Privatisation
plans meet furious response
The New Democracy (ND) Greek government
attempted to go ahead with a bill to privatise higher education in spring 2006.
It thought it was going to be an easy task. The majority of Greek university
students “abandoned” radical ideas for many years, pro-government commentators
asserted, and were considered a “conservative” section of society. There no
major, all-out mobilizations by students for nearly two decades.
However the ND government made a big
miscalculation. Their privatisation policy caused the biggest movement of
university students since 1979 – 82. All sectors of education erupted in an
unprecedented explosion, which the young generation never experienced anything
close to it. For about 10 months, the whole of Greek society and politics were
dominated by the struggle over public education.
The New Democracy (ND) was able, at last,
to get its education bill through parliament, last week (8t March). But to
their great dismay, the education movement continued after the bill was made
law.
Two hundred and fifty colleges are
occupied by students, for two months. This is the third wave of occupations and
mass education struggle over the past 10 months, which all started on onwards).
It is not only the students. The
university teachers refused to bring to an end their ‘indefinite strike’ – in
the form of repeated 5-day strikes - which started at the end of January.
The Congress of the Union of University
teachers, held in the first week of March, drove the Greek ruling establishment
class to desperation, as it gave absolute control of the
Could it be worse (for the government)?
Yes! The university teachers, openly stated, after the bill passed through
parliament, they will refuse to apply the law in practice.
This is a not just an empty phrase. If
teachers refuse to cooperate, the new law will be inapplicable. The law
provides for the funding of universities by private companies (under the
authority of appointed managers in the universities), to supplement cuts in
public funding. Whether this will take place is in
essence a matter of class struggle and the balance of forces. The law also
gives university authorities the right to call in the police and to break
‘university asylum’. For example, it would mean the police could stop students’
occupations if it “prevents others from their right to receive education, or
teaching”. If this repressive new power can actually be carried out is, once
again, a matter of the balance of forces in the universities and in society, in
general.
In its attempt to beat the education movement
the government turned to repression. It made very good use of the actions of
some ultra left anarchist groups, which “fight” the police with Molotov
cocktails, sticks and stones. The police used this as a pretext to viciously
attack the main body of the demonstrations.
Last Thursday, 8 March, a huge demo of
30,000 – 35,000 university students, the biggest since the beginning of the
movement, was drowned in tear gas. Around 69 students were hospitalised and 61
were arrested.
Initially, public opinion began to turn
(once again) against the demonstrators, who “turned the centre of
But the moods changed as videos of the
demo were released showing the extent of police brutality against the
demonstration. These images of police violence against peaceful protesters were
seen by millions, while those the mass media said where behind the violence,
the “hood wearers” (which is how the anarchists are referred to) were never
apprehended (this is always the case!).
Even some in the pro-Establishment media,
not to mention progressive-minded journalists, felt basic democratic rights
were under attack.
Police brutality failed entirely to
frighten the movement. At students’ meetings, held this week,
students voted by big majorities in favour of continuing university
occupations. And the Union of University Teachers voted for another
5-day strike.
The government was able to get its
education bill through parliament but failed to get clause 16 of the
constitution changed.
This defeat is much more serious than the
pyrrhic “victory” of getting the education bill through.
Clause 16 of the constitution does not
allow for the existence of private universities in
The leadership of the social democratic
PASOK party, under G. Papandreou, the so-called ‘opposition’, was ridiculed by
many people for agreeing to the government’s clause 16 change!
With this agreement, the ND government hoped
to have an easy ride. But the huge movement of students and the teachers forced
Papandreou to make an about turn. This, of course, made him doubly ridiculed.
For the protest movement, Papandreou’s U-turn was a clear victory. It means
neither the current or next parliament can vote in a change to clause 16. The
attack on the constitutional safeguard against education privatisation is
postponed for at least 6 years and possibly more (10 years), depending on how
things develop.
The constitution defeat frayed government
nerves, to say the least. It was its second defeat in 10 months, after it was
forced to postpone the vote on the education bill that was initially intended
to go to parliament last summer.
Immediately after Papandreou’s about turn,
to try not to seen as loosing complete control of the situation, the government
hastened the postponed the education bill vote.
But whereas New Democracy’s defeat over
clause 16 is clear and very serious, causing huge frustration in ruling class
circles, the ‘victory’ over the education bill is a hollow one, as it was
achieved at a huge cost, and may never be put into practice.
However, it is also the case that the
strength of the education movement was such that a massive victory could have
been won. This did not happen because of the weaknesses of this movement, or,
to be more precise, because of the mistakes, or failures, of the leadership of
the movement (i.e. the left leaders).
