Neue Studiengebühren-Kampagne der INSM

Die ArbeitgeberInnen*-Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM) hat eine neue Kampagne zur Verwendung der Studiengebühren an Hochschulen gestartet, den Unicheck. Dabei geht es um die Akzeptanzbeschaffung für Studiengebühren und für die Organisation der Hochschulen nach Marktprinzipien.
Dass die Vorbereitung der Kampagne keineswegs transparent ablief, zeigt der Artikel “Start unter falscher Flagge” des UniSpiegel. Die Nachdenkseiten analysieren prägnant die manipulative Vorgehensweise der INSM. Ein lesenswerter Artikel dazu findet sich auch unter Studis Online: er betont, dass echte Mitbestimmung der Studierenden vor Ort Not tut - nicht Schein-Mitsprache per Webseite.

Kritiklos
Organisationen wie die Verbraucherzentrale NRW oder Medien wie die Financial Times Deutschland und UNICUM unterstützen diese PR-Kampagne der ArbeitgeberInnenverbände*. Zudem gibt es immer noch Artikel, in denen INSM-Kampagnen vorgestellt werden, ohne deren Arbeitgeber-Hintergrund zu nennen - diesmal bei z.B. beim Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt, Tagesspiegel, Zeit Online.

Quelle:
Blog von LobbyControl


* Eigentlich müsste es statt "Arbeitgeber" ArbeitskraftnehmerInnen heißen, da die Unternehmen ja nicht wirklich Arbeit geben, sondern die Arbeitskraft der ArbeitskraftgeberInnen (ArbeiterInnen) ausbeuten...

Back in Marburg: Euer Matthes is widder da!

Now I'm back in my little town - back from my big travel around (some parts of) the world...
Unfortunately, I do not have internet access at home. That is why I write today after having been to the uni for ten hours yesterday! Although I could have travelled a bit longer, I am glad to be back to continue my studies and my political activities here. There will be a discussion this evening about repression against Anti-G8-activists in the "Café am Grün" where I will go after eating pizza paid by the state TV channel (I took part in an experiment, that's why I get it for free, they did not corrupt me ;-)). After the discussion there will be a solidarity party in the "Trauma" against tuition fees. Tomorrow I will probably go to the MAK (Marxist workgroup) for the first time before I will attend the discussion about student protests in 1968 and today given by my former professor and communist Georg Fülberth. Moreover I will try to play football with my hobby team "Die Füße von Hans A." in the "Bunte Liga Marburg". You see: hellalotofthingstodo...

To my international readers: Please tell me if you are interested in some information in English on my blog since I will probably write in German now that I am back in Germany. Make a comment to this post, please!

Your heart is a muscle the size of your fist.
Keep loving, keep fighting!

The Living Theatre

I just came back from the Lower East Side of Manhattan where I saw the Living Theatre performing The Brig, a play about a military prison and the brutality and inhumanity the imprisoned soldiers are facing there.
The performance was incredibly good!
Maybe I find some time to describe it better when I am back in Germany.
It is my last day in New York tomorrow or better in some hours...

Living Theatre: http://www.livingtheatre.org/
The Brig Blog: http://the-brig.blogspot.com/

Capitalism stole my virginity

Here is a song by "The (International) Noise Conspiracy":
Capitalism stole my virginity
(right before I leave the center of capitalism and the city of the Wall Street)

From Harlem to Brooklyn because of Armenia...

Meanwhile I have moved from my hostel in Harlem to Brooklyn to spend my last days in New York at the apartment of Vahagn, a new friend from Armenia that I met randomly after the lecture "Warfare and Devotion to the Sacred Ideal" by the psychologist R.A. Koenigsberg dealing with the issue of idealization of sacrificing yourself for "your" country at Columbia University. He was talking to a friend from Egypt about the German movie "Life of others" what attracted my attention. That's why I just asked them about their opinion concerning this movie and after Vahagn saw my Metallica shirt we were already in a conversation that was dealing a lot with activism later on because both of them are really political and active. What I did was going with them to Brooklyn and after a nice walk the "artivist" Vahagn (who is doing creative stuff like painting t-shirts with clever slogans) and me went to his office and we were talking about a bunch of different things and exchanged not only ideas but also pictures etc. Since it was already around 4 a.m. when we left I didn't go back to the hostel but slept at Vahagn's place. And due to the fact that I had just booked my bed at the hostel till the 19th of April we checked out that I can stay for my last days!
But now I will try to get away from the computer to have some fun in New York before I leave tomorrow evening. Time is running too fast...but I am also glad to come back and see my friends and my family and continue my studies and my political activities.

