ATTACK ON PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN THE CENTRE
It is a fact that any education must be available and accessible to every subject who seeks it. Successive attempts, for at least 30 years, to change its character have tended to overturn the obvious. Privatisation in every aspect of our lives (health, electricity, public spaces) cannot overtake the institution of education. We have no illusions about the excellence of education provided by the state (inadequate infrastructure, hierarchy within the structure, discipline, development of national consciousness, etc.), but the establishment of private universities takes it a step further.Private universities (called non-state universities in this case, so that there is the possibility of state subsidies to share the pie with the cronies of the powerful) make exclusion on the basis of economic criteria even more pronounced. Of course, the facade of free and public education does not fool us (the need for tutorials, especially after the introduction of the Single Entrance Qualification (SQF), some paid courses at universities, paid postgraduate degrees, etc.). At the same time, however, bearing in mind that attending a private university requires you to pass the EBE (so there is still the cost of tutorials, and there is talk of paying for textbooks), the exorbitant tuition fees are added, which it is obvious that only the financial elite can cover. Although free education was formally established by the state, we see it being brought back into question, while its degradation continues. The pursuit of free education does not imply the unity of an imaginary student subject. Within this patchwork are the future slaves with their masters, roles based on their already existing or non-existing privileges. The fairy tale of socio-economic advancement through universities is no longer more than that. A fairy tale. The main aim now is to produce slaves, individuals alienated from the commons and whose only existence is work, based on the needs of the market. And who better to provide docile workers than a private university, with a completely targeted curriculum and a complete prevention of any radicalized thinking. Their sterile nature does not allow for any kind of political engagement, which is what they seek to do to democracies in an attempt to bring them up to more “European” and downwardly mobile American standards. Playing on American economic standards, the banks, first and best, have rushed to make extra profit by advertising student loans, trying to steal a little more from the lives of those below who cannot afford to support such high tuition fees. By critiquing and questioning how state-provided education exists, we stand against further impositions of the state and capital on our existence. We know that any change is made in the interests of the few, the bourgeois and the businessmen, against our own needs and desires.
On the basis of this recognition, we recognise the constitution in the same way. From an anarchist view of the facts, the constitution and laws in general are objects instituted by a special caste of professionals in power, whose aim is to perpetuate the political, economic and ideological supremacy of those above and the imposition and oppression that this aim entails on a large part of society.The constitution is something that is drafted by a select few for themselves and creates an illusion of freedom and security in the modern world for everyone else. Here a need of capital (private universities) is recognized and the state is quick to set aside any institutional resistance by finding legal terminology and finally passes the bill making manifest its long-standing desire for a new revision of the constitution which it has been struggling to initiate for years to keep up with the modern demands of capital. This is why our position is not confined to the role of guardian of the constitution, but attacks the foundations of this charter of democracies and beyond.
On the previous strand, the role of the guardian of the constitution was assumed by the domestic left. They are using it as an arrow in their propaganda, when their quiver was empty. Besides, it is well known that the student left is waging an institutional struggle, such as through general assembly resolutions led by their trade union structures and making backstage deals between the factions, the factions try to patronise any struggle that springs up within the universities. A typical example is the “mass” general assemblies that took decisions on weekly occupations, in which only the factions with their own hours and locks participated. The complete de-nationalization of the means of struggle of the occupations, since classes and examinations were held without obstruction in almost all departments, not only undermined the tool of struggle of the occupation, but also left a legacy of disuse of this means.The fetishization of ’06-’07 and the struggles they preached in the 3rd line of each of their texts, makes them appear as archetypes and not as pioneers, as they want to show. This stems from their basic modus operandi, which only aims at extracting political surplus value for the benefit of their organisations.
Putting our stone in the struggle against private universities we chose, on Thursday 4 April 2024, to intervene with our heavyweights in the business-schools Mediterranean College on Patision and Codringtonos and in IEK Akmi on Codringtonos. The facades of both were smashed, while in the latter we entered the interior and smashed computers and monitors. With only our heavy tools and our willingness to act we caused a blow to two of the most famous schools in the centre of Athens.
We salute the comrades who attacked Le Monde, as well as any aggressive action that will follow.
We have arms, we have hammers, and the schools will be reduced to ashes.
Anarchists
Source: athens.indymedia