The ministry of Education, with the support of the main political parties 
and the media, introduced and passed unawares in the middle of the summer a 
bill that sweeps the rights of pupils, students and teachers, ignoring the 
thousands of unappointed teachers demonstrating outside the parliament. 

The reform introduced by this new law is in complete accordance to the 
"White Book for Education and Employment" of the European Union and has 
already been put into practice in many european countries, causing serious 
unrest. Its real purpose is the creation of the new model of cheap, 
obedient and "flexible" employee. The rhetoric about modernisation and 
adjustment of education to market needs means one thing: an education 
system which serves the demands and needs of the state and the capital, and 
not those of the students. The "employable" youth must be stripped of all 
rights and learn early to compete against their co-workers and submit to 
employers. 

The new law introduces: 

A. ABOLITION OF THE YEARBOOK.. Up to now, graduated teachers were added 
to a list according to which they would be appointed in public schools. This 
was the only system that ensured fairness in a corrupt state mechanism and 
gave a prospect for employment to the thousands which graduated from 
teaching schools. According to the new law a graduate has to get a 
"certificate of educational training" (i.e. one more year of studies and 
exams) and a six month practising period before he /she has the right to 
participate in  the exams of the ministry of Education for appointment to public schools. The purposes of the above is obvious: intensification of studies, since all these are supplemented by new strict university regulations (obligatory attendance, university police, penalization of occupations, prohibition of student assemblies in lesson 
hours) and reduction of the number of graduates. In a moment when public 
schools are extremely sort of teachers (in Greece there is one teacher for 
25 to 35 students), the state chooses to decrease their number and find 
cheaper ways to face the needs of schools (teachers on temporary contract). 

B. ABOLITION OF UNIVERSITY DEGREES. The degree will no more be useful in 
finding a job. From now on, one will have to attend Optional Studies 
Programs and collect credits from all sorts of courses, in and out of 
university. Everyone will include these in his personal qualifications file 
and negotiate with his employer individually. Since there won't be 
tantamount degrees anymore, there can't be collective negotiations. Bosses 
have a good reason to be happy. 

C. LIFE-TIME  TRAINING. This means that everyone will have to constantly 
collect credits and that the employer will have the right to fire one and 
tell him/her to get trained again on his own expenses and then come back 
begging for a job again. 

D. TOTAL SUBMISSION OF UNIVERSITIES TO BUSINESS DEMANDS. A new institution, 
the National Board of Education, consisting of university teachers, state 
officials and business representatives will distribute subsidies to universities according to their usefulness to business. What will become of humanistic studies? 

E. ABOLITION OF FREE STUDIES. There will be tuition fees for the Optional 
Studies Programs. The minister of Education has stated that in 3-4 years from now all students will be paying for their books. There will be a limit as to when one will complete his studies. 

This law is not only about universities. The final exams in high schools 
will be abolished but replaced by turning schools into a place of 
continuous examinations on all lessons, where every result counts and 
there's no second chance. The highly advertised "free" access to 
universities means a continuous series of strenuous examinations that will 
only lead to studies of no use in employment. 

Teachers' s obedience is necessary for the application of these changes. 
The headmasters, the school advisors and the newly introduced "evaluators" 
("referees") will judge on the performance of teachers. The obvious goal of 
this is to get rid of "troublesome" teachers, but there is a second one, 
too: abolish teachers' permanency as civil servants. Anyway, this is the 
dream of all employers: abolition of permanency and workers' rights. 
 
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George Balafas' troubles began in 1985, when his friend and relative 
Christos Tsoutsouvis was killed by the police in an armed confrontation 
where three cops were also killed. The police, having as evidence a 
fingerprint found on a box of biscuits in Tsoutsouvis' house (!), accused 
Balafas of having participated in the incident. Balafas went hiding fearing 
for his life. The authorities later accused him of participating in the 
killing of prosecutor Theofanopoulos and in a super market robbery, in 
which two guards were shot dead. Since Balafas was a fugitive and couldn't 
defend himself, it was convenient for them to accuse him of various 
unsolved acts, making him the "No 1 wanted terrorist". 

Balafas was finally arrested in November 1992, while visiting a friend. His 
companion Vaso Mihou was also arrested. The police tried unsuccessfully to 
link him to "17 November", the oldest armed group in Greece, responsible 
for many killings and spectacular actions, like attacks using ordnance. This 
attempt was very unconvincing, so they used the old good methods, i.e. they 
"found" six kilos of hashish and weapons inside his hideout. 

The trial started on February 1994. Five months later, Balafas was 
acquitted of twenty charges. The authorities couldn't accept their defeat 
and tried to prolong his arrest on technicalities. Balafas went on a two 
month hunger strike, during which the public widely supported him. He was 
finally released in September 1994. 

