On September 10 thousands of Danish students took to the streets to demonstrate against the education policies of the conservative government, which is reducing the quality of education. The national secondary school students’ union (DGS), had called for a one-day strike against the cuts in secondary school education.
There were students’ protests in at least 115 of the secondary schools throughout Denmark, and demonstrations were held in Copenhagen, Aalborg, Odense, Aarhus, Vejle, Struer, Fyn, Esbjerg and Roskilde. In Copenhagen around 7000 turned up for the demo, in Aalborg 1500, in Odense 1000 and in Roskilde 400 turned up for the demo and around 1000 students were on strike. According to the DGS a great majority of the secondary schools in Denmark participated in the strike.
As a consequence of the bad state of the finances of the county councils, the secondary schools are being forced to cut millions from their budgets year after year. The worst case seen so far this year was in the county of Northern Jutland where they announced the closure of Fjerritslev, a secondary school, which would force the students in that area to travel for hours each day just to get to the nearest school. The protests paid off, and now they have pulled back fromthe decision to close the Fjerritslev secondary school and they have also withdrawn cuts in other schools.
In the other counties, the situation is not much better. “User fees” have been introduced in many places and the possibility of increasing the size of the classes has also been raised. One of the consequences of this has been that in many places a class may contain 31 students, but the classroom is only built for 24!
These cuts will first and foremost hit the sons and daughters of the working class. Many of them already have part time jobs outside of school just to make ends meet. It is especially the working class students that are hit when the cost of schooling is increased and when you have more and more students in class with only one teacher. The children of the rich can still afford transport to school, the cost of books, pocket calculators, dictionaries, educational trips and so on. It was against these and other problems that the Danish secondary school students went onto the streets to protest.
Refusal to continue the struggle
After the protests of September 10, a national meeting was held by the DGS to evaluate the strike and discuss the perspectives for the struggle. The meeting was held on September 23, and the big question was: “what should the next step be?” According to the leadership of the DGS the next step was to focus on regional and local activities rather than extending the struggle. But this is actually the exact strategy of the government: to split the students instead of uniting them on a national scale.
Delegates from Tønder, Hobro and Roskilde came out with a different proposal: to mobilize for another national students’ strike, with an appeal to the trade unions to take action and join the fight to defend the welfare system. This proposal was unfortunately massively defeated, because some of the delegates from other schools were saying that the students were tired and unwilling to go on strike again. These people were to be surprised by the events that unfolded in Copenhagen over the next days.
The politicians in some parts of the country simply ignored the students’ protests. In the county of Copenhagen (the suburbs) they decided to raise the size of the classes to 29 and to introduce fees of 160 Danish Kroners. This was a direct attack against the students, since they had been struggling over the previous years for a maximum level of 28 students per class. The decision to apply these cuts was taken at a meeting on Wednesday, September 24.
The students’ response
The students responded quickly to these proposals. In the early hours of Thursday, September 25, the news spread among the Copenhagen students. Spontaneously they occupied their schools, set up barricades and went on strike. This militant mood spread among the students, and quickly more and more schools joined the strike. On the Friday most of the schools in the county were on strike and in some cases the teachers actively participated and gave their full support to the students.
At a meeting over the weekend representatives from all the schools in the Copenhagen area decided to continue the strike. So on Monday the movement continued with even greater strength. Also schools in other nearby areas decided to join and two schools in Roskilde expressed their solidarity. They went on strike from the Monday to the Thursday and took part in all the activities. Hundreds of enthusiastic students got involved in the activities and learnt more in a few days than they normally learn in months.
On Wednesday October 1, a big demonstration was held in Copenhagen. Around 7000 students gathered from all the schools to show their anger towards the cuts. The ordinary school-students clearly understood what the strike was about and the demands seemed very just to everyone.
After the demo, a meeting was held to discuss the perspectives of the struggle. The meeting reflected the radical mood among the students and everyone wanted to continue the struggle. But the problem was that the leadership didn’t present a real alternative and a way forward. The only ones to put forward a perspective were some representatives from the schools in Roskilde. They stated that the only way forward was to unite with the trade union movement, with the public sector workers, to launch a joint struggle to defend the welfare system. They explained that the DGS should campaign to involve the workers’ movement in the struggle. But the leadership ignored this and instead they proposed another demonstration.
