BY GEORGES MEHRABIAN AND CAN COBAN
ATHENS - Tens of thousands of high school and university
students took to the streets in 44 towns and cities across
Greece December 9 to protest a government education "reform"
law known as the Arsenis Law.
In Athens, contingents of students assembled on side streets and converged, carrying their local high school banners, toward the central Athens march site. Close to 20,000 youth participated. They were joined by a contingent of hundreds of school teachers who marched behind their union federation banner. The union had declared a one-day strike to coincide with the student-led march. These marches are part of a broader response against the capitalist government's austerity measures that includes tractorades by working farmers and strikes by workers.
The march took place in the context of a wave of high school, technical high school, and university occupations. In an interview with Militant reporters given three days earlier, Giorgos Bouloubidis, a high school student in the Athens neighborhood of Zografo, said, "Close to 1,000 school and university buildings are now under occupation, out of a total of about 3,500." Bouloubidis and five other students spoke to Militant reporters after the weekly neighborhood coordinating meeting of occupied high schools. According to the teachers federation, two-thirds of all high schools, 800, are occupied, along with 200 other educational institutions.
The coordinating meeting involved representatives from five nearby occupied schools and was held in the yard of one of the schools. A lively exchange took place over the demands for the march and where their contingent would assemble. The students settled on the three basic demands of "overturn the Arsenis Law, increase education funding by 15 percent, and for a unified high school system." Similar meetings have been taking place throughout the city's high schools as students have sought to coordinate their activities.
During the meeting two parents showed up at the locked main gate to say that the parents' association was putting out a statement in support of the students. They were let in and heard. "There have been many parents who have come to show their support or to help out," Georgia Kafedzi, one of the students, explained. A student from another school reported members of the Construction Workers Union and the Retirees Association had come by to show support.
The Arsenis law "makes university entrance much more restrictive and graduation from high school much more difficult, by instituting about 30 statewide exams that we have to take over the last three years of school in addition to another 300 or so school exams," said Bouloubidis. Last year 125,000 high school students graduated; it is estimated that now the figure will drop to 85,000.
"What we will have are not high schools where people learn but rather simply examination centers whereby students are cleared for university," added Andreas Kilchiksis.
"There is no increased funding for the educational system projected. For schools to get more funding they say go to the church or to the municipalities," continued Bouloubidis.
"The right to free public education is undercut, with the almost doubling of registration in after-school private tutoring centers, with the passage of this law," said Andreas Simopoulos.
Across town in the suburb of Halandri about 10 technical high school students sat around a camp fire and chatted with Militant reporters on the grounds of their occupied school.
"Conditions in the technical schools are horrible," said a student who did not want to be identified, while another demonstrated how the nearby wall was loose. "The government just provides no money for us. We have no work shop here, so we must travel to another far away school for practical training. And even there the equipment is from the 1960s."
He is studying to be an electrician and has a side job as a supermarket clerk. "Often, I have to bring equipment and tools in order to do the practical training."
University students have also been actively involved in the occupation wave as well as the street protests. Militant reporters visited the department of philosophy at the University of Athens, which is under occupation. Some 50 students were guarding the occupied department building. Many were getting off of their midnight shift while others were coming in to relieve them. Several professors tried to get in then but they were stopped. Discussions ensued and the professors are politely but firmly turned away. One of the occupiers, who identified himself as Thanassis, said the government's cuts in education were aimed "to get into the European Monetary Union. The education plan is part of that overall policy. It's like the attempt earlier to get a private company into the university to take on the teaching of English. We defeated that earlier attempt."
"But you see badly needed money from the EU budget for education can only be used if 30 percent goes to private companies. That is how the private companies get in," explained another student.
Student coordinating committees have announced that they will join a general strike and demonstration called by the General Confederation of Labor for December 15 to protest government austerity measures.
Natasha Terlexis also contributed to this article.