1986 marks rebirth of Int'l student movement DEVAQUET BONJOUR LES DECATS!!!

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French high school on the march in Paris to protest cutbacks The close of 1986 and early 1987 saw an exciting surge of activity on university and high-school campuses all around the world.

In France, demonstrations of 1 million nationally were accompanied by student strikes and occupations. Inspired by the example of the French students and their subsequent victory, similar activities took place in Spain, Mexico, and Greece. Chinese students also made headlines as they took to the streets.

The recent student mobilizations in Europe and Mexico all have a common denominator—protest against economic measures imposed by austerity-driven capitalist governments. These measures translate into plans for more restrictive admissions policies, privatization of public universities, adapting curriculum to the needs of private industry, and ever-increasing tuitions and registration fees.

In China, student protests focused on demands for political democratization— although slogans against inflation were included.

In most of these cases, the students forced the governments to retreat.

Cutbacks in education

The cutbacks in education take place against the backdrop of escalating youth unemployment. In France, 11.5 percent of the youth are unemployed. This accounts for over one-third of the 2.5 million people unemployed. In Spain youth unemploy -ment has reached 50 percent.

For Greek students the adaptation of high-school curriculum to the needs of private industry was a major issue. In the Greek technical schools subiects deemed unnecessary for technical students were dropped. These included Euclidian geometry and other courses aimed at enhancing students' critical thinking and culture.

The Greek government also made it harder for students from the polytechnical high schools to qualify for university education. The Greek students responded with demands to end this discrimination. They occupied the polytechnical schools and then the general high schools in Athens. This was followed in mid-December 1986 by the biggest student rally since the fall of the Greek dictatorship in 1974. Some 115 schools participated.

Universities for the elite Another connected issue recognized by interests led to unprecedented unity in struggle. In France and Spain high-school students participated massively in the demonstrations of the university students. The previously quoted French student described the involvement of the high-school protesters:

"The movement in the lycees [high schools] grew incredibly quickly. At the beginning [university] students sponta -neously went to the lycee gates to explain what is contained in the law because it concerns the lycees directly....

"It was noticeable that in the lycees the dynamic of the movement was much more workers, and only after that those of the bourgeoisie."

In a statement by the University Student Council on Strike dated Jan. 29, 1987, the Mexican students outlined their demands:

"We are on strike for a University Congress with the power of resolution and attended democratically by students, professors, researchers, workers, and authorities. We are on strike for a larger budget and for the right to education for the Mexican, people. ,81 Student internationalism The Chinese student mobilizations began in early December 1986. The biggest demonstrations took place in Shanghai, reaching between 50,000 and 70,000 participants on Dec. 21, 1986.

Students from the Shenzhen Province claim to have been inspired by the French student movement they had witnessed on television.

Mexican students also demonstrated an internationalist outlook when they proposed a minute's silence for Malik Oussekine, a student killed by racist police in Paris, and when they chanted, "If the law has been repealed in France, why not in Mexico?"

The Chinese students had originally demanded a reduction of registration charges and the democratic election of student representatives and university authorities. These demands were rapidly broadened to the democratic election of municipal and provincial councils, the abolition of censorship, freedom of the press, freedom to associate and to demonstrate, and the release of political prisoners.

Students in Peking were victorious in obtaining the release of imprisoned protesters. In Shenzhen, students won a reduction of registration fees.

According to a Feb. 9, 1987, International Viewpoint article by Ernest Mandel, a leading Belgian Marxist theoretician, the "spirit of the demonstrations was distinctly socialist, egalitarian, and anti-capitalist. In several demonstrations the students sang the Inter -nationale [the anthem of the Communist movement] and chanted the slogan 'No Socialism Without Democracy."

Democratic movement

Democracy marked the organization of the student upsurge as well. Most used a form of general assembly as their highest decision-making body. In the French movement, delegates to committees were subject to instant recall and were mandated SOCIALIS to vote according to the decisions of the campus general assemblies.

Spanish students demanded the resig -nation of student representatives to the State Scholastic Council on the charge they did not truly represent students.

These student uprisings did not arise out of nowhere. Many of the students in France had gained experience from the S.O.S. Racisme (anti-racist) movement. Spanish students have been actively organizing against Spain's membership in the NATO alliance. The activities of late 1986 and early 1987 have provided further training for this new generation of militants.

Although the student movement won important victories, the crisis in world capitalism which spawned the austerity measures has not been resolved and is, in fact, worsening.

These student struggles mark the first blow against capitalist austerity measures. They show the way forward for a broader fightback by the working class and the youth against all aspects of the capitalist austerity drive.

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ACTION MAY 1987 5

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