So it was decided to call a demonstration again on October 7, the day of the re-opening of the Danish parliament. This demo consisted not only of students from the secondary schools, but from all kind of schools and universities. This was a very good initiative. It brought together students from primary schools, secondary school, university, etc., and the turnout was really amazing, with about 10,000 students protesting together – and this in a country of only 5 million inhabitants. It truly demonstrated the strength of a united students’ movement.
These massive students’ protests have already resulted in some concessions being made. The politicians have been forced to drop the cuts in two counties, in Northern Jutland and in Western Seeland. But also in the borough of the Copenhagen city centre, they have pulled back the cuts. This is a proof that the politicians have been forced to take these protests seriously. The main problem, however, is that the cuts will be repeated with double the dose next year. Although the politicians promised not to raise the size of the classes four years ago, the fact is that that is exactly what they’ve been doing for the past four years. This shows that the cuts are a direct consequence of the crisis in the world economy. It shows us one important thing: that the future of the education system is bound to the future of capitalism. If capitalism continues to be in deep crisis, the future of the free public education system doesn’t look too bright.
There is a radical mood among the students, but at the same time many are beginning to question the methods of struggle. If the struggle doesn’t develop on a higher level, and if the leadership remains incapable of showing a way forward, it is inevitable that a lull in the movement will take place. But this can only be temporary. The education system in Denmark is in a very bad shape and has been neglected for several years and various cuts have been carried out. The students see this every day in their lives and there is a mood of anger towards the present conservative government. And even though some of the secondary school students are tired after months and years of intense struggle and mobilizations, other students’ struggles will inevitably emerge in the future. The primary school students’ union has already warned the government that they won’t accept any more cuts and at the same time the apprentices have declared the same. The future will without doubt bring even bigger movements of the student’ and this will, in one way or another, effect the working class.
Enemies and allies
This struggle has also raised a very important question in the students’ movement. In the past period the leaders of the students’ movement have claimed to be “neutral”, “apolitical” and they have stated that only education policies have been allowed to be discussed and mobilised for. The struggle against the reactionary education measures of the bourgeois government was, according to them, only a fight against the specific policies and not against the government itself. However, what this struggle has shown everyone is that the struggle against cuts cannot be “neutral”. The ordinary students raised their own slogans during these protests, and almost all of them were directed against the government and many of them were even demanding the resignation of the government.
Another important thing is that the three workers’ parties (the Social Democracy, the SF and the Unity list) were forced to promise the students a maximum class size of 28. It was also the case that the workers’ parties’ youth organizations supported the protests. This revealed that the only ones who were committed to helping the students’ in their struggle were the workers’ organizations. But the problem was that these organisations had double standards. Because although they promised to put a maximum level on class sizes, and even though they supported the students’ struggle in public, they have been doing exactly the opposite thing over the past years.
In the local county councils, these three parties have been carrying out cuts in education for the past few years and they have even been involved in such deals this year. This shows that the students’ movement must support the workers’ parties, form an alliance with them, but at the same time they must fight for a change in the policies of these parties. They must struggle to transform the workers’ parties, starting with their youth organizations. If the students entered these parties, and together with ordinary workers, fought for a return to real left policies, this would be the beginning of a real left opposition in the country.
This struggle has clearly demonstrated to everyone who are the enemies and who the allies. The task is now to move on from these conclusions that have been drawn and take concrete action. It is necessary to build a broad coalition of allies on a clear programme in order to beat our enemies.
Only the beginning
September 2003 was a month struggle on the part of the Danish students. But this is only the beginning. A process is unfolding in Denmark, a process of radicalisation of layers that are beginning to question the fundamental way society is run. This process was also reflected in the huge anti-war demonstrations of last spring and in the more left positions which have been developing among some activists in the Social Democratic Youth.The students will draw the necessary conclusions and learn the lessons of these struggles. In doing so they will test all political tendencies and search for a real alternative. Through their own experience they will come to understand the need for unity with the workers to fight for a totally different system.
Capitalism is in a state of crisis on a world scale. The only way forward is to put an end to this system in decay and build the way for a new world order, where the resources of the planet are rationally planned and equally distributed among working people and students. In such a society we will be able to educate everyone and put an end to this negative social heritage.