schools, plans to force teachers to stay at school for 10 hours a day without overtime pay and a reduction of state support for education with the shortfall made up from the private sector. Sounds familiar? It's the same marketisation as here in Britain -and the teachers' action could stem the tide.
Secondary school teachers came out in solidarity on weekly strikes lasting 2 or 3 days.
The two union federations ADEDY and GSEE also called stoppages and strikes and massive rallies and demonstrations have often been treated brutally by the police.. mounted a series of occupations in solidarity with their teachers.
In short, the possibility the government tears is apparent. A united tront of students. teachers at schools and lecturers at universities would destroy the reactionary plans of the rightists.
Greece has a history of bitter struggles by the workers in the education sector against reactionary reforms. In 1997 pitched street battles took place as teachers fought to retain the list' which allowed those graduating trom particular universities a guaranteed job in schools (though there was often a long wait).
Their struggle was isolated and the PASOK government of the time was able to force the reform through. 1997 was the last significant pay-rise for teachers as a direct result of their struggles.
In the local elections which took place in October, the government escaped punishSelected writings by Celia Hart
Edited by Walter
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2UU ment -winning 30 prefectures to the 22 of PASOK.
After a meeting with the Prime Minister, Kostas Karamanlis on October 24, the union decided to call off the continuous strike despite minimal gains. There were no concessions on the central question of the pay-rise.
The primary school teachers called a one-day strike on November 3, which took place with a large rally along with the public sector workers who came out on a half-day strike in solidarity. A further
for November 9.
So the struggle goes on. As the situation normalizes in the primary schools, over a thousand secondary schools remain occupied by the students demanding the government withdraw their measure est sole minimum grade for universities.
The number of occupations at universities are increasing in opposition to the new bill on university caucanon.
The occupations are supported by the university organizations of PASOK, the Communist Party of Greece and EAAK, a far-left group which led the occupations before the summer and originated from a split in the KKE when the KKE went into government with the Right in 1989.
This is a crucial struggle that will set the tone across Europe for the pace of education reform and could ignite the working class across Greece.
Let us hope that the teachers' slogan "Nothing will stop us. We'll be out til Christmas" comes true for the whole of the education sector!! Celia Hart never oo late ove rebel
[PITZOZ (ЕПІТАФIО2) Ciaran Flynn spoke to primary school teacher Dimitris Papoutsis from Athens about his involvement in the sixweek strike by his union, just after the strike came to an end. SR: Why did the teachers' strike start?
DP: This strike was announced at the end of the previous school year with the following basic demands: funding for education to be 5% of GNP; education to remain free and public; ongoing training for teachers and the improvement of teachers pay SR: What political forces within the union supported the strike and which ones undermined it?
DP: Left-wing forces supported the strike, mainly the far left. But the support from the centre-left PASOK was also significant. In addition, the rightwing union organization linked to New Democracy participated positively at least in the initial phase of the strike. SR: How did the strike end?
DP: Participation levels were