From anarchism to Education ---- The inverted language of Orwellian
1984, where the Ministry of Propaganda is called the Ministry of "Truth"
and the Ministry of War is christened the Ministry of "Peace", is the
constant verbal pattern of the modern market. Only a self-proclaimed
"anarcho-capitalist" (as the new harlequin president of Argentina[1]is
said to be), could call the caricature of the government bill on private
AEIs a "free university".
The battle for the establishment of private universities, under the
euphemistic title of "non-state", has acquired the character of a fetish
for the domestic bourgeoisie. And this "fetish" is related both to
nuclear terms of capitalist ideology & ethics, and to the class,
socio-psychological conditions that post-war shaped the domestic
capitalist oligarchy.
In the center of gravity of the former is displaced what old Bakunin had
demonstrated in time, at the time of his great dispute with the
followers of Marx at the Basel conference,[2] as the cornerstone of
capitalist ethics: the right of inheritance . In an earlier text[3] of
ours, in 2011, on the occasion of Anna Diamantopoulou's law on
Universities, we pointed out the following: at the core of capitalist
ideology there is an inherent immorality , a belief according to which
the wealth and power that this implies that they must constantly devour
themselves. Wealth must be bequeathed to continue unabated the primary
task of accumulation, whereby the rich (must) become richer and the poor
poorer. You see, the members of the upper class never digested that a
"rational" educational system would distribute occupational privileges,
not inheritance law. For them, as for capitalist ideology, privilege
(must) be inherited, sold and bought at a profit. Degrees, and through
them the Aristotelian[4] professional certification of the higher social
hierarchy, are nothing more than objects of possession, use and trade,
and no one can deprive them of them by "buying" them for their children.
A timeless class conflict
The direct connection of education, and in particular university
degrees, to the entrenched privileges of the ruling class, it stands to
reason that it constitutes a permanent field of class conflicts that
largely shaped the social confrontation and class reflexes of the
privileged classes.
In the first century of the Greek state and until the second world war,
the social confrontation was mainly limited to basic education. The
territory is dominated by rural populations and the central social issue
remains illiteracy. It is no coincidence that the main controversy
centers around the language issue,[5] with a constant ping-pong of
reforms and counter-reforms by alternating Venezuelan and
anti-Venizelian governments in the 10s, 20s and 30s.[6]
The rapid industrialization of Greek society in the first post-colonial
decade resulted in a significant part of the population leaving the
rural countryside for the new industrial megacities. A current of
internal migration is thus created which forms explosive social
conditions as well as new social dynamics. The young proletarians
vigorously claim their way out of poverty, but also the new industry, of
factories and construction reconstruction, requires a skilled workforce.
The massive social movement that was expressed mainly during the period
of the Unyielding Struggle[7] but also the fear of the capitalist bloc
not to be overtaken by the then galloping Soviet Union imposed serious
changes in the institutional organization of education, throughout the
Western world. In Greece, education was state-owned, but it was
connected on the one hand with a strong class privilege, since there
were unaffordable tuition fees at all levels of education,[8] and on the
other hand, with a major sociolinguistic "privilege", as the cleaner who
spoke only the privileged class, was the only permitted language of
education. Thus, both economically and linguistically, the children of
the poor were excluded from social advancement.
Under the pressure created by the new social struggles during the period
of the first "intransigence" but also by the Soviet terror, in April
1964 the government of George Papandreou, attempting to remove certain
class restrictions, established "free public education at all levels of
education"[9], making the vernacular an equal language at the same time.
In his historic speech to the parliament, the prime minister and
minister of education, made special mention of the recent scientific
achievements of the Soviet Union,[10] emphasizing the danger: a system
that does not enable everyone to study is in danger (if it has not
already been ) to be surpassed by his opponents .
The radicalization of Greek society, which was temporarily halted by the
seven-year dictatorship, was expressed mainly in the universities[11]
and formed the conditions for the constitutionalization of universal
public and free education in the Constitution of 1974 (article 16 of the
Constitution) as well as the explicit prohibition of the establishment
of universities by private individuals. While with the rise of PASOK to
power, the Framework Law (1982) proceeded with the abolition of the
conservative institution of the professorship, the self-administration
of institutions and the participation of students in decision-making bodies.