The Greek left remains badly split, and
organically incapable of collaborating on basic issues.
There is no real coordination of the
movement. There was a plan from the beginning of this movement. While a
national coordinating committee exists it does not really function and the city
wide coordinating committees are not properly working either. The two basic
forces behind the student movement, the Communist Party (CP) Youth and EAAK (a
federation of splits from the CP) never talk to each other.
The main forces in the leadership of the
students have no real concept of turning seriously to the working class.
Neither on a local basis, nor on the central arena, did they pressurize the
GSEE (General Confederation of Greek Workers) to call and organize a general
strike.
A serious mistake was made last September
when the leadership of the primary school teachers called for a strike of their
sector, at a time when university students were still in exams. The strike was
magnificent and historic. It lasted 6 weeks, until the 1 October, and pulled
the secondary school teachers into 13 supportive 24-hr strikes and 1,000
schools went held occupations. But, by the time the university students were
ready to come out, after mid-October, the teachers were exhausted and were
forced to go back to work, winning nothing – it was, unfortunately, a defeat.
Thus, the possibility of building an
all-education struggle, in January-February, this year, when the third round of
the struggle against the government started, were severely undermined.
Finally, the leaders of the student
movement are too tolerant of the actions of anarchist groups (with the
exception of the CP, which, however, goes to the other extreme and describes
all anarchists as “agent provocateurs”). These groups (which never go on
working class demonstrations, of course) join the ranks of youth demos in full
armory (with stones, sticks, Molotov cocktails, etc) and pretend to play the
role of self-proclaimed ‘defenders’. They have nothing to do with the movement;
they never attended general meetings of the students, never mind making any
proposals to them, but emerge on every demo to supposedly “fight the state”.
These anarchists set a few policemen
ablaze, burn Greek flags, attack “the Unknown Soldier” statute (which is highly
respected by all Greeks), and, of course, destroy cars, motor bikes, shops,
etc. Of course, state propaganda makes full use of these antics and there is no
doubt this is one of the reasons the ND is still ahead in opinion polls.
Of course, the Left needs to separate the
completely irresponsible and counter-productive anarchists from genuine youth,
who faced with police repression, fight back. To these youth, we need to
explain that ‘riots’ do not serve the movement, but only strengthen the
government and give the state more excuses for repression.
But one thing is clear: clashes between
the police and the “hood wearers” (some of whom reportedly come out of police
vans!) diverted all discussion and attention away from the real issue, which is
the struggle for the defence of public free education, for everyone.
If this movement had a leadership which
knew how to coordinate the struggle, how to time it correctly, how to link the
education front with the rest of the working class and society, how to protect
the movement from the counter-productive antics of ultra-anarchist groups, and
how to defend against police attacks, a crushing defeat of the ND government
would be entirely within reach.
Xekinima, the Greek section of the CWI -
believes a victory could still be achieved, despite tiredness amongst sections
of the movement (around 80 occupations ended over the last couple of weeks).
Xekinima proposes, in leaflets produced
weekly and distributed on national days of action (every Thursday) and by participating
at numerous students’ general meetings colleges, ways to develop the struggle
for victory.
At this stage, the basic demands we put
forward are:
No retreat, continue with the occupations,
weekly national mobilizations, and daily initiatives on a city basis
The law can be sent to the dustbin. Follow
the example of the French youth who revolted against the CPE, last year, or the
best fighting traditions of Greek university students (in 1979, they forced the
then prime minister, Karamanlis, uncle of the present Karamanlis, to withdraw
‘law 815’)
For proper coordination
of the movement. Develop a
national plan of action. Delegates to be democratically elected by general
meetings to city-wide and a national coordinating committees,
to replace the chaotic (and, in the end, undemocratic) “coordinating” meetings,
which have never been able to reach any decisions due to left divisions
Make a decisive turn to the working class.
Campaign for a 24-hr general strike of the rank and file in the workplaces to
force the new leadership of GSEE (which bluntly refused to take decisive
action) to call a 24-hr strike in support of struggling students and teachers
Defend the demos against police brutality,
with much better organized contingents
Raise the issue of the role of anarchist
groups in general meetings of the students. Defend demos against provocative,
counterproductive actions by these groups
Link the coming university student
elections (held in late April/early May) with the current movement. For united
lists of the whole left (a student left block, nationally) that were in the
leadership of the struggle. If this is done, then the ND youth will lose their
position as the biggest force amongst university students – nationally colleges
will come under political control of the left block.