A new solidarity between unions and third level is emerging, writes CAELAINN HOGANin Madrid
A NATIONWIDE education strike by students and teachers in public universities in Spain saw thousands take to the streets yesterday in the capital, Madrid.
“Education is not sold, defend it!” the strikers’ slogan demanded, objecting to what they see as the privatisation of education and other public services. Teachers, students and workers have joined in solidarity to oppose Sunday’s general election.
With harsh cuts to education resulting in large job losses in schools and universities, and over 40 per cent of Spain’s youth unemployed, students and teachers are demanding that public education be protected.
Spain already has one of the lowest percentages of gross domestic product dedicated to education among European states.
On Wednesday night, sleep-in encierro protests were held in public universities across Madrid, and a candlelit vigil was held at Puerta del Sol in honour of public education. Over 500 students held assemblies through the night in the different faculties of Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), discussing the future of education in Spain.
Augustine Moreno, a secondary school teacher in Madrid, expressed his solidarity with the students of UCM on behalf of all teachers fighting to defend public education. Over 5,000 secondary school teachers lost their jobs in Madrid alone at the beginning of 2011. “They will privatise everything they can,” says Moreno of the conservative Partido Popular (PP), which is likely to be in power after the November 20th elections. “They will support and enable the commercialisation of education.”
“The university strike is absolutely necessary; we are facing the biggest loss of jobs since the end of the Spanish civil war,” says Ermengol Gassiot Ballbè, a professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a member of the Plataforma Unitaria de Defensa de la Universidad Pública.
“In Catalonia, public universities faced budget cuts of 16 per cent this year, a loss of €144 million,”says Ballbè. He foresees the loss of over 3,000 jobs in Catalan universities by the end of the year and believes the 2012 budget will be even worse.
“The quality of classes is so low,” says Guillermo Sorio, a student at UAB supporting the strike. Having attended private schools and now in public university, he feels that the quality of education is not equal. “In private the teachers have time to pay attention to each,” he says, “but here you are just one more.”
Juventud Sin Future (Youth Without Future), a collective campaigning for the rights of all young people in Spain and instrumental in the beginning of the protest, is spearheading the movement in Madrid.
“We’re going to pay more and more,” says Odile, a student at UCM and spokesperson for Juventud Sin Futuro. “There will be nothing democratic about our education system – companies will decide everything.”
The Estrategia Universidad 2015, a government initiative to modernise Spanish universities, aims to reduce public spending, increase private investment and market-related research, and privatise management.
Tomalafacultad (take the faculty), an online campaign in support of the strike run by the university assemblies in Madrid, argues that this will create elitism within education and make opportunity dependent on a family’s income.
“The companies that will invest the money are not charities,” says Manuel (22), a UCM student who believes no good can come from the scheme. “It’s a business: they want money back, they want you to work for them for a low salary and fewer rights.”
These demonstrations, encouraging solidarity between students and workers, are a new form of mobilisation in Spain, organised without any influence from unions or political parties.
Many have accused the unions of inaction due to their alliance with the socialist party in government.
“We used to get free books, but now, nothing,” says Julia, who says she is protesting to protect the future of her five-year-old daughter’s education. “They want to stop public education and I don’t think we will be able to stop them. But we try.”
With young people in Spain facing a difficult future, many families already struggling to make ends meet now face the extra burden of paying for education if they want to ensure their children have at least the opportunity to succeed.