The glamor of the student anti-dictatorship uprisings and the mass
radicalism of the student movement imposed on power not only a series of
chronic social claims but was a bulwark in the face of reactionary
counter-reforms. The main example was the withdrawal of the famous law
815 of 1978, with which the then government of Constantinos Karamanlis
tried to control the dynamism of the student movement. After the great
occupying movement of December of the same year, the bill was
repealed.[12] A similar fate, twelve years later (1990), had the
sweeping changes brought by the Mitsotakis government with Vassilis
Kontogiannopoulos as Minister of Education, which concerned the
abolition of the provision of free textbooks and cuts in social
benefits, such as free food and housing. After mass protests and
Tebonera's murder, Kontogiannopoulos resigned and the bill was withdrawn.
Alongside the post-revolutionary radicalism, the hard minority core of
the reaction is also forming in the universities. These are right-wing
figures who will play a leading role in the coming decades. Kostas
Karamanlis, Marietta Giannakou, Vangelis Meimarakis, Nikos Dendias et
al. they are fellow travelers, executives of the post-political DAP,
whom the student movement has marginalized. For the hereditary offspring
of the oligarchy and the ruling ideology, the experience of open and
horizontal democratic processes in the auditoriums, which are dominated
- understandably[13]- by radical ideas, was traumatic. When this group
of people comes to power in 2004, they attempt a historic revenge.
In the informal biography of his 7-year succession, under the
imaginative title "Karamanlis off the record" (by hand-of course-Manolis
Kottakis, since princes are known not to write ) Kostakis the
Karamanlis, you mention several times, in a way that rather betrays a
some compulsive obsessive[14] attachment, to the issue of Private
universities as the "great battle of his generation". However, the
double reactionary reform that he and his old competitor Marietta
Giannakou will attempt, which involved both the drastic limitation of
student participation, the suppression of student unionism, and the
revision of Article 16 with the aim of establishing private
universities, will be crushed in front of the most massive post-colonial
student movement. A river of 350 sit-ins, mass rallies of tens of
thousands of students, with massive clashes with the police. A movement
that will not yield despite fierce repression, mass arrests (61 in just
one day), but will spread to all parts of the territory and will be the
only social opposition of the period. Under the suffocating pressure of
the movement, the cross-party consensus with PASOK will collapse,
article 16 will not be revised and the government will withdraw the
reactionary provisions of the bill.[15]
"Constitutional" and "unconstitutional"
The defeat suffered by the ruling class at the hands of the student
movement did not limit its basic orientation. Through a series of slow
but steady steps, he gradually managed to legitimize private
universities and the general commercialization of higher education,
bypassing the constitution. After all, as any good constitutionalist
knows, constitutions, the observance of which is-supposedly-left to a
vague "patriotism" (Article 120 of the constitution), are nothing more
than harsh tools of class rule, upon which, under pressure of social
struggles, certain social conquests are also reflected. The student
movement of 2006, which with its determined stance blocked the change in
Article 16 for 20 years[16] had no illusions about the reactionary role
of the Constitution (in general) and Article 16 (in particular). He did
not dream of a university captive to the whims of any state but a
university open and free to society. But he knew that he was fighting a
rearguard battle, because in the conditions of the modern market, the
"liberation" of education from the state monopoly, would not guarantee
any "freedom" beyond the complete indecency of the market. As it happened.
The attack on the public (state) university began a few years earlier.
Through perhaps the most critical bastion of right-wing "excellence",
the University of Piraeus,[17] the ruling class established (1996) the
first postgraduate degree with tuition fees. The expansionary
interpretation of the constitution that they invoked at the time to
violate it, was based on the novel argument that master's degrees were
not provided for in the 1974 constitution, and therefore it is as if ...
they do not belong to higher education. Over the next two decades,
motivated by faculty salary bonuses, the majority of university
departments in the country created tuition-fee master's degrees. Almost
at the same time, attempts were made to create non-state universities in
the form of "Laboratories of Free Studies" and shops such as, among
others, Deree were established, while at the initiative of the
Association of Greek Industrialists (SEV) and - a little later - the
Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ALBA was created, the first
private college with postgraduate degrees.[18] This was followed by the
overnight conversion of the I.E.K. series. to colleges that advertised
themselves as franchises of foreign universities. With the legislative
initiatives of Anna Diamantopoulou and, subsequently, Niki Kerameos, the
professional rights of college graduates (as graduates of foreign
universities) were recognized. Finally, the necessary clientele was
provided by the adoption of the minimum admission basis, with which 20
to 30 thousand customers annually have been lavishly poured into the
private colleges ever since.
In parallel with the above initiatives and under the pretext of the
economic crisis, a systematic operation was attempted over the last 15
years to lay off staff, discredit and financially strangle public
(state) universities, with a freeze (for a decade) of the appointments
of professors and staff, the merger and/or abolition departments
("Athina" plan) but also blocking the establishment of new departments.
