[fse-esf] student movement in Greece

[akis gavriilidis]

It would not be unfair to say that, with these mobilisations, the 
"movement of movements" mentality irrupts for the first time in such 
intensity and at such a large scale in the mainstream political scene of 
Greece (apart from the 15/2/2003 marches against the Iraq war - but then 
this was a global event).
This is a great feeling for all of us who, several years ago, started 
visiting the SF meetings, being accused by traditional left forces as 
"revolutionary tourists" and "cosmopolitanists", to see these marvelous 
multitude of young men and women who adopt the multicolour, joyful 
aesthetics and the methodology of the Forum -may be without being 
conscious of it, but this is no problem! in fact it is even better- and 
limit the Communist Party militants to a role of mere spectators, 
totally marginalized and embarrassed, without a clue about how to deal 
with these sit-ins and assemblies which surpass them and are not 
provided for in their textbooks.
One has to keep in mind that the Greek mainstream left, and the Greek 
society as a whole, had taken an extremely traditional and conservative 
course during the past years, clang on to values such as fatherland, 
religion, family, homophobia etc. These developments are like a breath 
of fresh air against this background.
In this sense, I think that the ESF in Athens, albeit indirectly, had a 
certain influence on these mobilisations, mainly through the 
"circulation of struggles" it facilitates. For example, one of the 
slogans many of the students were chanting, was: "We will turn this 
place into France" (referring to the French students' struggle against 
the CPE, which largely inspired them).
And this is a valuable and encouraging lesson for all of us, as it shows 
that, if you work patiently and with conviction for your cause, this 
will bring fruits. Maybe not exactly the ones you are expecting, maybe 
not when you are expecting them, but it will all the same.

O/H Yannis Almpanis έγραψε:
> About 25.000 students demonstrated yesterday in the streets of Athens. 
> There were also demonstration in other cities of Greece. In Athens, 
> the demonstration ended with violent clashes between police and 
> demonstrators. The police attacked the students in an axtremely brutal 
> way: tenths of tear gaz bombs were thrown against the main body of the 
> demonstration, many demonstrators were heavily beatten, more than 40 
> were arrested. For many hours the traffick was stopped in the center 
> of Athens which looked like a gaz chamber.
>
> Right now, about 350 university departments are occupied. At the same 
> time university professors are on strike. Students and professors are 
> protesting against the establishement of private universities and the 
> limitaiton of the time of studies. The right wing goverment is going 
> to vote a new Consitution and  a new law that will impose a series of 
> neoliberal reforms in the education system.
>
> This is the strongest students movement since 1991.
>
> This is the link to more photos from the demonstration
>
> http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=521163
>
> Yannis Almpanis (Network for Political and Social Rights)
>
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