Update on the Greek Student Movement

In prep for a presentation I'm giving at Muhlenberg College this weekend, I ran into a nice (if a bit dated - April 2008) summation of the current state of the student movement in Greece - particularly its resistance to neoliberal "reforms." (Check out our earlier coverage of the issue early last year for some background.) Apparently the joint work between students and faculty against these reforms has for the most part collapsed. It's partially understandable: faculty as a rule, nomatter how sympathetic they are to the cause, risk much more when they protest than students do.

From the SEF:

What makes this period so critical is that the only way to guarantee that none of these reforms will be carried out is to struggle for the complete cancellation of the new laws. Moreover, an ‘exemplary inner regulation’, which is supposed to impose the application of all recent authoritarian and neo-liberal laws, has been introduced 2 months ago by the Ministry of education. The majority of students stand clearly against all these reforms. The movement and its achievements have made them more self-confident.

On the other hand two seasons of strikes have inevitably caused remarkable fatigue. During this season there have been only a few minor mobilizations (besides, the chief front has been held against the reform of the insurance system, which consists an explicit attack of the government against all working and young people). The major part of students’ effort are now directed towards forcing (by any means, including boycotting) university administrative organs to declare that they are not going to accept any aspect of the law-frame or the exemplary inner regulation (a means that has proved rather, but not absolutely, effective).

This way, the students’ movement is opposed to a large part of the university teachers, who are not willing to fight against the reforms, even if they disapprove of them. It is obvious that a common front between students and teachers is much more difficult to build than it used to be a year ago.

The rest of the article is definitely worth reading.