Indicative are the conclusions of a recent study by KEPY[19] according
to which: a) the total teaching staff in the country's public
Universities decreased by 32.7% in the 15 years 2008-2023 b) the ratio
of undergraduate students per professor (faculty member) currently
amounts to 47 students per faculty member and is three and a half times
higher than the European average (13 students per faculty member) c) the
cumulative loss of public funding of higher education in the period in
question amounts to 6.1 billion Euros .
The "free" university of Mitsotakis
With today's government initiative, another step in the chain of
reactionary reforms is being attempted: the recognition of college
degrees as well . The legislative acrobatics is based on virtual
synergies of colleges with foreign universities. The supposedly strict
academic conditions set by the legislator for the establishment of
private universities (10 professors per faculty) are laughable, if one
considers that professors can work simultaneously in any part of the
world, while the number of students (per faculty) can reach 1500. As for
the argument that the low academic standard of colleges, which tend to
specialize in pseudo-scientific majors (such as marketing), will not
have serious social consequences, the recent news that the investment
fund CVC Capital Partners is expected to establish the first non-state
medical school in Greece[20] should answer for itself. But the bill's
biggest euphemism is the addition of the phrase "not-for-profit" to
describe the new foundations. Traditional non-state universities in the
Western world are indeed organized as non-profit organizations. This,
its non-profit designation, simply means that they do not have a
shareholding structure and therefore do not distribute profits among
their shareholders. Otherwise, however, they function as normal
commercial and profit-making mechanisms. They charge unaffordable
tuition fees that only the wealthy can afford, compete for student
clients, research programs and grants. The vast majority of "non-profit"
universities are nothing more than competitive businesses whose sole
purpose is commercial profit. And if some very prestigious institutions
maintain in their countries a level of social policy (through
scholarships of excellence), international experience teaches that when
the same institutions create branches abroad they act as unfair and
ruthless capitalists. Nowadays, the biggest universities of the western
world are establishing branches in Asia (China, India) but also in the
Gulf countries, trying to sell their brand name. As for the famous
domestic megalobourgeois (shipbuilding and oil) class that once the
government bill is passed will suddenly stop squandering some of their
monstrous surplus value on football teams and start lavish academic
sponsorships to buy electron microscopes, let me bet that has as likely
to happen as to see penguins in the Sahara.
So what does the government bill seek? The "axe-wielding" current
Minister of State from the floor of the parliament, with the honest
brutality that distinguishes him, had, a few years ago, given the
material dimension of today's battle: "we have to switch to private
universities, because the public ones are the mechanism in the which the
Ideological Hegemony of the left reproduces. Universities are the main
source of its executive potential." Conclusion: Public universities are
turning our children into communists .
The goal of the ruling class is not only the acquisition of degrees, for
the professional reproduction of the offspring of the middle-upper
class. It is also the gradual elimination of any trace of public space
where rifts of freedom can be born. The continuous reduction of the
public character of universities, the continuous commercialization of
studies, the increasing intensification of educational programs with the
aim of disciplining students, go hand in hand with the policies of
reducing admissions, financial strangulation of any research that is not
directly related to market, but also the expansion of the private sector
of higher education.
Against all this, is there a different perspective?
Free & public - non-state university
Universities were born in the monasteries of the Middle Ages, as an
institution within and against the dominant theocratic ideology, as a
mechanism within and against the feudal organization of society. From
their foundation to the present day, despite the enormous social
changes, they carry within them this double role: on the one hand, they
are the body that gives prestige, that produces the Ideology of the
dominant class, on the other hand, they carry in their bowels the seed
of denial , of questioning, become the shell in which the seeds of a new
world are incubated. Universities, as living social organizations, have
always been these dialectical sites , on which the forces of the old
world, the state and the market, competed with the forces of utopia.
Because beyond the false dilemma of state or private (a state that is
already a servant of the market and a private that cannot exist
without state usurpation), the real difference, the real field of
tension where the class struggle is waged is between the capitalist
state and society . The real dilemma these days, which does not only
concern universities, but every living public space, every field of
modern life, is not state or private, but public & free, which of course
means: horizontal, anti-state and self-governing.
This is the project; towards it and our constant struggle.
Sotiris Lykourgiotis
Republished by: alerta.gr
--------------
[1] We are referring to Javier Millay, the self-proclaimed
"anarcho-capitalist" new president of Argentina. Anarcho-capitalism as a
trend, with Murray Rothbard as its main exponent, has, of course, as
much to do with anarchism as the brutal violence of murderers has to do
with the tenderness of utopia.