His troubles weren't over, though. The U.S. State Department criticised the 
greek government for letting him go in its annual report on "terrorism". 
High ranking judiciary officials and members of "New Democracy" right wing 
party got seriously involved in having him jailed again. The result was his 
conviction to ten years imprisonment for supposedly hiding guns and 
explosives in an apartment he had rented. He appealed to his conviction. 
His appeal went to court in May 1997. During the proceedings, it became 
obvious that there was no real evidence against him and he would be 
acquitted. So, the prosecutor, in order to prevent this, suggested the 
postponement of the trial, so that this case would go to court together 
with the second degree trials on the murder and armed robbery, of which 
Balafas had been acquitted, but the prosecutor had appealed to the decision. 

This trial began on 22 October. Balafas' irrelevance to the acts he was 
supposedly involved in was proven again, despite police and prosecution 
efforts and dirty tricks. Finally, on 1 December, the court found him not 
guilty of all charges. After twelve years of persecution and four years in 
jail, he was set free. There is still one trial to go, though. That for 
possession of drugs, which the police "found" in the house he had been 
hiding. Balafas himself, said that he's worried about the possibility of a 
new U.S. State Department intervention in his case. 
 
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The main "vehicle" for this evolution of Greece's role in the Balkan and 
European terrain is N.A.T.O.  In 1994 the Greek Defense Minister signed for 
the establishment and installation of the N.A.T.O. Headquarters in central 
Greece, and for some "rapid development unit" in Thessaloniki, on the 
north.  In fact, the Headquarters are not something new or something going 
to be first-established, since behind the (Greek) Command of the major 
military bases and units in this area one can find U.S. intervention, 
N.A.T.O. obligations of Greece and also installations already exist: the 
main issue, here, is the advanced role of these installations (and, in 
general, of the Greek Armed Forces), their extensive range of action and 
the new high-tech and highly operated divisions that are going to be build! 
 These new N.A.T.O. 
Headquarters are known by the code name "C.A.R.S.". 

The building of the new part of these N.A.T.O. Headquarters are already 
started in the greater area of Larisa city, central Greece. Similar 
interferences are happening in the greater area of central Greece.  High 
technology devices and machinery are being installed inside the new 
buildings and camps.  These interferences also transform the urban planning 
and impose the tenants a new way to live their lives, totaly strange to the 
local ethics.  They even affect what farmers produce, in a local and 
nation-wide range! For the promotion and watch of the installation works 
many officials still visit the area,  mainly N.A.T.O. ones.  And after the 
installation is complete, and troops and personnel are located, many 
foreign military people will be here, all of them from countries pertaining 
to N.A.T.O. High ranked officials (N.A.T.O.'s or not, military or 
politicians) will be a common attraction in the country.  So, an advanced 
police force will be necessary.  Significant progress towards this need is 
already done! 

The Meeting of the Prime Ministers of N.A.T.O.'s country-members in early 
December 1997 and its conclusions concerning N.A.T.O.'s New Structure not 
at all affect the decision for establishing and operating the Headquarters 
in central Greece! On the contrary, the Meeting progressed even more the 
role of the HQs by subsuming it under and co-ordinating it with the overall 
role of N.A.T.O., in Mediterranean and South Europe. 

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The government works its way to the european unification by attacking the 
poorest part of the population. Following strictly the instructions imposed 
by international power centres it has targeted critical parts of society 
(like work and education) and is leading one third of the population to 
impoverishment (according to reliable studies, this percentage of greeks 
will be living under poverty level within the next two years). Changes in 
employment conditions,  enactment of employment without social security, 
rise of unemployment, significant reduction of real income are just some 
parts of the dreary financial reality. 

One of governments' primary targets was to obtain social consent to its 
antisocial plans. The instrument used to achieve this ambitious goal was 
the "social debate". Government's financial staff, industry representatives 
and trade union leadership started negotiations from zero point. The 
schedule of the talks included renegotiation of fundamental working 
people's rights, which served to protect them (at least, minimally)  from 
employers' greed. 

The first issues in the discussions were the abolition of 8 working hours 
per day (without the enactment of 35 hour week or 7 hour day five times a 
week - in fact, each company claims the right to arrange working hours 
schedule according to its interests), the extension of part time 
employment, reduction of salaries for some categories of employees and tax 
exemptions for employers. 

In autumn, while the "social debate" was on its way, a report written by a 
well known financial advisor of the government was published. This report 
suggested measures such as change of retirement age from 60 to 65 years, 
reduction of pensions, abolition of some categories of pensions and 
introduction of private security. A few days later, the european committee 
for financial policy published a report on the same subject, with very 
similar content and in accordance with greek government's proposals on the 
issue. 

At that moment, the government obtained the consent of trade union 
bureaucracy to its industrial policy while the parliament approved of the 
budget for 1998, the strictest one since the fall of the greek junta 
(1974). The proposals concerning the rise of productivity, the 
competitiveness of greek industry and part time employment are now 
materialising. 

In December, social security was the subject of the "social debate". The 
ministry of Labour proposed that 80% of the last salary of an employee be 
the maximum pension he can get, with the intention of fixing the main 
pension (i.e. without additional bonuses) at 60% of one's salary. In fact, 
pensions are rarely higher than 80% of wages and decrease every year, since 
rises to salaries are always higher. 

