Student-youth groups and working people in Greece have condemned the crackdown unleashed by riot police on the students of the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki on March 16. On Saturday, police raided the Faculty of Sciences of the university. They arrested 49 students, who had been protesting the conservative New Democracy (ND) government’s bid to allow foreign private universities to set up branches in the country.
Various groups including the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), Students’ Struggle Front (MAS), Greek Women’s Federation (OGE), teachers’ unions and parents’ associations have accused Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of retaliating against the mass student movement against his plans for foreign private universities, which students say will devalue public university degrees.
Students’ associations in universities and groups, including Panspoudastiki KS and Students’ Struggle Front (MAS), have been occupying universities across the country, demanding the government withdraw the bill introduced to allow the establishment of private universities.
Students have stated that the entry of private universities will lead to a two-tier system in higher education. They argue that private universities will be unaffordable and inaccessible for students from lower-income households, and will downgrade the merit and value of the degrees offered by public institutions.
Meanwhile, Mitsotakis has tried to justify the police crackdown on students by stating that the government doesn’t tolerate lawlessness in universities, and threatened the protesting students with more police actions and dismissals.
On March 17, the press office of the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) stated that “the Prime Minister, visibly pressured by the great student mobilizations, resorts to the well-known talk of lawlessness and blind violence in universities. But the real ‘lawlessness’ in universities has the signature of the government.”
“The government’s slander, as well as threats of disciplinary action and expulsions, do not scare students. They expose the very government that has been isolated. That is why it resorts to obscene propaganda to identify the organized student movement with criminal actions,” KNE added.
Earlier, the ND government faced widespread protests from the students and civil society over a controversial decision to place police garrisons inside campuses to increase surveillance.
Source: peoplesdispatch.org