[2] See: Yannis N. Karytsas (2008) Michael Bakuni. The World and its
work , Ardin publications, pp. 102-106
[3] See: Sotiris Lykourgiotis, Credit units and the intrinsic
immorality of the capitalist reorganization in universities ,
Anarcho-syndicalist newspaper ROSINANDE #19 (November 2011)
[4] Only a naive person cannot understand that the concept of
"excellence" invoked by the "excellent" of the upper classes, is not
related to any rational assessment of individual educational abilities,
but is nothing more than their old aristocratic right to transfer
wealth, privilege and power to their children. And this is not only
related to the domestic oligarchy, it is a global phenomenon. As
recently revealed by the New York Times, Harvard and other top US
universities have been admitting rich students who don't meet the
requirements for decades through the slant... payment (see: Lifo "Huge
Scandal in the US: Parents of the Rich Cheated into Top Universities" )
[5] The forerunner of socialist ideas, Georgios Skliros, poses the
language issue as a key issue that decisively mediates the domestic
class confrontation. He characteristically writes: "H
plutocracy, which uses a whole system of delusional ideology to keep the
people in a state of ignorance that will enable them to exploit them,
has every interest in perpetuating an education system based on the
khatharevusa which leaves the great mass of the people out of all
education" See: G. Skliros (1922) Our social issue , Socialist Center
Publications.
[6] Indicative of the controversy is that in 1917 elementary school was
taught in schools, in 1921 elementary school, in 1923 elementary school,
in 1926 elementary school, in 1927 elementary school together with
elementary school (due to the ecumenical government), in 1931 elementary
school , in 1933 the cleaner, and in 1939 the Cleaner together with the
Primary.
[7] See: Yannis Kartis (1974) The birth of neofascism in Greece ,
Papazisi Publications, pp. 135-144.
[8] Almost half of the children of the time were illiterate, since they
either did not go to school at all or dropped out in elementary school
[9] See: Spyros Linardatos (1986) From the Civil War to the Junta ,
Volume D, To Vima Publications, pp. 319-321.
[10] He made special reference to the flight of Sputnik (1957), the
first technical satellite in orbit around the Earth, but also to the
flight of Yuri Gagarin (April 12, 1961), the first man to travel in space.
[11] As Alexatos observes: "After the fall of the dictatorship, the
massiveness of the student movement can only be compared to the period
of the Eamian resistance. In the student elections, until the beginning
of the 80s, the total percentages of factions that have radical and
Marxist references reach 90%". (see: G.N. Alexatos (2008) Historical
Dictionary of the Greek Labor Movement , Neighbors of the World
Publications, p. 434)
[12] It was the first time after the post-colonialism that a passed law
was repealed, under the pressure of a particularly militant and mass
movement.
[13] As we have argued before, the form of the political process
determines, to a large extent, its content. Direct, horizontal, open and
democratic procedures, statutorily exclude perceptions that promote
class separation and inequalities. (see: Sotiris Lykourgiotis University
asylum, democracy and parliamentarianism , (19.1.2022) Alerta.gr)
[14] The recent article in Kathimerini (09.07) by the Deputy Prosecutor
of the Supreme Court (and brother of the current minister of justice)
Vassilis Floridis, which characterizes article 16, and specifically the
ban on the establishment of universities by private individuals (in
paragraphs 5 & 8) as a "shame of our democracy"! (see: Vassilis
Floridis, Article 16 of the Constitution: the shame of our democracy ,
Daily Newspaper 07.09.2023)
[15] For a more detailed description of the student movement of the
period, see: Student squats - Teachers' strike: A meeting that (didn't)
happen , Eternal Sit-ins publications, 2008
[16] After his stance shaped the position of the subsequent SYRIZA -
ANEL government
[17] Where a few years ago the current Deputy Minister of Citizen
Protection Konstantinos Katsafados prevailed as a thug mobster who in
2003, being a lifelong student of the University of Piraeus, president
of the DAP-NDFK and member of the senate, invaded, leading a group of
"thugs", in closed faculty meeting and emptied the contents of some fire
extinguishers on them to force the election of the professor of his
choice. (see:
[18] Nikolas Travlos (2020) Can and should the state maintain the
monopoly of higher education in the knowledge society? Comparative and
International Educational Review, issue #4
[19] https://www.healthpolicycenter.gr/el/publications/9
[20] The way is opened for the establishment of a non-state medical
school in Greece , First topic (25.08.2023)
https://anarchism.espivblogs.net/2024/03/21/eleytheria-i-agora-gia-to-eleythero-panepistimio-kai-tin-eleytheria/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
1984, where the Ministry of Propaganda is called the Ministry of "Truth"
and the Ministry of War is christened the Ministry of "Peace", is the
constant verbal pattern of the modern market. Only a self-proclaimed
"anarcho-capitalist" (as the new harlequin president of Argentina[1]is
said to be), could call the caricature of the government bill on private
AEIs a "free university".
