The Resistance Movement Against the Privatization of Higher Education in Greece

In the wake of the triumphant university student movement that took place 17 years ago, in defense ofArticle 16 of the Greek Constitution - a provision which stipulates that higher education should be accessible at no cost and should be provided exclusively by public institutions - the right-wing conservative government of New Democracy has enacted a new law for the establishment of private universities by circumventing constitutional processes. The objective of this policy is to implement the neoliberal strategy of transferring public sectors to private capital, thereby rendering them profitable entities. This paper describes how the neoliberal policy has been trying to be implemented in Greek higher education during the last thirty years and that this policy is an implementation of precisely this neoliberal principle. This paper also expounds on the struggles against neoliberal policies in Greece and the pivotal role of the movement in defense of the public university, emphasizing its militant nature and providing an account and assessment of the strategies being employed in order to prepare for a resurgence.