A recent report by the ministry of Finance displays clearly the 
inequalities caused by the growth of greek economy. According to it, the 
profits of greek enterprises have increased from 35 billion drs (1$ = about 
280 drs) in 1991 to 385 billions in 1996, while the real income of working 
people was reduced by 10%. The profitability of industrial investment 
tripled over the same period. The stock market average rose by 55% last year. 

Another report by the General Confederation of Trade Unions pointed out 
that real wages in1996 were reduced to 1983 levels. The ministry of Health 
has estimated 280.000 drs a month as the poverty level for a family, but 
76% of wage earners get less than 250.000 drs. At the same period there was 
a record number of layoffs: 25.000 in July, which is the highest number of 
layoffs in seven years. 

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It's two years now that the inhabitants of the area around Strimonic Gulf 
have been struggling against the construction of a mine processing unit in 
Olympiad by TVX Hellas Gold, a subsidiary of a canadian company. The aim of 
TVX is to sort out any gold contained in the existing mine. This is a very 
complex procedure with serious results on the environment, since cyanic, a 
highly toxic substance, is used and additionally many tons of waste will be 
produced and stored in an area of several thousand acres in the middle of a 
forest (according to the company's plans). 

The Greek Institute for Geological Studies has assumed to produce a report 
on whether the area is appropriate for such activities. Although it is 
known that this report has been finished since 11 October, its results 
haven't been announced yet. There is valid information that the report is 
negative to TVX's plans and suggests another area for the construction of 
its unit, which will be far more expensive, because raw material will have 
to be transported a long way. Nonetheless, the mining equipment had already 
arrived in Olympiad by October and started work. The representatives of the 
villagers protested and demanded that all activity be postponed. The 
company didn't even answer. Then, they decided to demonstrate in TVX's 
plant. A massive and provocative police force tried to prevent them. The 
demonstrators clashed with the police and managed to enter the plant and 
set two drilling machines on fire. 

The authorities responded to this humiliating incident by getting rid of 
their democratic disguise. Special forces invaded the houses of the 
presidents of five villages at 3.30 am and arrested them as responsible for 
the attack. The villagers threatened to invade TVX's plant again, so the 
five were released but they were charged with various offences. Then, on 24 
November, the head of Chalkidiki police issued an order prohibiting all 
public gatherings. Special police forces (about 900 of them) surrounded the 
area, searched everyone passing and arrested three elderly villagers 
sitting in a roadblock. This order, based on a law issued by the greek 
junta (1967 to 1974) was recalled the following day. Nevertheless, tension 
continued as villagers attacked police patrol cars and policemen went 
through Olympiad shooting in the air and using tear gas. 

The report of the Greek Institute for Geological Studies is still on the 
desk of the minister of Development, who has supported TVX Gold publicly. 
It should be added that a similar situation exists in western Turkey. 
People there have obtained a court order against the construction of a 
Eurogold mine, but the ministry of Environment appealed to this decision. 
They have declared their solidarity to the people of Olympiad and their 
struggle to protect their land from pollution. 

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The truth was much less "exciting". Bianco is only charged with illegal 
possession of weapons and stealing a car. But the real reason the italian 
authorities asked his extradition to Italy was his political activity in 
the 70's. Bianco was  member of the anarchist-communist group 
"Commontisti", members of which later formed the "Revolutionary Action". In 
the middle of the 70's, they decided to get militarily organised, because 
of the explosive political situation in Italy. They attempted to rob an 
arms store. The police arrested Bianco after a chase and charged him with 
driving a stolen car and possession of weapons. He escaped in 1977. A few 
months later,  at a time when Bianco was in France in order to have an 
operation, Aldo Moro was abducted. The italian police gave the media the 
photos of eleven suspects, among which Bianco's. Bianco had no choice than 
stay in France. 

Things in France were much calmer than in Italy which seemed in the brink 
of a civil war. Bianco and some of his comrades got in touch with spanish 
anarchist group GARI and tried to set up a solidarity network to support 
political fugitives. He was arrested along with others for supposedly 
having participated in an armed robbery and sent to CRS, a special court 
for political crimes, established during the algerian liberation struggle. 
Under the pressure of progressive public opinion and a hunger strike, they 
were finally all released. 

They weren't left alone, though. The police suspected them for connections 
with "Direct Action" french armed group, and right wing newspapers demanded 
their arrest. National Front's newspaper published their names and 
addresses, a paramilitary right wing group responsible for assassinations 
of left activists threatened them and one of them was shot in the legs. 
Then, Bianco decided to go to Greece, where he has been living for eight 
years. 

He has stated that the italian authorities persecute him on political 
reasons and asked for political asylum. In a very similar situation in 
1988, greek authorities rejected Italy's request to extradite left activist 
Mauriccio Follini, accepting that he was persecuted on political reasons. 
Nonetheless, our solidarity is of critical importance, especially in Sengen 
times. 

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