The battle for the establishment of private universities, under the
euphemistic title of "non-state", has acquired the character of a fetish
for the domestic bourgeoisie. And this "fetish" is related both to
nuclear terms of capitalist ideology & ethics, and to the class,
socio-psychological conditions that post-war shaped the domestic
capitalist oligarchy.
In the center of gravity of the former is displaced what old Bakunin had
demonstrated in time, at the time of his great dispute with the
followers of Marx at the Basel conference,[2] as the cornerstone of
capitalist ethics: the right of inheritance . In an earlier text[3] of
ours, in 2011, on the occasion of Anna Diamantopoulou's law on
Universities, we pointed out the following: at the core of capitalist
ideology there is an inherent immorality , a belief according to which
the wealth and power that this implies that they must constantly devour
themselves. Wealth must be bequeathed to continue unabated the primary
task of accumulation, whereby the rich (must) become richer and the poor
poorer. You see, the members of the upper class never digested that a
"rational" educational system would distribute occupational privileges,
not inheritance law. For them, as for capitalist ideology, privilege
(must) be inherited, sold and bought at a profit. Degrees, and through
them the Aristotelian[4] professional certification of the higher social
hierarchy, are nothing more than objects of possession, use and trade,
and no one can deprive them of them by "buying" them for their children.
A timeless class conflict
The direct connection of education, and in particular university
degrees, to the entrenched privileges of the ruling class, it stands to
reason that it constitutes a permanent field of class conflicts that
largely shaped the social confrontation and class reflexes of the
privileged classes.
In the first century of the Greek state and until the second world war,
the social confrontation was mainly limited to basic education. The
territory is dominated by rural populations and the central social issue
remains illiteracy. It is no coincidence that the main controversy
centers around the language issue,[5] with a constant ping-pong of
reforms and counter-reforms by alternating Venezuelan and
anti-Venizelian governments in the 10s, 20s and 30s.[6]
The rapid industrialization of Greek society in the first post-colonial
decade resulted in a significant part of the population leaving the
rural countryside for the new industrial megacities. A current of
internal migration is thus created which forms explosive social
conditions as well as new social dynamics. The young proletarians
vigorously claim their way out of poverty, but also the new industry, of
factories and construction reconstruction, requires a skilled workforce.
The massive social movement that was expressed mainly during the period
of the Unyielding Struggle[7] but also the fear of the capitalist bloc
not to be overtaken by the then galloping Soviet Union imposed serious
changes in the institutional organization of education, throughout the
Western world. In Greece, education was state-owned, but it was
connected on the one hand with a strong class privilege, since there
were unaffordable tuition fees at all levels of education,[8] and on the
other hand, with a major sociolinguistic "privilege", as the cleaner who
spoke only the privileged class, was the only permitted language of
education. Thus, both economically and linguistically, the children of
the poor were excluded from social advancement.
Under the pressure created by the new social struggles during the period
of the first "intransigence" but also by the Soviet terror, in April
1964 the government of George Papandreou, attempting to remove certain
class restrictions, established "free public education at all levels of
education"[9], making the vernacular an equal language at the same time.
In his historic speech to the parliament, the prime minister and
minister of education, made special mention of the recent scientific
achievements of the Soviet Union,[10] emphasizing the danger: a system
that does not enable everyone to study is in danger (if it has not
already been ) to be surpassed by his opponents .
The radicalization of Greek society, which was temporarily halted by the
seven-year dictatorship, was expressed mainly in the universities[11]
and formed the conditions for the constitutionalization of universal
public and free education in the Constitution of 1974 (article 16 of the
Constitution) as well as the explicit prohibition of the establishment
of universities by private individuals. While with the rise of PASOK to
power, the Framework Law (1982) proceeded with the abolition of the
conservative institution of the professorship, the self-administration
of institutions and the participation of students in decision-making bodies.