Some pics from New York

Here are now the best pictures I took in NY so far.


My first picture: there's still a train stop called WTC...


My hostel: "Jazz on the Villa"


View from the lobby of my hostel


Social Science Library, Manhattan


Painted ceiling in the Social Science Library, Manhattan


A cute squirrel in a Park


Jazz quartet in Washington Square Park


My friend Cristina from Ohio who came to NY with her brother last Saturday


Where to go? There's only one way - but twice *thinking* ;-)


Me having a great natural juice in my favorite fast food store in Harlem "Frank's Papaya"


Still in "Frank's Papaya"


An "Eternal Flame" in Battery Park lit on 9/11/2002 for the victims of 9/11


My working place in the Social Science Library in Manhattan...ein Schelm wer Boeses dabei denkt ;-)


Jam session in a nice Jazz club in Harlem


View on Manhattan during the night


Children playing on the (blocked) street where my hostel is


Wow, there's even a white boy!


A fallout shelter (!) in Harlem


A nice black star


No, there is an abundance of them :-)


View on the Manhattan Bridge from the balcony of my new friend Vahagn in Brooklyn


A too dark picture of Coney Island where I've been today (4/21)

Los Angeles: the promised photos

Here are at last the photos from LA...


The King


Recruiting agency in Hollywood I


Recruiting agency in Hollywood II


Start of the Walk of Fame in Hollywood


The first star, besides Elvis


My favorite star :-)


Some guys being arrested by the police


The "Governator" himself


Everything's forbidden in the dorms...


In the hostel


The hostel was really close to the airport


No comment


A smart drummer using normal buckets as instruments


I was shocked by the huge amount of homeless people sleeping in the streets without anything!


Hoho, the foot steps of Donald

Anarky for you and me...

Speaking about anarchy I have to show you this great video from WIZO. Enjoy!

Anarchy (almost) everywhere

Although New York is the city of the Wall Street and a "consumers paradise" it has an alternative culture as well. With this post I want to give you a glimpse of some activities going on here.
After having been to the two panels I have written about (Radical Art+Gender issues) I found an "Un-oppressive non-imperialist bookshop" (citation of the name!) where I bought cheap books from Noam Chomsky and a small volume about a feminist involved in the revolt in Paris in 1871 (La Commune). On the same day I was at an anarchist bookfare with Cristina (from Columbus, Ohio, I know her from my time abroad in Rennes, France) and her brother where i found a big bunch of leaflats and other propaganda stuff, even to flyers mobilizing to the protests against the next EU summit in Hamburg and the G8 summit in Heiligendamm (both in Germany). Actually I just found the Un-oppressive non-imperialist bookshop because of Cristinas brother who saw it first. Yesterday night I was at a discussion about Anarchist Art (in the Financial District ;-)). And last but not least the anarcho-pacifist commune called "The Living Theatre" is back "in the belly of the beast" as they said it. That is to say they start playing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and in the streets of New York again after having been forced to stop back in 1993. The previews start tomorrow and I will definitly go there!

Good Bye LA - Hi New York

Here's a short view back on LA and a few remarks about the first days in New York. I can't upload pics at the moment, so they'll follow later...

A nice thing about the Hostel in LA was the free food in the evening. It was very "healthy": French fries, nachos, rice, croquettes and cake...
I was also at the walk of fame in Hollywood (pics later).
That's enough for LA, let's go to NY.

New York is a great city. In my first two days I was already at two very interesting panels, one that was part of the NYU series "Not for Sale" about radical art and its influence on the society and the other one that was called "Transamerica" about gender, sex, transsexuality, de- and reconstruction of identity and so on. You see: NY seems to be a perfect place for me :-)
I already bought ten books...should avoid bookshops from now on...but I haven't even bought books about politics from e.g. Judith Butler and Noam Chomsky what I absolutely wanted to do...
I met some nice and interesting people at the hostel and in the city.
- One who called himself a "political junky" when I told him that I study politics.
- Two that addressed me because of my "kein mensch ist illegal" t-shirt.
- A peace activist from Oklahoma who asked me where I got my hoody with the wild cat, the symbol of disobedience and resistance used by anarchist trade unions.
Hence, it's really great to be here although I still have to finish the paper about direct democracy in the next days...

