12/01/2024
STATEMENT OF THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE CC OF KNE:Mass and militant mobilization of students against the establishment of private universities
Statements
On 11/1/24 university and school students, university workers, teachers and other trade unions sent a loud message against the bill providing for the establishment of private universities, bypassing the Article 16 of the Constitution. In Athens, the mass demonstration was followed by a massive and militant march to the Parliament with the central streets vibrating with slogans.
Statement of the Press Office of the CC of KNE
In a statement on the mass mobilizations against the government plans, the Press Office of the CC of KNE stressed the following:
“We will not allow this injustice to become law! Exclusively public and truly free education is a right! This is the message that thousands of university and school students all over the country sent today with their mass rallies, giving a first, massive response to the anti-education bills that the government is preparing to bring in the next few days in Parliament.
Against the silence that the government is trying to impose, hundreds of university students’ unions and dozens of coordinating committees of school students, made it clear that the unjust bills for the establishment of private universities, triple national exams in high school, the devaluation of degrees and further commercialization of education will fail!
The just struggle of university and school students is more necessary than ever, particularly in the face of this reactionary law of the government, which faithfully follows the EU policy and the work of all previous governments and is added to the unbearable cost of education, the constant degradation of education and the notion of “you will study only if you can afford it”.
The thousands who mobilized today are the voice of the vast majority of young people who want modern, exclusively public and truly free schools and universities, with adequate state funding, with degrees that matter and safeguard work with rights.
If anything has been proven over the years, is that those who persistently struggle eventually win! We have experienced it before, we have proven it many times. Today’s mobilizations were just the beginning...”.
DIMITRIS KOUTSOUMBAS: The government should not even dare to bring the bill to Parliament
The GS of the CC of the KKE, D. Koutsoumbas, made the following statement on the rallies against private universities:
“The thousands of students, academics, university workers, school students, parents and teachers who are demonstrating today against the plans to establish private universities are right, because they demand degrees that matter and not degrees that can be sold and bought like commodities.
The message to the government is clear: Do not even dare to bring this unjust bill to Parliament – a bill that depends access to universities on the pocket of each family and further degrades the degrees of public universities.”
