[fse-esf] Article on Greek Student Uprising

[Dave Stockton]

Article from:
www.FifthInternational.org
lfioffice at btopenworld.com

Greece: Students fight neoliberal education reform!
14 June 2006
The last three weeks have seen a huge rebellion by workers and students in
Greece against government plans for neoliberal reforms of higher education.
As many as 100,000 students have occupied over 350 university departments
over the last three to four weeks. University lecturers have also held a
series of walkouts against the reforms.

The neoliberal offensive in Greece

Since it came to power in May 2004, the right wing New Democracy government
has sought to implement an aggressive neoliberal reform in the face of
mounting opposition from the Greek working class. There has been a war of
attrition as each government attack has been greeted with stop-start
opposition by Greek workers that has included a series of one-day general
strikes. However, like in France earlier this Spring, it has been an attack
on the rights and conditions of young people that has prompted a rebellion
to shake the whole country.

The New Democracy government sought to bring in reforms of higher education
that would:

- Allow for the creation of privately owned and managed universities
- End the restriction on police entering the grounds of higher education
institutions (they are currently banned from entry without consent of
university authorities)
- Change the management structure of existing universities towards a private
sector business model
- Increase the competitive pressures on students by restricting
opportunities to re-sit exams and place limits on the time students can
spend at university.

The new management structures would completely disenfranchise students from
decision making structures and, alongside the new ³freedom² for Police to
enter universities as they so wish, mark a clear attack on student
radicalism.

The changes in university management structure towards a business model were
naturally intended as the first step on the road to full scale
privatisation: the development of a market and the introduction of the
profit motive.

They are rooted in the Lisbon and Bologna neoliberal economic agenda
currently being pursued by Europe¹s governments that aims to Americanise
Europe¹s economies by 2010. This means a co-ordinated attack on Europe¹s
working class: its social rights, welfare and security system geared to
increasing the global competitiveness and profitability of Europe¹s
businesses.

Resistance of the social movements

The mobilisations and forums of the anticapitalist and social movements over
the last seven years have played an important role in making Europe¹s
workers and youth politically conscious of the reactionary character of this
co-ordinated bosses offensive.

The European Social Forum (ESF) that took place in Athens at the beginning
of May hosted mass student meetings. These brought together militants from
the student movements that have emerged across Europe over the last period,
and provided an important catalyst for the uprising of the last few weeks.

Between 12th and 16th May, students occupied 16 university departments. By
28th May a national movement had emerged; 8,000 students demonstrated in
Athens. This was followed three days later with 194 university departments
going into occupation and lecturers across Greece voting in mass meetings to
launch strike action against the attacks. Student co-ordinations were
established inside universities and at the district level. These drew in
striking workers too.

As the movement entered June, the number of university departments entering
occupation shot up to over 350 across Greece. On Thursday 8th June 40,000
students demonstrating in Athens were met with violent repression by the
police who used tear gas and baton charges. This police repression had the
effect of raising the stakes, and further radicalising the already militant
movement.

The national co-ordination of students called on the GSEE (the main trade
union federation) to launch a general strike against the attacks following
the repression of 8th June. More protests and demonstrations are planned for
tomorrow (15th June) and are expected to grow larger still.

The internationalism of the youth was clearly expressed by the slogan,
³We¹re going to do what they did in France².

The mobilisation is dominated by the forces of the Greek left that supported
the ESF. The largest left party, the Greek Communist Party (KKE), that
condemned the ESF as a tool of imperialism, has a typically sectarian
approach to the movement and has called its own demonstrations rather than
supporting those organised through the student co-ordinations. There is
however, a major pressure from the KKE¹s rank and file to participate, and
many have in practice.

Likewise, the Greek Social Democrats (Pasok), who at the national level
support the government reform programmes, have split in the universities,
with around half their student membership supporting the protests.

This has left the leadership of the movement open to the far left who were
already a significant force in student politics but some way behind the KKE
and Pasok. For example, in the annual student elections, in which around
70­80% of students usually participate, the EAAK, a coalition of far left
groups, polled around 8.5% in the last elections compared to 14% for the
Communist Party and 26% for Pasok.

The left reformist party Synaspismos, that polled just 2.5% in the last
student elections, and the sister organisation of the British Socialist
Workers Party, the SEK that polled 0.3% (under the banner of its front,
Genoa 2001), have also been involved.

The movement looks like it is close to an important victory, as the
government increasingly appears as though it will back down in the face of
the threat of workers¹ actions. If it transpires that the movement is indeed
victorious this will be a great moment, just as the victory over the CPE was
in France, earlier this Spring.

It will be victory that will pose new possibilities. The major question
facing the social forces that have mobilised against the neoliberal attacks
over the last five years is the question of power: what kind of government
should the movement fight for in order to halt the wave of neoliberal
attacks?

In Italy recently, the response of Rifondazione Communista to this problem
has been to enter the social liberal government of Prodi in the hope that it
can mollify the worst components of its attacks. This pressure to enter
government in coalition with pro-neoliberal, and even outright bourgeois
parties exists in Germany (Left Party), France (Communist Party) and Greece
(Synapismos) too.

At a time, when Europe¹s workers and youth are showing their will and
capacity to fight on the streets to drive back the neoliberal offensive,
such governments would do nothing but disorientate the vanguard of working
class fighters. They would create an incredible pressure on workers ³not to
rock the boat², ³to give the government time² as Europe¹s social democracy
continues to implement the bosses¹ neoliberal programme.

The alternative to this is to fight within the working class, its trade
unions, the social movements, anti-neoliberal forums, and so on, for the
goal of workers¹ governments committed to democratic planning, and won
through revolutionary action.

The general strike is the key to getting such a government. The student
co-ordinations should immediately organise delegations to the factories and
offices, the transport and communications centres to call on the workers to
bring forward their own demands: for a 35-hour week to soak up unemployment,
for real wage rises, for decent public services paid for by the corporations
and the rich.

Such a general strike would have to be indefinite, not another one-day
protest. It is important the government knows the movement means business.
It would also have to be controlled by co-ordinations, which need to be
broadened to include workers¹ delegates. But it could very quickly force the
withdrawal not just of the education ³reforms², but of the whole government,
and pose the question of who runs society.

If it does so, then the Greek movement could have even wider consequences
for the masters of Europe than this Spring¹s French rebellion.
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