Dertli, a Humboldt University student, who recently participated in the congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers in Havana, said that the new fees are "part of an attack on the social wage." He also described protests that have taken place every Monday here, ranging from 1,000 to 35,000 people.

According to another student activist, Senator Radunsky in Berlin stated recently he intends to push for "student fees as high as DM1,000 per student each semester; and I think it could be achieved in 2-3 years."

University students here are mobilizing to attend the June 15 national march in Bonn. The Berlin chapter of the National Student Union (GEW) has issued several leaflets describing government cutbacks and calling on youth to join protests against them.

One of these flyers said that attacks on the working class include cutbacks in payments to people with children, slashing health care coverage, reducing sick pay from 100 percent to 80 percent of wages, cutting pensions and unemployment benefits, and raising the retirement age.

Dieter Schulte, leader of the DGB trade union federation, stated in the newspaper Die Welt that a "hot summer" is ahead that will make the protests in France look like a "tired imitation."

Markie Wilson is a member of United Transportation Union in Oakland, California; and Chris Morris is member of the Amalgamated Electrical and Engineering Union in Manchester, England.  
 
 
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