People’s struggle so that the reactionary Higher Education law will not be implemented

With the support of the Social-democratic PASOK, the conservative ND and the nationalist-racist LAOS, the draft law was passed by the parliament, which will lead to the further commercialisation and the abolition of free Higher Education. University research will not have a general and universal value and its implementation will be dictated by the ambitions of the capitalists to make faster profits.

Meanwhile, speaking in parliament, the Prime Minister of Greece and President of the Socialist International G. Papandreou, in an attempt to defend the new law slid once again into anti-communism and anti-Sovietism by characterising the current status quo in the Greek universities as “Soviet”, and that it must be abolished.

In response, Aleka Papariga, GS of the CC of the KKE noted that the Prime Minister distorted reality and made the following points about the Soviet educational system:

“Firstly, the student before he or she finished, in the final year before they acquired their degree, knew where they would go to work.

You did not get your degree and then have to look through the adverts and opportunities in the newspapers to find work. Of course, this is not to the Prime Minister’s liking.

Secondly the specialisation which was provided by the socialist university was based on an all-round level of knowledge- philosophical, mathematical, linguistic, literary- which not only gave a educational level to the scientists, regardless of the specialisation of his degree, but also provided him with serious and contemporary capabilities, so that when this learning loses its value- because this can indeed occur and today very rapidly- he can be re-educated, through of course a public, social, socialist education system, so that he does not remain behind the developments and so that he does not have knowledge which has become obsolete”. A. Papariga stressed.

The GS of the CC of the KKE, after expressing the opposition of the party to the reactionary new draft law emphasized that the communists will be at the forefront so that the organised mass movement-the labour, people’s and student movement- which seeks to obstruct the measures, to fight so that law is not implemented in their entirety or at least in relation to its basic axes.

The Students’ Struggle Front (MAS) together with the All-workers Militant Front (PAME) on the 24/8 carried out rallies and protest demonstrations in Athens and other major Greek cities.

25/8/2011