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Greece: The student movement appears dead but it is has only
Aris Oikonomou - 30.04.2007 22:39
The movement against education reforms that have lasted almost a year have according to some has died. However according to students themselves they are only adapting to the new conditions. They are very alive, of course tired but alive. Ahead they have student elections, the application of the reforms already voted and the resistance to new ones. The privatization the Greek education system will be that easy
Students are no longer occupying their universities. Lectures and labs are taught as if there had been a twelve week massive student movement. The libraries are full with students studying for exams. One would think that they are really worried that they will not manage the ten week exam session which is supposed to catch up the lost January exam session. The minister of education declares “…that student have conformed with the reforms…they have understood it is for their good...the minorities have been tamed”.
However this is only superficial account of what is going on. According to student representatives everybody is putting their act together. “Twelve weeks is a long time to struggle. Many are tired, others worry that they will not succeed their exams and stay for another year in university making their parents pay for it, and some others are just discouraged since the law cadre passed and the revision of article 16 could happen in a few year time. Nevertheless the Front for free education is still here, it is just regrouping and maturing. ”
“Now that lectures have started the faculties are packed with people, we can mobilize better. During the occupation we did not manage to have this many people. We used to be the usual twenty or thirty people. Now we can continue the agitation and have an larger audience.” Says giannis, a student that took part in the occupations.
General Assemblies are still being organized. However, now the main slogan is “Refuse the application of the law cadre”. Besides the right wing student union, DAP, everybody agrees that since the government did not get the message after twelve weeks we will force it to get it. Acts of disobedience have not been generalized yet but an interesting example is that of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.
Here the Dean authorized the beginning of the construction of a station for the new metro and a parking lot on campus based on his liberty given to him by the law cadre. The building company put fences on campus and security guards to keep people from hindering the construction. The General Assemblies of students saw this as the beginning of the attack to the academic asylum that the law cadre proposed. They decided and accomplished the dismantlement of the fences, chased away the security guards and undid all the work that the workers had done. “It is the first action, we will continue” a graffiti said.
Another example of the mutation of the movement is that it has become more political, especially since we are close to student elections the 9th of May. During the movement the discussion was mainly for or against the demonstrations/occupations and the reforms. Now the faculties have became the battling ground of who is going to represent that students for the next year and on what basis. Is it going to be the DAP, right wing union linked to the party in government and main promoter of the reforms, that has ruled nation wide universities for over ten years? Or the PASP, Socialist party university movement that is also strong and during this last movement had very ambiguous positions? Or the unions that were clearly against the reforms.
Independently of who wins, most peoples’ hopes are that the huge protests translate into participation and an overall change of the political scene in universities.
“We are still putting the pieces together, making our self criticism to see our mistakes. I think the Minister does not know what she has done. Now we know what her reforms will do, we know that we were many and that the government ignored us, we know that the opposition Socialist party is on the same wave length as the government, we know that the EU is promoting all of this. We are stronger we are better prepared for the next round…” declares a student representative.
The radicalization due to this movement is evident. The past few days groups have been attacking various police stations with stones and cocktail molotofs in Athens and Thessaloniki. They demand the immediate liberation of students that were wrongly arrested on the 8th of March and are still in prison. The 1st May workers demonstration will have free and public education demands and at its beginning will be the students with the lecturer and teachers.
This going to be definitely a long lasting struggle…
 E-Mail: sasgamw@hotmail.com
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