The glamor of the student anti-dictatorship uprisings and the mass
radicalism of the student movement imposed on power not only a series of
chronic social claims but was a bulwark in the face of reactionary
counter-reforms. The main example was the withdrawal of the famous law
815 of 1978, with which the then government of Constantinos Karamanlis
tried to control the dynamism of the student movement. After the great
occupying movement of December of the same year, the bill was
repealed.[12] A similar fate, twelve years later (1990), had the
sweeping changes brought by the Mitsotakis government with Vassilis
Kontogiannopoulos as Minister of Education, which concerned the
abolition of the provision of free textbooks and cuts in social
benefits, such as free food and housing. After mass protests and
Tebonera's murder, Kontogiannopoulos resigned and the bill was withdrawn.
Alongside the post-revolutionary radicalism, the hard minority core of
the reaction is also forming in the universities. These are right-wing
figures who will play a leading role in the coming decades. Kostas
Karamanlis, Marietta Giannakou, Vangelis Meimarakis, Nikos Dendias et
al. they are fellow travelers, executives of the post-political DAP,
whom the student movement has marginalized. For the hereditary offspring
of the oligarchy and the ruling ideology, the experience of open and
horizontal democratic processes in the auditoriums, which are dominated
- understandably[13]- by radical ideas, was traumatic. When this group
of people comes to power in 2004, they attempt a historic revenge.
In the informal biography of his 7-year succession, under the
imaginative title "Karamanlis off the record" (by hand-of course-Manolis
Kottakis, since princes are known not to write ) Kostakis the
Karamanlis, you mention several times, in a way that rather betrays a
some compulsive obsessive[14] attachment, to the issue of Private
universities as the "great battle of his generation". However, the
double reactionary reform that he and his old competitor Marietta
Giannakou will attempt, which involved both the drastic limitation of
student participation, the suppression of student unionism, and the
revision of Article 16 with the aim of establishing private
universities, will be crushed in front of the most massive post-colonial
student movement. A river of 350 sit-ins, mass rallies of tens of
thousands of students, with massive clashes with the police. A movement
that will not yield despite fierce repression, mass arrests (61 in just
one day), but will spread to all parts of the territory and will be the
only social opposition of the period. Under the suffocating pressure of
the movement, the cross-party consensus with PASOK will collapse,
article 16 will not be revised and the government will withdraw the
reactionary provisions of the bill.[15]
"Constitutional" and "unconstitutional"
The defeat suffered by the ruling class at the hands of the student
movement did not limit its basic orientation. Through a series of slow
but steady steps, he gradually managed to legitimize private
universities and the general commercialization of higher education,
bypassing the constitution. After all, as any good constitutionalist
knows, constitutions, the observance of which is-supposedly-left to a
vague "patriotism" (Article 120 of the constitution), are nothing more
than harsh tools of class rule, upon which, under pressure of social
struggles, certain social conquests are also reflected. The student
movement of 2006, which with its determined stance blocked the change in
Article 16 for 20 years[16] had no illusions about the reactionary role
of the Constitution (in general) and Article 16 (in particular). He did
not dream of a university captive to the whims of any state but a
university open and free to society. But he knew that he was fighting a
rearguard battle, because in the conditions of the modern market, the
"liberation" of education from the state monopoly, would not guarantee
any "freedom" beyond the complete indecency of the market. As it happened.
The attack on the public (state) university began a few years earlier.
Through perhaps the most critical bastion of right-wing "excellence",
the University of Piraeus,[17] the ruling class established (1996) the
first postgraduate degree with tuition fees. The expansionary
interpretation of the constitution that they invoked at the time to
violate it, was based on the novel argument that master's degrees were
not provided for in the 1974 constitution, and therefore it is as if ...
they do not belong to higher education. Over the next two decades,
motivated by faculty salary bonuses, the majority of university
departments in the country created tuition-fee master's degrees. Almost
at the same time, attempts were made to create non-state universities in
the form of "Laboratories of Free Studies" and shops such as, among
others, Deree were established, while at the initiative of the
Association of Greek Industrialists (SEV) and - a little later - the
Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ALBA was created, the first
private college with postgraduate degrees.[18] This was followed by the
overnight conversion of the I.E.K. series. to colleges that advertised
themselves as franchises of foreign universities. With the legislative
initiatives of Anna Diamantopoulou and, subsequently, Niki Kerameos, the
professional rights of college graduates (as graduates of foreign
universities) were recognized. Finally, the necessary clientele was
provided by the adoption of the minimum admission basis, with which 20
to 30 thousand customers annually have been lavishly poured into the
private colleges ever since.
In parallel with the above initiatives and under the pretext of the
economic crisis, a systematic operation was attempted over the last 15
years to lay off staff, discredit and financially strangle public
(state) universities, with a freeze (for a decade) of the appointments
of professors and staff, the merger and/or abolition departments
("Athina" plan) but also blocking the establishment of new departments.
