Greek students’ struggle will go on until the final victory!

greece / turkey / cyprus | education | press release Friday June 16, 2006 09:06 by P.A. (OAE-Greece) - Anarkismo outetheos at yahoo dot com dot au

Our class action should not stop here

The movement’s transition from the defence in the attack is feasible, if only the struggle is organised with class orientation.

The fight is going on until the final victory! The yesterday’s (note: the decision was in Tuesday, 13 June) official decision, of the “New Democracy” government (N.D.) for “freezing” the voting procedure of the proposed law about the third degree of education (universities), should puzzle us. This speculation must lead the movement into conclusions on the igniting of more mobilisations, the next interval, from better positions. The movement’s transition from the defence in the attack is feasible, if only the struggle is organised with class orientation.

We believe that the yesterday's decision was taken because of the pressure of the student movement, but, much more, because of the emerged immediate danger (from them): the connection of the students’ movement with the workers, the unemployed and the high school students.

N.D. in a direct collaboration with the leadership of PASOK, decided to not risk the voting of the bill in the summer sections of the Parliament because they would perceive a big arise by the society.

In Thursday, 8 June, in the Panhellenic demonstration in Athens, there were lots of people who had not been terrorised by the government’s commands to its repressive forces to strike them. When the people take to the streets en masse understand their power, they do not fear batons, tear gases and the state terrorism. They learn from these state attacks, in order to pass later in the counter-attack, using the class violence of the oppressed against the violence of the sovereign classes.

In this big demonstration the blood of the fighting students who were beaten by the N.D. government did not go lost. It constitutes an experience for us in order to realise that we need organisation, for both to be protected defensively by the official state gangs and also to organise later our attack. Except from organisation, we need political fermentation, in order to have movements with clear demands and aims that will definitely resolve the problems, avoiding their recycling.

Beyond of the above, last week we saw clearly who are with the students’ struggle and who not. The masks fell. The worker’s leaders of GSEE (note: National Workers' Confederation of Greece), taking directives from the headquarters of PASOK and Giorgos Papandreou (note: the PASOK leader), did not call a strike for support. This splitting and provocative attitude of the bureaucrats of GSEE could not continued any longer. Our estimation is that there was a collaboration, but also a pressure by the bureaucracy of GSEE to the government to do a manoeuvre for stopping this situation, because the workers would not be late to reverse the bureaucrats’ attitude, prompting with their direct action in strike with processes from the bottom. Such a situation, surely would not make profits neither for PASOK - which for 2,5 years now as opposition, sees “from the bench” all the big social mobilisations - nor for N.D. which wants to spread pessimism in the society that nothing can change.

Thus, we can talk about an “underground” clear collaboration between N.D. and PASOK, in the decision of this manoeuvre, because there was fear of resurgence of the movement which would be connected with the workers and been fermented politically and with a class spirit by the General Assemblies would dominate the streets and come in a frontal juxtaposition with the laws for education and workplaces promoted in the Parliament. However, this should not settle us. N.D. and PASOK will come back with the same educational bill partially. Their programs are identified, the interests they serve are the same.

We close with the characteristic words of the statement of OAE (Local Collective of Patras) on 26 May: “Our class action should not stop with the withdrawal of these laws which are just one step outside of our door. It should be continued, extending it in all the spectrum of the society, coiling together more and more people, up to the final victory!”

14/06/2006

P.A.(OAE-Grece) * Translation by international secretary of OAE.