PHA-Exchange> universities struggling against privatisation in greece

[Claudio]

From: Alexis Benos 

Three weeks of struggle… and it continues!!!!! 


By Aris Oikonomou
PHM Greece


Greek universities are paralyzed. More than half of faculties nation wide (Universities and Colleges) are occupied by the students who refuse the privatization of Greek education system. Every day General Assemblies are organized and new faculties are added to the list. At side of the students we find also university teachers, primary and secondary education teachers and several trade-unions. 



Why this explosion?? 



In the center of this new social explosion is the government's will to revise Article 16 of the Greek Constitution. This article guarantees a high quality, free and especially public education for all Greek citizens. It declares without ambiguity that only the State can provide this service and that any private person is explicitly prohibited to do it in its place or in parallel. 


 It is obvious that an article of this type poses a major problem in the process of privatization of education. Process, let us not forget it, directed by the E.U. through the Essen, Bologna and Lisbon Agreements.



In the Greek Parliament the discussion appeared at beginning to be quite relaxed since the PASOK, , Socialist Party   and largest opposition party, and Nea Dimokratia-party in government, centre right wing-, which together count for 90% of the seats, were in agreement on the revision. It was ironic that it was the president of the opposition to the Parliament, G. Papandreou, who introduced it. The proposal concerns the opening of the market of education. 



"The revision of Article 16 is essential for the improvement of the public system of education. Thanks to the creation of non-state and non-profit organizations the public universities will be forced to rationalize and become more effective thus exceeding the phenomena of bureaucracy and stagnation. " he said in 2005. It is thanks to this "assist" on behalf of the "opposition" that the party in the government, Nea Dimokratia, can without obstacles dismount the national educational system. 



Nevertheless last weekend the PASOK it backed down on this position giving no-confidence vote to the government. G. Papandreou transformed his discourse and described the revision as a "… change so profound, it would require a constitutional amendment...". To some this comes as a surprise, to others this is just a political maneuver. Either way this makes it harder for the government to make this reform since a two third majority is required for a constitutional revision and it no longer has it. The discussion appears postponed but only for the moment. 





The movement is getting bigger and bigger and bigger…. 



After three weeks of struggle the students do not seem tired. It started with a dozen occupied faculties and in three weeks it reached 311 occupied faculties. This has more merit if we think that the occupations are not permanent but each week, and in certain cases twice per weeks, there is a struggle in General Assemblies against the DAP (student union organization related to the party in government) which is a great force among the students. 



Each week Coordination Committees at city level and one at national level take place. In spite of their structure being little fuzzy and questionable it is obvious that the participation increased since their beginning two weeks ago. The first national meeting had 200 students of all of Greece representing their committee of occupation while in the second, one week later, there where more than 2000 students. 



Since the beginning of the movement there are demonstrations organized every Wednesday. The participation in these demonstrations reflects the national tendency. On Wednesday January 24, third national event, the number of demonstrators at the national level reached 40000. In Athens there were 20000 demonstrators, in Thessaloniki 8000 to10000 and in other cities 10000. 



However these figures are clearly lower than the capacity of the movement. It should not be forgotten that in the movement May-June 2006 [1] more than 90% of faculties were occupied and that the demonstrations at the national level reached 70.000 - 80.000 demonstrators. "It is obvious that the fear of loss of the exam session or even of the whole semester and the arguments of the DAP limit the students to take part in the movement. However this constrains do not fall badly since the movement has to last at lest two or three months. Slowly but surely. " Declared one participant of the Coordination Committee of the occupations of Thessaloniki.



Students are not alone….



However in the street the students are not alone. The trade-unions: of university professors, primary and secondary teachers, employees at the universities, public services, of the workers in the construction /industry, some of the private sectors support and take part in the mobilizations. According to voice of the left, this is also the struggle of the workers. 



This is only the beginning. The vote on the revision of the Constitution will take place in March. Meanwhile this week of new General Assemblies were called to decide the future actions, of regional Coordination Committees and a national one of all faculties in the struggle are already planned. As it appears even more faculties will be swallowed by the wave of discontent as new mobilizations take place this week. 





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[1] Movement against a Reform in tertiary Education. The Law-cadre which aimed at opening the doors to further privatization of the system of education. 
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