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HISTORY LESSON
The neoliberal higher education reform in Greece stirs up the biggest student protests since 20 years
| Karl-Heinz Kloppisch, Isidor Grim (BERLIN). Since February, half of all universities are on strike, about 290 are still occupied. Thursday, March 8, in Athens and Thessaloniki, two great demonstrations took place at the time when the Parliament voted the new law-cadre, which opens universities to private companies. In Athens, 35,000 demonstrators were in the streets, 5,000 in Thessaloniki. The protests became more and more militant as repression by the police escalated.
With this planned reform, presented by the conservative education Minister Marietta Giannakou-Koutsikou, the government wishes to pull back from its duty of conceding free education albeit, in the cradle of democracy, over the gate of the historical university in Athens a banner displays the demands of the students and a part of the teaching staff: “No to changing Article 16!”
A French solution is still possible:
The government could scrap the law
According to this law, private educational institutions in Greece are forbidden, a fact that the government would like to change. Unions and students, however, see the lack of funds for the higher education institutions — barely 3.5% of the gross domestic product — as the main problem. The “two-class education” strived for by the government, which favours children of richer families and covers up the dramatic financial situation of the state universities, does not produce any relief. Laboratories, libraries, student halls and equipment are lacking. Currently, every fourth lecturer does not have a tenure and the payment of salaries can take up to a year.
Regardless of the protests and even though the opposition left the room, the governing party passed the law which decrees a shortening the standard duration of study, a new system for assessing the teaching body (limiting their liberties), the charge of tuition fees, and the permission for military or police to enter a higher education institution or vacate it. Especially the latter regulation overrules an important achievement of Greek student history: the university as a sanctuary as it was created in the early eighties. Back then, militant protests did not only break down the reform efforts of the government, but the entire government was overthrown.
After the demonstration on March 8, with tear gas filling the Polytechnical University, 62 people arrested and whole groups of students beaten up by the police, some people drew a comparison to the military dictatorship in Greece (1967-1974). But as the weekly demonstrations in the cities continue and many journalists, TV operators, unionists and Red Cross employees solidarise with the students, a French solution is still possible: the government could bow to the will of its citizens and scrap the law in time.
| More information and photos: www.neolaiasyn.gr
www.resistance2003.gr
| Translated by Ana Kolb and Tino Brömme
read also: Le lacrime di Socrate