In the run-up to the International May Day Online Rally sponsored by the International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site, reporters from the WSWS spoke to workers and young people across Germany about the danger of nuclear war and the significance of the May Day event.

We call on all our readers to send us statements and to participate in the international May Day rally at 9 p.m. Central European Time on May 1. Register now and make this important event known to your colleagues, friends and family.

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Savi, a student from Berlin:

The war has an impact on everything. I think many people still underestimate what is happening here: the system is showing its true face. People are now acting very surprised and talking about “the first war in Europe,” but there have been wars for years. The middle and upper classes do not see what is going on in the working class. We need education and health care, not weapons. The health system is collapsing and people are waiting for months for treatment.

It is disgusting to see how Russian people are now being discriminated against and how the situation facing the Ukrainian people is being exploited. At the same time, the other refugees fleeing from war are discriminated against. We should not build weapons. We should build comfortable housing for everyone. I come from southern Germany and have seen how many weapons are produced there and how Germany has benefited from the conflicts all over the world. It really hurts, we should not support a country with weapons.

I think it is imperative that we unite. The working class is the hardest hit by the crisis. The rich people can still fill up their SUVs. But our families do not even know how to buy food for their children this week. I could talk about it for hours. We need to do more than sign petitions and demonstrate. I prefer strikes because they have a more drastic effect: the capitalists lose money through strikes. If everyone stopped working for a few days, it would mean a lot. I will definitely be there for your event.

Harald, a teacher from Duisburg:

Konstantin, a high school student in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein:

The omen of an uninhabitable world is emerging—a world in which progress is being sold and people enslaved. War, pandemic and climate catastrophe are the buzzwords of our time. More and more people in the hard-working population are realising: the war arises from an imperialist world order, the pandemic from a world community lacking solidarity and the climate catastrophe from an economic order whose main slogan is capital and not people.

At the same time, both nationally and internationally, it is not the warmongers or climate destroyers who bear the consequences of their actions, but those who die in their wars. The ugly face of capitalism is emerging at an ever-increasing pace. International solidarity is important precisely because the situation in the world continues to heat up. And that is why the unification of the workers must be central on May Day.

The ruling class long ago sold our future and abandoned belief in a better world. We have not done so.

Kevin, an IT worker from Augsburg:

Karin H., who lives near Düsseldorf:

“I am taking part in the International May Day Online Rally because I support all activities that seek to help workers unite internationally against war and exploitation.

She criticised the “blatantly right-wing pro-NATO war propaganda” and the hypocrisy with which petty-bourgeois commentators adapt to it, adding, “At the same time, those who publicly discuss the possibility that war crimes may have been committed in Ukraine by forces other than Russian forces are denounced as willfully blind Putin apologists.

“The political analysis shows that the Ukraine war is a US proxy war against Russia. That is why opponents of war in the NATO states must target the US/NATO, not Russia. This does not imply support for Putin, but corresponds to Karl Liebknecht’s recognition that the main enemy is at home.”