Gut angekommen in New York !

Internet is hier sehr teuer. Deshalb nur ein kurzes Lebenszeichen aus dem Hostel, in das ich gerade eingecheckt habe.
Die letzten News aus LA nebst Bildern gibt's daher auch erst spaeter.
Bis bald
Euer Matthias

George Carlin, Mexicans and Hollywood

I actually saw George Carlin yesterday night at the Glove of Anaheim! It was a great show - just as you expect it from this fantastic 69 year old stand up comedian who does this shit for over 45 years now, especially because it was a whole brand new show. So I didn't hear anything I already had heard from him.
After having taken the railway from Anaheim back to downtown LA I had to find another bus stop because the one where I arrived from the hostel wasn't served at night time. When I finally found the bus stop I met two really nice Mexican guys to whom I talked for a long time before I went to Hollywood the next morning. Now I can say that I saw the famous "HOLLYWOOD" letters: wow ;-)
Besides I was at the Musuem of Contemporary Art and bought a book. But I didn't stay there too long because I couldn't take any photos with the low battery of my mobile. That's why but mainly to be able to do my work for university I bought an adapter for European electronic devices so that I can use my laptop in the US. And that's exactly what I will do now by working on my paper about direct democracy in Gemany...

As seen at Henning's site: How to make a nazi

Education for Death

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Aus der Beschreibung auf dem taz-Hitler-Blog:
Der hier vorliegende Beitrag “Education for Death: The Making Of A Nazi” aus dem Jahre 1943 ist vor allem deshalb so gelungen, weil er den Balanceakt zwischen Lächerlichkeit und Humor zum Einen und Kritik und Warnung andererseits auf verblüffend gute Weise meistert. Die Mechanismen der faschistischen Maschinerie werden dargelegt, die Gefahr verdeutlicht - von einer Dämonisierung aber ist “Education for Death” weit entfernt.
Wenn anhand von Dornröschen die deutschfaschistische Saga dargelegt wird und aus aus der holen Prinzessin Deutschland eine üppige, Bier trinkende Walküre und aus dem tapferen Prinzen ein lächerlich gestikulierender Adolf Hitler wird, alles zu Wagners Musik, dann spinnt sich eine gleichsam sehr grundsätzliche und humoristisch brachiale wie feinsinnig, detailverliebte Kritik und Belustigung zusammen.

L.A.

Since yesterday I am in the United States, in Los Angeles, California to be precise.
The first thing I saw here was the picture of George W. Bush at the terminal of the airport!
Shortly afterwards I was asked for my finger prints and it was taken a photo from me for "security reasons" without any information about this procedure although I asked for it - as if everybody coming to the States was a potential terrorist. Now the US administration and whoever has acces to the data can do whatsoever with this personal information!
After that institutionalised violation of civil rights I went to the hostel where I got a bed in a 20 bed dorm and found out that the hostel has a pool, free breakfast, tea and dinner and draft beer for a dollar! Welcome to a country not as expensive as Australia - but to not forget the issue of purchasing power here a lot of people earn shit and are forced to do several jobs to survive!
There is a free shuttle bus to Venice beach that I took yesterday with an Australian and an Argentinian girl who are staying at the same hostel. It was nice at the beach but the water was too cold to swim - at least without neoprene swim wear. But I still bought a new swim short because mine's broken since I was under a Litchfield waterfall...
Tonight (we're nine hours back in time) I'll probably go see George Carlin, my favourite US comedian, if I get a ticket for the show - that'd be so great!

Good bye Sydney

Now that I have already left Australia I post the last pictures from the land down under. Enjoy some photos from Sydney at night.


Harbour: Harbour Bridge on the left, Opera House on the right


Opera House


Harbour Bridge


View on the harbour with the skyline in the back


Me in front of the Opera House (right)


I walked over the Harbour Bridge and there were cameras everywhere...


...and barbed wire. It reminded me of a "well kept" border


View from the Harbour Bridge

A few more pics from Sydney

Here are some additional photos from Sydney. I hope to take a lot of beautiful photos tomorrow (Blue Mountains, Harbour...)


Bondi Beach shortly before sunset


Bondi Beach almost deserted


Waves at Bondi Beach


Bondi Beach in the dark


Mardi Gras: A big gay/lesbian festival (pics from my hostel)


St Marys Chathedral I


St Marys Chathedral II