Indicative are the conclusions of a recent study by KEPY[19] according
to which: a) the total teaching staff in the country's public
Universities decreased by 32.7% in the 15 years 2008-2023 b) the ratio
of undergraduate students per professor (faculty member) currently
amounts to 47 students per faculty member and is three and a half times
higher than the European average (13 students per faculty member) c) the
cumulative loss of public funding of higher education in the period in
question amounts to 6.1 billion Euros .
The "free" university of Mitsotakis
With today's government initiative, another step in the chain of
reactionary reforms is being attempted: the recognition of college
degrees as well . The legislative acrobatics is based on virtual
synergies of colleges with foreign universities. The supposedly strict
academic conditions set by the legislator for the establishment of
private universities (10 professors per faculty) are laughable, if one
considers that professors can work simultaneously in any part of the
world, while the number of students (per faculty) can reach 1500. As for
the argument that the low academic standard of colleges, which tend to
specialize in pseudo-scientific majors (such as marketing), will not
have serious social consequences, the recent news that the investment
fund CVC Capital Partners is expected to establish the first non-state
medical school in Greece[20] should answer for itself. But the bill's
biggest euphemism is the addition of the phrase "not-for-profit" to
describe the new foundations. Traditional non-state universities in the
Western world are indeed organized as non-profit organizations. This,
its non-profit designation, simply means that they do not have a
shareholding structure and therefore do not distribute profits among
their shareholders. Otherwise, however, they function as normal
commercial and profit-making mechanisms. They charge unaffordable
tuition fees that only the wealthy can afford, compete for student
clients, research programs and grants. The vast majority of "non-profit"
universities are nothing more than competitive businesses whose sole
purpose is commercial profit. And if some very prestigious institutions
maintain in their countries a level of social policy (through
scholarships of excellence), international experience teaches that when
the same institutions create branches abroad they act as unfair and
ruthless capitalists. Nowadays, the biggest universities of the western
world are establishing branches in Asia (China, India) but also in the
Gulf countries, trying to sell their brand name. As for the famous
domestic megalobourgeois (shipbuilding and oil) class that once the
government bill is passed will suddenly stop squandering some of their
monstrous surplus value on football teams and start lavish academic
sponsorships to buy electron microscopes, let me bet that has as likely
to happen as to see penguins in the Sahara.
So what does the government bill seek? The "axe-wielding" current
Minister of State from the floor of the parliament, with the honest
brutality that distinguishes him, had, a few years ago, given the
material dimension of today's battle: "we have to switch to private
universities, because the public ones are the mechanism in the which the
Ideological Hegemony of the left reproduces. Universities are the main
source of its executive potential." Conclusion: Public universities are
turning our children into communists .
The goal of the ruling class is not only the acquisition of degrees, for
the professional reproduction of the offspring of the middle-upper
class. It is also the gradual elimination of any trace of public space
where rifts of freedom can be born. The continuous reduction of the
public character of universities, the continuous commercialization of
studies, the increasing intensification of educational programs with the
aim of disciplining students, go hand in hand with the policies of
reducing admissions, financial strangulation of any research that is not
directly related to market, but also the expansion of the private sector
of higher education.
Against all this, is there a different perspective?
Free & public - non-state university
Universities were born in the monasteries of the Middle Ages, as an
institution within and against the dominant theocratic ideology, as a
mechanism within and against the feudal organization of society. From
their foundation to the present day, despite the enormous social
changes, they carry within them this double role: on the one hand, they
are the body that gives prestige, that produces the Ideology of the
dominant class, on the other hand, they carry in their bowels the seed
of denial , of questioning, become the shell in which the seeds of a new
world are incubated. Universities, as living social organizations, have
always been these dialectical sites , on which the forces of the old
world, the state and the market, competed with the forces of utopia.
Because beyond the false dilemma of state or private (a state that is
already a servant of the market and a private that cannot exist
without state usurpation), the real difference, the real field of
tension where the class struggle is waged is between the capitalist
state and society . The real dilemma these days, which does not only
concern universities, but every living public space, every field of
modern life, is not state or private, but public & free, which of course
means: horizontal, anti-state and self-governing.
This is the project; towards it and our constant struggle.
Sotiris Lykourgiotis
Republished by: alerta.gr
--------------
[1] We are referring to Javier Millay, the self-proclaimed
"anarcho-capitalist" new president of Argentina. Anarcho-capitalism as a
trend, with Murray Rothbard as its main exponent, has, of course, as
much to do with anarchism as the brutal violence of murderers has to do
with the tenderness of utopia.
