School-Class-Struggle
I have now officially finished school. Yesterday was my last day so now I am officially accepted to do the finishing exams for which I have 36 chances all in all, and if I don't pass in 36 times I don't deserve it.
Shortly before we finished though the heated debate about the teachers having to work 2 hours more a week without any compensation went into its last round. Now it seems that they have come up with a phony compromise that doesn't achieve either what the government wanted or what the teacher's unions wanted, another brilliant example of how we're tricked into thinking we have achieved something when what was really done amounts to zilch.
In any case, the point was that last week, for the first time in my life the student representatives thought that they would go at organizing something democratically and called a meeting of the entire upper forms of our school. Meaning that there were a few hundred people sitting on the basketball field in school hoping to come to some conclusion. Unfortunately the head of our school representatives is best described as being spine-less and arrogant.
Sitting on a stage he explained to a large group of intelligent young people what his party told him to say whilst being very careful to stay completely ambiguous so that nobody can blame him for anything later. But the real fun started when the microphone was open for everyone to speak.
It all began by a college of mine explaining the economics of the situation to a room full of people that didn't really want to know about that aspect and our representative speaking in response but not replying. Then a discussion started about who is to blame. The first speaker saying "without a doubt the People's Party!", our wonderful representative (who is supported by the People's Party's student movement) denying that. The second speaker blaming the Socialist Democrats. Then I got so annoyed with the situation that I got up and took the microphone.
I completely understand why it is important to sit and talk about any action to be taken, however this was not the time to talk. Before was the time to talk, now was the time to act. The response either showed our representative's spine-less-ness extremely well, or he did not understand what I was getting at. He seriously responded by saying that there would be another meeting. Wow. More talk. Everywhere else in Austria students went on strike last Friday to protest government educational policy, our representative did not want to rattle his cage so he did not rally anyone, which would have resulted in maybe even our entire school going on strike which would have been over a thousand people more. Instead we signed a statement saying we don't agree with the government.
What people have failed to realize here is that now the government has seen that essentially they can pull something like this off, which means that now slowly but surely everyone will be targeted to work more and earn less, because the economic situation is so difficult and we have to make sure that those who caused the crisis don't have to deal with the consequences. Blatantly ignoring all the facts surrounding this world economic crisis while trying to patch up the system, which amounts more to putting a band-aid on cancer. This wasn't just an attack on the teachers, this situation just begun. Now this was an attack on the teachers and the students but tomorrow it will be on steel workers or on printers. This was the beginning of an attack on the entire working-class of Austria. So no, just because the teacher's union and government officials have come up with a phony compromise this situation is not over, far from it.
What people also have failed to realize is that we have more power than we think. Who is to say that if the ministry of education gets rid of 6 of our free days we go to school? We are not powerless we are only made to believe it.
People in my class say they don't care because they're finished now, another stunning example of Austrian solidarity. People don't care as long as they are not effected because they completely fail to see the big picture. Just because it was only the teachers and students now doesn't mean anything about what will happen next. So essentially everyone should be taken part in trying to stop the madness that was going on last week instead of saying "I don't care. I'm not a student."
Unfortunately I just know that this was the end of the involvement of students in the resistance to this crisis. Because time doesn't flow, if it doesn't effect students it doesn't matter to us because by the time we will have to deal with real life the situation will be different. Yes, because they have decided on everything while we were lying on the couch basking is life's splendours.
Shortly before we finished though the heated debate about the teachers having to work 2 hours more a week without any compensation went into its last round. Now it seems that they have come up with a phony compromise that doesn't achieve either what the government wanted or what the teacher's unions wanted, another brilliant example of how we're tricked into thinking we have achieved something when what was really done amounts to zilch.
In any case, the point was that last week, for the first time in my life the student representatives thought that they would go at organizing something democratically and called a meeting of the entire upper forms of our school. Meaning that there were a few hundred people sitting on the basketball field in school hoping to come to some conclusion. Unfortunately the head of our school representatives is best described as being spine-less and arrogant.
Sitting on a stage he explained to a large group of intelligent young people what his party told him to say whilst being very careful to stay completely ambiguous so that nobody can blame him for anything later. But the real fun started when the microphone was open for everyone to speak.
It all began by a college of mine explaining the economics of the situation to a room full of people that didn't really want to know about that aspect and our representative speaking in response but not replying. Then a discussion started about who is to blame. The first speaker saying "without a doubt the People's Party!", our wonderful representative (who is supported by the People's Party's student movement) denying that. The second speaker blaming the Socialist Democrats. Then I got so annoyed with the situation that I got up and took the microphone.
I completely understand why it is important to sit and talk about any action to be taken, however this was not the time to talk. Before was the time to talk, now was the time to act. The response either showed our representative's spine-less-ness extremely well, or he did not understand what I was getting at. He seriously responded by saying that there would be another meeting. Wow. More talk. Everywhere else in Austria students went on strike last Friday to protest government educational policy, our representative did not want to rattle his cage so he did not rally anyone, which would have resulted in maybe even our entire school going on strike which would have been over a thousand people more. Instead we signed a statement saying we don't agree with the government.
What people have failed to realize here is that now the government has seen that essentially they can pull something like this off, which means that now slowly but surely everyone will be targeted to work more and earn less, because the economic situation is so difficult and we have to make sure that those who caused the crisis don't have to deal with the consequences. Blatantly ignoring all the facts surrounding this world economic crisis while trying to patch up the system, which amounts more to putting a band-aid on cancer. This wasn't just an attack on the teachers, this situation just begun. Now this was an attack on the teachers and the students but tomorrow it will be on steel workers or on printers. This was the beginning of an attack on the entire working-class of Austria. So no, just because the teacher's union and government officials have come up with a phony compromise this situation is not over, far from it.
What people also have failed to realize is that we have more power than we think. Who is to say that if the ministry of education gets rid of 6 of our free days we go to school? We are not powerless we are only made to believe it.
People in my class say they don't care because they're finished now, another stunning example of Austrian solidarity. People don't care as long as they are not effected because they completely fail to see the big picture. Just because it was only the teachers and students now doesn't mean anything about what will happen next. So essentially everyone should be taken part in trying to stop the madness that was going on last week instead of saying "I don't care. I'm not a student."
Unfortunately I just know that this was the end of the involvement of students in the resistance to this crisis. Because time doesn't flow, if it doesn't effect students it doesn't matter to us because by the time we will have to deal with real life the situation will be different. Yes, because they have decided on everything while we were lying on the couch basking is life's splendours.
posted by Selbstlaut at Thursday, April 30, 2009
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