Our people say that «the wolf rejoices in the face of adversity». In this case the wolf seems to be the government. In the previous quarantine a few months ago it secretly prepared and passed the anti-education law and more. At the present stage, in the new incarceration, for which it bears sole responsibility and attempts to conceal its criminal responsibilities in the management of the pandemic, it is promoting similar measures.
Taking advantage of the action of well-known, provocative groups and the recent unacceptable and condemnable events at the Athens University of Economics and Business, it reproduces, on the one hand, the reactionary and unscientific theory of ’two extremes«, which brutally insults historical memory and, on the other hand, it announces measures that have been incubated for years, such as »university police’, access cards, closed-circuit surveillance and other such measures that have appeared in the past and have been opposed by the entire university community.
The university community is well aware that any mechanisms of repression in universities are not built to deal with the activity of such parastatal mechanisms, as was proven with the abolition of asylum, which was communicatively supported with similar arguments. The existence of police in universities does not protect the university community.
On the contrary, it tramples on the dignity of the scientific staff and students and aims to intimidate them. The target is the management of young people's knowledge and the use of universities for the benefit of small social groups and their interests. At stake are democratic rights and, above all, the possibility of organised and collective protest.
A close look at the New Democracy's programme for education reveals «autonomous» universities, «open» to business, abolition of equal education, reduction of departments, categorisation of degrees, institutions and graduates and, of course, business profits at the expense of students. All the noise, therefore, is an exercise in institutional preparation, aimed at the future suppression of the reactions that the government expects to trigger the measures it is preparing. Organised students, potential «rebellious subjects», are a stumbling block in the plans to overthrow public education.
In my earlier article («Ef.Συν.» 31/7/2019) on the abolition of asylum I wrote: «The permanent entry of the police will gradually be converted into a permanent establishment...». At the time it was considered by some to be exaggerated and by others populist. Today?;
So let's stop the impression games and the repression exercises. They will not pass again. The play has been played out a lot in the past and is being repeated as a tragedy in the difficult days our people are going through. It is time for the «student movement» to take responsibility, however. They should prove in practice to everyone that the first word for the democratic functioning of the universities is not the rectors, the prosecutors, the riot police, but the student movement itself, which will guard the space that is an element of academic functioning.