[2] See: Yannis N. Karytsas (2008) Michael Bakuni. The World and its
work , Ardin publications, pp. 102-106
[3] See: Sotiris Lykourgiotis, Credit units and the intrinsic
immorality of the capitalist reorganization in universities ,
Anarcho-syndicalist newspaper ROSINANDE #19 (November 2011)
[4] Only a naive person cannot understand that the concept of
"excellence" invoked by the "excellent" of the upper classes, is not
related to any rational assessment of individual educational abilities,
but is nothing more than their old aristocratic right to transfer
wealth, privilege and power to their children. And this is not only
related to the domestic oligarchy, it is a global phenomenon. As
recently revealed by the New York Times, Harvard and other top US
universities have been admitting rich students who don't meet the
requirements for decades through the slant... payment (see: Lifo "Huge
Scandal in the US: Parents of the Rich Cheated into Top Universities" )
[5] The forerunner of socialist ideas, Georgios Skliros, poses the
language issue as a key issue that decisively mediates the domestic
class confrontation. He characteristically writes: "H
plutocracy, which uses a whole system of delusional ideology to keep the
people in a state of ignorance that will enable them to exploit them,
has every interest in perpetuating an education system based on the
khatharevusa which leaves the great mass of the people out of all
education" See: G. Skliros (1922) Our social issue , Socialist Center
Publications.
[6] Indicative of the controversy is that in 1917 elementary school was
taught in schools, in 1921 elementary school, in 1923 elementary school,
in 1926 elementary school, in 1927 elementary school together with
elementary school (due to the ecumenical government), in 1931 elementary
school , in 1933 the cleaner, and in 1939 the Cleaner together with the
Primary.
[7] See: Yannis Kartis (1974) The birth of neofascism in Greece ,
Papazisi Publications, pp. 135-144.
[8] Almost half of the children of the time were illiterate, since they
either did not go to school at all or dropped out in elementary school
[9] See: Spyros Linardatos (1986) From the Civil War to the Junta ,
Volume D, To Vima Publications, pp. 319-321.
[10] He made special reference to the flight of Sputnik (1957), the
first technical satellite in orbit around the Earth, but also to the
flight of Yuri Gagarin (April 12, 1961), the first man to travel in space.
[11] As Alexatos observes: "After the fall of the dictatorship, the
massiveness of the student movement can only be compared to the period
of the Eamian resistance. In the student elections, until the beginning
of the 80s, the total percentages of factions that have radical and
Marxist references reach 90%". (see: G.N. Alexatos (2008) Historical
Dictionary of the Greek Labor Movement , Neighbors of the World
Publications, p. 434)
[12] It was the first time after the post-colonialism that a passed law
was repealed, under the pressure of a particularly militant and mass
movement.
[13] As we have argued before, the form of the political process
determines, to a large extent, its content. Direct, horizontal, open and
democratic procedures, statutorily exclude perceptions that promote
class separation and inequalities. (see: Sotiris Lykourgiotis University
asylum, democracy and parliamentarianism , (19.1.2022) Alerta.gr)
[14] The recent article in Kathimerini (09.07) by the Deputy Prosecutor
of the Supreme Court (and brother of the current minister of justice)
Vassilis Floridis, which characterizes article 16, and specifically the
ban on the establishment of universities by private individuals (in
paragraphs 5 & 8) as a "shame of our democracy"! (see: Vassilis
Floridis, Article 16 of the Constitution: the shame of our democracy ,
Daily Newspaper 07.09.2023)
[15] For a more detailed description of the student movement of the
period, see: Student squats - Teachers' strike: A meeting that (didn't)
happen , Eternal Sit-ins publications, 2008
[16] After his stance shaped the position of the subsequent SYRIZA -
ANEL government
[17] Where a few years ago the current Deputy Minister of Citizen
Protection Konstantinos Katsafados prevailed as a thug mobster who in
2003, being a lifelong student of the University of Piraeus, president
of the DAP-NDFK and member of the senate, invaded, leading a group of
"thugs", in closed faculty meeting and emptied the contents of some fire
extinguishers on them to force the election of the professor of his
choice. (see:
[18] Nikolas Travlos (2020) Can and should the state maintain the
monopoly of higher education in the knowledge society? Comparative and
International Educational Review, issue #4
[19] https://www.healthpolicycenter.gr/el/publications/9
[20] The way is opened for the establishment of a non-state medical
school in Greece , First topic (25.08.2023)
https://anarchism.espivblogs.net/2024/03/21/eleytheria-i-agora-gia-to-eleythero-panepistimio-kai-tin-eleytheria/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten